4 Months In Primary - What next?

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BrewMan12oz

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 21, 2013
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0
0
Hey everyone,

4 months ago I brewed up a 5 gallon traditional mead, with 15 gallons honey and d-47 yeast. It has slowly fermented the whole time, and now 4 months later, it is starting to look a bit clearer, but still cloudy. I do see little bubbles coming up from the side, but not many at all anymore.

My question is, what next? should i leave it in the carboy longer, cold crash it, or what? I know fermentation is suppose to completely stop before cold crashing, but if its still slowly bubbling im guessing the yeast is still active.

Thank you.
 
Your going to need a hydrometer to tell if its done, I'll assume you meant 15 lbs honey in 5 gallon batch. Or was that 15 gallons in 50 gallon batch, I'll be over shortly to help you drink.
But it should be close to done.
 
That all depends, usually you are not looking for a certain value more than you are looking for stability. Ie the gravity stays the same for multiple days in a row. However, for the most anywhere close to 1.000 and below.
 
I am currently working on a very similar recipe. I cold crashed mine after it hit around the 1.00 mark and racked into a secondary container. I am now waiting for it to stop completely and will rack again for aging.
 
I used nutrients, and added honey in increments, in an attempt to hit 19% +
Well it quite at 1.05. Stayed at 1.05 for a month even after attempts to restart.
But it puts me to sleep after 1 glass (12 oz)
I assume the alcohol killed it. Next batch will be 2/3 the honey, this is way to sweet. Like licking the honey jar

If I had any results with the calculator, I could probably put in 20lbs and fg of 1.05 and get a number % but it alludes me


with clearing its at least darn near done. You could always chemically stop it and not worry about bottle bombs.
Not that I've ever had any ROTFL
 
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I used nutrients, and added honey in increments, in an attempt to hit 19% +
Well it quite at 1.05. Stayed at 1.05 for a month even after attempts to restart.
But it puts me to sleep after 1 glass (12 oz)
I assume the alcohol killed it. Next batch will be 2/3 the honey, this is way to sweet. Like licking the honey jar

You could dilute it down a bit to bring the ABV down and hit it with a yeast starter to use the remaining sugars so it is palatable for you and the bonus would be increasing your total volume of mead...
 
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I've thought about that,
I also have a couple vodka bottles gatering dust, have added some vodka to 1 bottle. Now its sweet n strong. I'll give it a couple weeks an try again