Working on another Blueberry Mead

[Flexmedia]

Hey folks,
This one called for 3 pounds of honey heated in a gallon of water poured over 2 pounds of frozen blueberries and a few raisins in the brew bucket. Sprinkle Bourgovin RC 212 yeast, give it a swish once a day for 3 days. I just racked it into a carboy and added a cinnamon stick and vanilla bean. Didn’t tell me when I was supposed to take a gravity reading or when I should add a nutrient, etc. Any idea?

Thanks,
Art

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Take your Original gravity before or when you pit h yeast so you can calculate abv. Degas/aerate by stirring/whipping twice a day until abv is around 1.030 just a rough number I use. Nutrients, as far as I know but not that Ive never used RC 212, I believe it's a nutrient demanding yeast. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, look it up if you can but try to follow a nutrient schedule. I did a blueberry last year with 71B that I needed to supplement with a little extra nutrition. Fermaid K or O, dap, whatever you've got there's an applicable schedule.

 

[Flexmedia]

Take your Original gravity before or when you pit h yeast so you can calculate abv. Degas/aerate by stirring/whipping twice a day until abv is around 1.030 just a rough number I use. Nutrients, as far as I know but not that Ive never used RC 212, I believe it's a nutrient demanding yeast. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, look it up if you can but try to follow a nutrient schedule. I did a blueberry last year with 71B that I needed to supplement with a little extra nutrition. Fermaid K or O, dap, whatever you've got there's an applicable schedule.

Ok, it’s not asking for nutrients but some of the recipes I’ve tried tell me when to put the them in. Thanks for responding

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Is it a recipe from online or was it a kit by chance? Bit of a this and that argument but you can make Mead without using nutrients and a schedule, it just takes time to age out any stress that might happen. My first few fruit meads taught me alot.

 

[Flexmedia]

Is it a recipe from online or was it a kit by chance? Bit of a this and that argument but you can make Mead without using nutrients and a schedule, it just takes time to age out any stress that might happen. My first few fruit meads taught me alot.

Just an online one I wanted to try. My 2nd one all together. First one was more detailed. That‘s what I did with the first one…let it ride!

 

[Flexmedia]

Here’s my first rack at 30 days. It’s clearing up a little. First time I used this type of yeast but what does anyone think of these numbers after 30 days. (I didn’t take a reading earlier) My hydrometer shows
Red 4 ABV
Black 32 Specific Gravity
Blue 8 percent sugar by weight
All seems low comparing to the first Mead I made. Smells good tho!

 

[Kyzaboy89]

The Red 4% abv reading is an indicator of potential abv, meant to be measured at the start of primary, if it goes to 0 then you would indeed have 4 abv.

The Specific gravity reading is what most people prefer to measure and track sugar levels. Without an Original gravity reading it's hard to say what you've got but 3 lbs in a gallon, depending on yeast strength, should finish at 1.000. I'm not sure on RC 212 but I think it stalled out at 1.032, is there any off odors like h2s or stinky eggs? Depending on odor I would go ahead and age this with an airlock and check it once a month, Incase it is fermenting slowly.

 

[Flexmedia]

The Red 4% abv reading is an indicator of potential abv, meant to be measured at the start of primary, if it goes to 0 then you would indeed have 4 abv.

The Specific gravity reading is what most people prefer to measure and track sugar levels. Without an Original gravity reading it's hard to say what you've got but 3 lbs in a gallon, depending on yeast strength, should finish at 1.000. I'm not sure on RC 212 but I think it stalled out at 1.032, is there any off odors like h2s or stinky eggs? Depending on odor I would go ahead and age this with an airlock and check it once a month, Incase it is fermenting slowly.

I wish I would have remembered to take a reading in the beginning. When I was researching a new yeast the guy at the store told me the RC 212 stalls out early because I told him my first mead was too strong. No bad egg smell, thank goodness. What would that mean? It smells like a light wine. I hope that’s good. I plan on back sweeting it with more honey and water because the wife likes a sweet mead. I have to wait for the yeast to stop working, right? Which looks like it could be soon with this yeast.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

1.032 is fairly sweet in my opinion, Hydrogen sulfide (H²S) is an indicator of yeast stress. Imagine your yeast are eating in a stressful restaurant and they got upset stomachs resulting in rotten egg odor gas. Rather than CO2 they also release h2s, which can take a fair bit of time to age out. I don't know the abv tolerance of 212 so check that but ideally once you have reached their limit it should stall and stop fermentation. Still give it some time just to make sure it doesn't restart.

 

[Flexmedia]

1.032 is fairly sweet in my opinion,

You are right. I just opened a similar blueberry mead for my wife and friends. That was the one I back sweetened with warm water and honey. My wife likes sweet wine. I don’t drink at all, so we went with her taste. They said it was very good. BUT oh how sweet it was! They all said it taste like plumb wine. Too sweet for the majority but the 4 of them drank the bottle for New Years. Nice but I won’t do that with this one.