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Raising Alcohol Content

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phoenix_dancer31 said:
I know it's a childish thing to do ... but i don't care im still young yet. How do I raise my meads alcohol content whil keeping the taste and fermenting time relitively unchanged? And I say relitivly because there are bound to be some changes. My friends and I drink for pleasure but other times .. we drink to drink because thats what young men do haha. So rather than handing out bottle after bottle I'd like to give them one bottle that'll give them a real hit, then kick them while they're down haha. I was thinking 30-40% but really i think 20-25 would do very nicely. Thanks for any advise.
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There is a thing called "step-feeding" and I don't know if it's been mentioned here yet, that can raise the alcohol "result" of your mead way higher than the original tolerance of the yeast. High alcohol yeasts like distillers' turbo yeast are frankly, awful and create undrinkable garbage. In fact, it's hard to drink even the distillate of a turbo yeast mash, so imagine what the mead would taste like.

Do a search on step feeding and you will get some great info. Here is one thread with a contribution from a gotmeader on homebrewtalk:

high alcohol step feeding, need input please

I've got a three gallon carboy about to open up and I want to make a super high abv pomogranite mead. I have two main questions, what yeast should I use, and what are the basics of step feeding. I know to get the most ABV I can step feeding is the way I should go, but I'm unclear on how its...
www.homebrewtalk.com www.homebrewtalk.com

Then there is the route of fortifying your mead with ethanol. You can use vodka, or whiskey or cognac or any distilled spirit. It opens up an interesting door. Which spirit is best for mead?
 
Okay, I will not cook it and ruin the flavor. I went to my local beer brewer, and since my carboy is still bubbling every 15 seconds they said to give it at least 1 more week and check the gravity again to see if this strong sack mead is still slowly fermenting. As plan B, if the gravity stays constant at 1.039, they sold me Campden powder and I just have to add 1/2 gram per 5 liters to kill off my yeast. Crossing my fingers :)
 
fmacgahan said:
Okay, I will not cook it and ruin the flavor. I went to my local beer brewer, and since my carboy is still bubbling every 15 seconds they said to give it at least 1 more week and check the gravity again to see if this strong sack mead is still slowly fermenting. As plan B, if the gravity stays constant at 1.039, they sold me Campden powder and I just have to add 1/2 gram per 5 liters to kill off my yeast. Crossing my fingers :)
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Camdem tablets don't stop fermentation. I makes it so they can't reproduce new cell—last time on this one. You can not stop an active fermentation. End of story
 
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Ugh, so the only other way I can think of to reduce risk of bottle bombs is to cold crash with bentonite and rack my mead several times. Maybe this method, combined with campden can get rid of most of the live yeast, Campden to stop yeast reproduction, then cold crashing to get most of it to sink and be absorbed into the bentonite?
 
I would take a few readings, maybe 3-4 days apart. If the gravity is the same for each reading, I think it would be safe to assume it is no longer active. At that point, if you add sulfites and sorbate, bottle bombs shouldn't be a problem.
 
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Thanks! I am actually waiting at least one full week before checking if the gravity is stable at 1.039 :) I will still cold crash it to clear it up as much as possible; can't hurt, correct?
 
fmacgahan said:
Thanks! I am actually waiting at least one full week before checking if the gravity is stable at 1.039 :) I will still cold crash it to clear it up as much as possible; can't hurt, correct?
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Make sure to stabilize or all bets are off. Even if you wait a couple years
 
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