Yet another new guy post...

[leonem_12]

So first off I apologize to all the hardcore veteran mead makers that get tired of giving us newbies advice. I've made one batch so far, turned out not bad. I wanted to use more honey to see the effect on my second batch. Problem is I wasn't really thinking when I made my must and I used 2 lbs of honey for a half gallon must. Secondly I was impatient and went ahead and added the yeast that I had which was just half of one of those small packets. My questions are:
1. Is that 2 much honey for a half gallon?
2. Is that enough yeast for the amount of honey.

The air lock is bubbling and bubbling much quicker than my last batch.
Ultimately the biggest question I'm asking is simply CAN this still turn out drinkable?

Thanks all

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi leonen_12. And welcome. I would hope that anyone who is tired of offering advice to folk new to wine making (or cider , or mead making) has simply forgotten what they were like when they started. OK
Two lbs in 1/2 gallon is the same as 4 lbs in 1 gallon. One pound of honey mixed to make 1 gallon raises the gravity of water by 35 points (1.035) so 4 lbs raises the gravity 4 X that amount- ie 1.140. Potentially this can make a mead of 18%... and very few - perhaps no yeast can tolerate that amount of alcohol. I am no expert but I am not sure that many strains of yeast can easily transport sugars through their cell walls in that concentration of sugar - but clearly if there is activity in the airlock then that is not going to be your problem. So, it looks as though this has started without problem but it is unlikely that your strain of yeast will finish the fermentation dry. In other words, your mead will likely finish sweet. If you know what strain of yeast you pitched there is information about the tolerance of yeast published by the labs that culture the yeasts.

 

[leonem_12]

Bernardsmith, thank you for shedding some light. Sweeter is what I'm shooting for so hopefully the process will go smoothly. My last(first batch ever) was 1 lb for a half gallon and it came out good. Dry but still good. So I should have a sweeter and possibly a higher alcohol content then my previous batch correct? I know it is impossible for anyone to know because I cant tell you the exact amount of yeast I used but should a month and a half ferment time be sufficient for the yeast to do all the work it possibly can? Just off what info I can give you?

(Edited) Also, is it possible to add more yeast after the process has already began?

 

[bernardsmith]

The higher the starting gravity the longer a mead needs to age. Many of my meads are session meads (about 1 lb - 1.5 lbs per gallon) and I aim to bottle them after a month or two. In fact I am experimenting this week with a mead I am making using 17.6 oz of honey to see if I can bottle this in a week! ) but the time needed really depends on a whole raft of factors - including yeast strain, yeast colony size and health, temperature, nutrient load, degassing regimen among other factors.

You ask whether it is possible to add more yeast. It is, but is that necessary? You don't say whether you provided the yeast with nutrients. You don't say what the gravity is today and so how quickly it is falling and how much sugar is left for the yeast to ferment. You don't say what yeast you pitched. Given proper nutrients (and honey has none) your yeast cells will reproduce many times in the mead and their daughter cells will reproduce and so even if you begin with a small amount of yeast , relatively speaking, within a few days the number of cells should explode exponentially. (I do not know if there is some kind of homeostatic limit whereby the yeast stop budding (reproducing) as the concentration of sugar drops as fermentation increases)..

 

[Ryue]

Not to undermine Bernarsmith, as he has a lot more experience than I, but my last two batches were both high gravities (first was 1.146(almost 6lbs to a gallon) and my current one started at 1.158).
Both fermented/are fermenting very well, while the first batch (1.146) took 9.5 weeks to ferment as I did not use any nutrients, it was Very drinkable right off the bat and was at 19.5%ABV (finished at 0.995). The second batch (1.158) I used fermaid-k anf the air lock was rip-roaring in an hour. Checked it this last sunday (15 days in) and it was down to 1.060. I will check it again tomorrow (20 days in) and see how its coming along.

Now, I used Red Star Premier Blanc yeast, which is a monster and will eat through anything. But my mead finished a little over "slightly sweet" and very smooth straight out of the carboy.

 

[bernardsmith]

I don't feel undermined, but the published data for Red Star Premier Blanc has it that it has a tolerance for alcohol at 15% . I am sure that it can reach another couple of percent but the lab that cultivates this yeast only guarantees it for 15% and that is a total SG of 1.114 . Your gravity is, as you say 19.5%. Sounds like this champagne yeast is a bulldozer.

 

[Ryue]

Interesting, I didn't know that about the 15%. I was worried after I started the first batch because I read (after already pitching) that Champaign yeast "is a sledge hammer that skyrockets abv amd blows all flavors out of the water" but was pleasantly surprised when it ended up sweet, flavorful and smooth without any aging despite being 19.5%.

I plan on trying out the safale US-04 or 05 for my next recipie, it will be interesting to see the result of a yeast that is actually meant for this lol

 

[bernardsmith]

except that safale yeasts are designed for ale rather than wine. With wine yeasts the labs assume that your starting gravity is likely to be about 1.090. Not so with beers or beer yeast. I just pitched WLP 066 into a must I made with "pine honey" (I have that in scare quotes because pine honey is the term given to honey made by bees that have gathered the sweet excretions from bugs) and the lab is very clear. On the test tube it states that if the starting gravity is going to be higher than 1.050 then the lab recommends a starter. Champagne yeasts are, I think, not designed to ferment champagne grapes but were originally cultivated to allow makers of sparkling wines to add the champagne yeast AFTER all fermentation was complete and all aging had taken place (and all yeast cells removed either through frequent rackings or riddlings or filtration) to the wine together with some additional fermentables to prime the wine. Adding a yeast to a wine that is at 12-14% ABV is likely to hobble , if not kill most other yeasts. But this sledge-hammer can take hit after hit and still work its way through added priming sugars

 

[Ryue]

Yeah, I want to make a lower ABV mead that I can actually drink (like I do light "piss" beer lol) rather than sip on, and I had seen a lot of recommendation for US-04 so I figured I'd give it a shot next time around

 

[bernardsmith]

But a low ABV mead has nothing to do with the type of yeast you pitch. If you mix 1 lb of honey to make 1 gallon of must the maximum ABV you can hit is 5% and that is because there is only 35 points of sugar in that must. If you double the amount of honey (2lbs) but keep the same volume your starting gravity will be 1.070 and the potential ABV will be about 9%. There is no yeast worthy of that word that cannot fully ferment to 9%. Now some yeasts are monsters and they can ferment 15- 16% and others are workhorses and they can deal with up to 14%. Ale yeasts are designed to handle 3-7% but they can put away 12% and more.
The real thing about yeasts is what flavors they add, what flavors they mask, what kind of mouthfeel they produce (does the ethanol they make have more or less viscosity), at what temperatures do they do their best work, whether they are high maintenance or not (do they demand a great deal of nutrients) and whether they are high or low producers of hydrogen sulfide. There are other considerations such as whether they tend to flocculate or not (how do they behave when they have finished their work) and for brewers whether they leave more or less sugar on the table (attenuation - but for wine makers who work with simple sugars whether a yeast attenuates high or low is irrelevant as they should be able to ferment simple sugars brut dry all other things being equal).
So, in my opinion, you choose Safale over say 47D or 71B or DV10 or?? because of the characteristics that the US-05 creates (flavors (esters), viscosity, acidity, cleanliness (no fusels) with the honey you have at the gravity you have and the temperature you intend to work with etc etc etc.

 

[Ryue]

I guess I will have to ask for advise for which yeast to use once I have devised a new recipie. So many options, so little time... Lol