first batch

[trenkamp]

Hi everyone,

Just trying to figure out what my next step should be. I placed my must and yeast in the fermenter last Saturday, 2-28-09. The starting gravity was 1.095. After a few hours bubbles in my airlock became constant. I would say close to 1 blurp every second. It has stayed in that area and at times seamed to be bubbling even faster. Today, 3-06-09, the bubbling has completely stopped. What is the next step?

thanks

 

[beekind]

a bit more info would be helpful. the recipe (is their fruit in it? did you make a starter? type of yeast? etc.) that will help everyone give the best advice for you.
thanks.

 

[trenkamp]

I used
15 lbs of honey
2 lbs of apples
2 lbs of pears
2 lbs of blueberries
2 lbs of kiwi
half a lemon
half a lime
all the fruit was liquefied in pineapple juice
1 cup of black tea
Used wyeast sweet mead yeast

I went ahead and racked into my carboy. I took a reading with my hydrometer and it was around .98 sg. Temp has been constant around 72ish degrees.

 

[ndbrewlady]

At .98 SG you should be done frementing. You had a lot more luck then I did with my Wyeast yeast.
You will need to rack to a sanitized carboy leaving behind any of the lees and stuff on the bottom. If you have any fruit stuff left I have found that I take my fine straining bag, sanitize it, put it around my autosiphon and I didn't have any issues with the fruit and stuff coming along. Then you need to put your stopper back on (sanitized) and an airlock with vodka in it. Now the wait starts.

It finished dry how does it taste?

 

[trenkamp]

Could it really be done fermenting already? It has only been one week. I took another reading with my hydrometer and it was actually closer to .99 not sure whether that makes too much a difference.

 

[ndbrewlady]

You need to read the NewBee guide it will help some, but as it goes.
The SG increases as you add sugar and products to your water. The higher the SG the more sugar you have. As your fermentation moves on, the yeast changes the sugar to alcohol and your SG's will go down as it ferments a reading of .98 says that is has used up the sugar.
Now your sweat mead yeast is supposed to be done at 11% I feel (and I am kinda new at this) that your starting gravity was a little low for you to end up sweat (which is about 1.012 to 1.020 ending FG).
You are at about 13% from the way I calculate.
Again, I am a newbee and this is the way that I understand the sugar/yeast and fermentation process.
Look at the mead calculater the the left it has a chart in the left hand upper corner that says the ending FG of the different types of mead. A dry will end at .99 to 1.006.

 

[akueck]

Yes, it could finish in a week, especially at warm temperatures. Was the ambient 72º or was that the temp of the mead? In the future you probably want to try and stay below 70 to keep the yeast from producing some off-flavors associated with higher temperatures.

 

[trenkamp]

72 was what i thought the air temp was. I just realized however that the thermostat was switched to 70 by my roommate some time during the beginning of fermentation. Also the closet that i was using was slightly cooler than the rest of the apartment. I would say a closer guess as to air temp was around 68-69. The temp of the must however was warmer to the touch, but i couldnt give you an exact temp.

 

[Kee]

Trenkamp,

You didn't say what your brewing experience is; I'm going to assume completely new.

I just want to set the expectation that this WILL NOT taste that good at this point. It's young and dry. Don't throw it out. As brewlady said, you'll need to rack this and let it bulk age. You may want to chemically stabilize this to help protect it from oxidation (explained in the newbee guide). If the ambient temp was 72, the fermentation temp would have been higher. If it was, there will be a lot of harsh flavors that will only dissipate over time, more time than if this was made at lower temps.

The flavor will change over time. Some people here like young meads while others won't touch their meads if they're under a couple of years. Some of the ones I wanted to throw out at a week are pretty darn good 6-12+ months later.

Kee

 

[ndbrewlady]

You also need to add more supplies. A thermometer so that you can keep proper track of the mead temp. I use the sticky thermometers that sit on the side of the carboy or the buckets. I have another one that I place inside (sanitized) if I should need another temp or temp before pitching. My first one feremented warm with a brew belt, and tastes like strong alcohol. It has been sitting now for a month and still is harsher then I would like, but I do notice a change from the first taste. But that waiting is the hardest.