3rd batch - Meadowfoam Traditional plan

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9/26/17 Update: Well I've been holding off on updating as this has not been turning out like I expected. It finished dry at 1.000 and about 14.7ish ABV. I'm ok with dry, but it ended with strong fusel tastes, strong esters, and a very faint hint of the Meadow foam honey which I was hoping to highlight. On 9-7 I racked and added 1 Madagascar Vanilla bean. I've been hoping it'll age out over time, but a taste today tells me it's going to take a good amount of time. So what did I do wrong? Here's my thoughts:

1. 5g of D21 yeast was too much at pitch?
2. Once past the 1/3 break, I was still degassing/stirring vigorously. Did this over oxygenate?
3. This really took off in the beginning. Did I over work the yeasties early on?

Anyways, now it's a sit and wait game I believe.
I generally use 3 grams a gallon and sometimes more. You did not use too much yeast.
You should calm down after the sugar break. With that said you didn't hurt the mead. As it was still making lots of CO2 and I doubt that very little if any O2 got in the mead. You just want to rouse your yeast after the break to keep the lees in suspension.
 
1) It's difficult to over pitch yeast. 2g/gallon is standard, but more is better/fine. At 5g, you shouldn't have issues.
2) It's hard to oxygenate an active ferment, degassing was the right thing to do. Its even harder to oxygenate a trad.
3) I've had faster ferments that aged out fine in a few months.

For my own thoughts, you can always stabilize and backsweeten. I prefer off-dry/semisweet. This will give you more of the meadowfoam profile and help cover some harshness. At 2 months, its still fairly young. Time (and oak if you want to look into it) will help.

If I had to guess, the fusels might be from the temp. You said you were keeping it in your basement right? That stays at ~64F? The trouble is that fermentation can push the temperature of the must as much as 10 degrees above the ambient temp. I like to keep mine in a water bath, even if the temp is cool, as that will keep it more stable/low. Were you measuring temps throughout?

I think your last ph reading was 3.0 right? That is on the low side, you might even buffer the final product. The ph can effect the acid profile (its not a one-to-one relationship but they are close), which might make it seem harsher.

Hey bud :)

One thing you might like to know is ethanol itself actually oxidizes.
 
Hey bud :)

One thing you might like to know is ethanol itself actually oxidizes.

Yeah, I've been curious about this. I think I had read somewhere its one of the first things to oxidize too. But the anecdotal that trads are harder to oxidize must come from somewhere right? I don't have a good comparison or experience, but I would suspect that its less noticeable than when other things oxidize. Or its even desired? That rounded out sense/taking the edge off the alcohol, right?

I just figure that my bottle of scotch isn't going bad, so it must not be that severe :P
But certainly open to education.
 
Well I have partially responsible in being one to say that trads were not to be worried about. I didn't know until in the past 6 months or so about the ethanol oxidizing. YOu make a good point about your scotch. Something we need to look into further :)