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Critique my process

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CosmicCharlie

CosmicCharlie

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2004
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Background: With my last batch of strawberry mead, I juiced the berries and added to the primary. This time, I added it to the secondary. I bought 3 lbs of frozen berries (for a 1 gal batch) and put them in the fridge to thaw. When I juiced them, it came out like sludge because it was still very cold. I got 3 cups of "juice" total.

I poured the strawberry sludge into the secondary. The mead had cleared - I mean crystal clear - I had racked once already, but the gravity was 1.015. Then I racked the mead on top of the "juice". I checked the gravity again and it increased to only 1.020. This morning, there seems to be no activity in the air lock. I must say it is a beautiful shade of red.

I thought the gravity would be higher. Could it be that all the strawberry juice is at the bottom? Should I stir it up and take another reading? I also thought fermentation would take off again, considering there are still lots o'yeast in clear mead. It is fermenting at 66 degrees however.

Any comments concerning any step are welcome. As always, thanx!
 
CC,

I was under the impression that you tried to rack onto fruit in the secondary when fermentation had slowed but not finished.

On the other hand, I know that there are those that create large batches of show mead and then rack it onto whatever fruit they wish to make into a melomel (or whatever else) a long time after fermentation is completed. I would be curious what advice they give...
 
Process sounds fine. Why would you have expected it to start up again if it had already reached alcohol tolerance and stopped and cleared at 1.015? Three cups of juice diluted to 1 gallon even at 1.015 would be doing well to bring it up 5 points. Its hard to restart a cleared fermentation that is already high in alcohol. Sounds like you have a good mead that will be ready soon.
Joe
 
Thanks, that make me feel better about it. I thought the mead would ferment out to 1.000 or less maybe. About a week ago, the gravity was 1.020, so I figured it was still slowly doing its magic.
 
Yup Charlie,

It's what I do. I don't juice it but I push it through my chinois to get the big chunkies and seeds out of it. Funnel it into the next carboy, rack on top. And flip on some tunes for the long wait.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
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