Step Feeding Questions

[BattleBornMead]

First, who does it? Does it work for you?

Second, how do you determine Final ABV? Is it as simple as using the Mead Calculator to estimate your starting gravity as if the total amount of fermentables were in at the beginning and then use your Final gravity like normal? Or is it more complicated?

Lastly the reason I am exploring this is because I want to ferment my mead a little more alcoholic. My last batch ended up at about 9% using 71b. I would like to get it closer to 14% (which I think is the alcohol tolerance of 71b if I remember correctly).
Is this a good way to do it along with staggered nutrient additions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vance G]

The mead calculator will tell you how much fermentable sugars you need to fuel a possible 14% alcohol by volume in your mead. 71b will go higher than 14% but do not count on it. I do step feed nutrient. The procedure is layed out in loving detail in many brewlogs and in the tutorial which may be shut down right now. I think the brewlogs are available. Find one for what you are planning and consider it for your brewing. Best of luck.

 

[kuri]

the reason I am exploring this is because I want to ferment my mead a little more alcoholic. My last batch ended up at about 9% using 71b. I would like to get it closer to 14% (which I think is the alcohol tolerance of 71b if I remember correctly).
Is this a good way to do it along with staggered nutrient additions?

Thanks in advance!

I don't have experience with that yeast, but the 3 yeasts I have used -- premier cuvee, k1v1116 and Wyeast 1388 -- have all turned out 13%+ meads with no problem starting with an OG of 1.100, and 1388 I've tried at an OG of 1.110 and ended up with 15% ABV. In all cases I just loaded all the honey up front, but did staggered nutrient additions and regular oxygenation for the first 4 days.

 

[mmclean]

I think the question I'd be asking is," Why am I not hitting the alcohol tolerance of 71b?"

Step feeding a stuck ferment won't help.

If it's fermenting dry, you may not have enough total sugars to reach alcohol tolerance.

Details on some of your past meads may help someone spot why you are only getting a 9% ABV.

 

[smertz001]

I step feed the honey. Not so much to bump up the ABV, but to get the mead to a specific gravity that I want it to finish at (usually 1.020) as that's the sweetness that I've found that I enjoy best.

To calculate the ABV when you are done, you will need to do a spirit indication test. This is where you take a measured amount of the mead, get the gravity reading. Boil away half of it, and add that amount of water (distilled if you want to be OCD about it.) and take the gravity of that. Then you plunk it into a calculator like on this page: http://www.musther.net/vinocalc.html#spiritindication to get the final ABV

To get your higher ABV, you need the correct amount of honey, and nutrients to make them happy. So for the yeast you choose, you should make sure you calculate out the correct amount of nutrients for it's requirement. I used 71B and step feeding on my original blood orange mead, which worked well for me, so have a read of that and you can get an idea.

Cheers!