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This gravity is too damn high

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venusblue

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 17, 2012
2
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Hey everyone, this is my first post and second batch of mead!

I've been brewing in one gallon glass carboys. I just bottled up my first batch and decided to make a blueberry mead next. I was originally going to use about a pound of blueberries, 4 pounds of honey and then fill the rest with water, along with some K1V-1116 yeast.

It turns out that I accidentally added five pounds because I didn't read the jar right. This was already going to be a pretty sweet mead high in alcohol, but now it's just crazy. It's only day too and it's gurgling up a storm. But anyway, I tried taking my first gravity reading. The hydrometer could hardly stay in the must. It was much too high to get a reading.

So my questions are...

How do I know my original gravity?
At what gravity should I rack to my secondary?
Should I bother adding any kind of nutrients to this batch?
If so, should I stagger them? At what gravity?

Sorry for all the questions!
 
I would say it would be a good idea to water it down. Most hydrometers top out at 1.170, and that is a really high gravity already. If yours is higher than that, it's really really high. Add more water until you're at least below 1.140.
 
Well if it was me I'd split it into two one gallon batches (unless you have a bucket) and maybe add a half a pund oh honey to each one gallon batch, should bring it a bit over 1.1....you're around 1.19 according to the calculator to you're upper left. And do a serch on staggered nutrient addition (while you're reding the Newbee guide (also to your upper left) but yes I'dd be adding some DAP and Ferm K or O
 
I don't have anything helpful to contribute as I lack the experience, I was simply commenting that I fricken' LOVE your thread title.
 
Thank you very much for the replies, everyone. I do not have any extra carboys or a bucket, so I think I'll hold out at this... I wanted a pretty sweet desert wine. I was thinking that serving it chilled over some Vanilla ice cream would be amazing, So I don't think I'll water it down unless it has any negative effects on it. The yeast said that it was capable of around 18% alcohol, so anything past that will just remain sweetness, right?

Thank you very much for the links. I read the part on nutrition but it did not mention staggering, it was in a different section. It looks like I'll be adding my first nutrients at around 1.1 SG it seems.

Man, I really need more carboys...
 
Sorry, but gravity is a constant and I'm afraid that if you want lower gravity you'll have to hie yerse'f to a lower mass planet (or get farther away from this one). :)
 
235044.jpg
 
TheAlchemist said:
Gravity's been smokin' some weed...
Click to expand...

Must be some krippy, to be that high, lol.

But, seriously, another option (surprised no one has mentioned yet), is to make a second batch after this one is done with same yeast and other ingredients but less fermentables(less than 3 lbs honey/gallon) and let it finish super dry then blend them together.
I made the same mistake with one of my batches (adding more honey/gallon than I meant to) so I then made another batch with same yeast and other ingredients (except less honey) and blended them and ended up with a nice medium sweet mead.
Good luck.
 
Last edited:
venusblue said:
Hey everyone, this is my first post and second batch of mead!

I've been brewing in one gallon glass carboys. It turns out that I accidentally added five pounds. This was already going to be a pretty sweet mead high in alcohol, but now it's just crazy. It's only day too and it's gurgling up a storm.

How do I know my original gravity?
At what gravity should I rack to my secondary?
Should I bother adding any kind of nutrients to this batch?
If so, should I stagger them? At what gravity?
Click to expand...

Although I may get corrected later, I would guess your gravity at 1.220sg. there are prob people here that could calculate it.
I would split the batch, but you could rack after it quits bubbling.
I would nutrient add each week. The final gravity I would guess really sloppy guess an fg of ... 1.130 after 6 weeks.

I am not an expert, but that's my guess. but I would split it even if I had to use a milk bottle and a balloon.
 
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