Need help with calculus lol

[PixelMnkey]

Hey there! First time posting and making mead, this is the recipe I've used for 6L:

2'2kg of honey.
3 Cinamon sticks
2 cloves
Like 20cl or so of orange juice.

The think is, it's been bubling for more than a month, I recently got an hydrometer and raked it to a new jar, current reading is 1010, but I don't have the OG, can someone use hocus pocus to know the FG and the ABV? Is it posible? Reading about the bottle bombs kinda scares me so I wanna be sure to when to bottle, I'll keep raking till gravity readings are the correct or atleast stable.

Thanks!

 

[balde]

Hello... I´m actually a newbee myself, but you FG and ABV would depend on what yeast you used...

some yeasts like EC 1118 can produce 18% of ABV, others like 71b will die at 14%... for rough calculations (and i would double check this, since im not sure), one pound of honey in a gallon of water produces around 5% of potential alcohol

 

[darigoni]

There's a link to the gotmead batch calculator, at the top of this website.

If your total batch size is 6 liters, and you used 2.2 kilo grams of honey and 0.2 L of O.J., then you starting gravity would have been approx. 1.112, with a potential ABV =14.6%.

What did you use for a yeast?

Did you use any nutrients?

Daily degassing/aeration?

Temperature control?

This is probably going to taste like crap, so you will need let it age for 6 months to a year and will also need to learn how to stabilize it, so you can then backsweeten it.

Read the gotmead NewBee guide and then check out the 9 expisode series, on YouTube, called "Meadology", by the Canadian Sasquatch.

 

[Stasis]

Hello... I´m actually a newbee myself, but you FG and ABV would depend on what yeast you used...

some yeasts like EC 1118 can produce 18% of ABV, others like 71b will die at 14%... for rough calculations (and i would double check this, since im not sure), one pound of honey in a gallon of water produces around 5% of potential alcohol

This might be the case but don't go about making mead with this reasoning. Manufacturers write alcohol tolerances on their yeast packets so that they are not liable if your ferment stalls above those limits. If you are looking to make something with 14% abv you should probably look for yeasts which have an alcohol tolerance of 14% or more. A yeast with 18% abv would still be totally fine if you like that yeast. I wouldn't go less than 14% tolerance because ferments start to become less predictable and I want to reproduce my best recipes.

PixelMnkey:
I would only rack before the ferment is over in VERY specific cases. Basically you should hopefully never need to rack until at least two weeks after your ferment is over. Racking reduces the amount of viable yeast in your must which we don't want to do since we want the ferment to finish. You can stir up those lees from the bottom and stop stirring only a few days before you want to rack. That orange juice seems like a very odd addition.. are you trying to make a joe's ancient orange recipe? If you are you might have botched the whole idea of the recipe. If you're not I would ditch the OJ.
Read the newbee guide which you can also find at the top of the page near the batch calculator link

 

[PixelMnkey]

Thanks for the replies, let's see:

What did you use for a yeast? : I used m05 from mangrove's.

Did you use any nutrients? Nope, stormthecastle didn't say they were needed, I'll next time.

Daily degassing/aeration? You mean letting oxigen in? I though that was a bad idea so no, till yesterday that I racked it was sealed.

Temperature control? It's siting in a dark corner of my kitchen, temperature hasn't moved from 20º to 24º.

Actually I tasted it a bit when I racked and it's way better than I though :/

Orange juice well, I was trying a weird recipe and surprisingly as I said, it tasted way better than I though.

 

[darigoni]

The Mangrove Jack website doesn't give an ABV, but says that "This yeast has high alcohol tolerance". Other websites say that it will get up to 18%, which means it should easily eat through your honey and you should end up with a dry mead. That being said yeast are living and don't read what's on the package.

Watch episodes 6 & 7 of the Meadology series on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/kG4fSA_JUAc

https://youtu.be/W-QaG-kZCCo

I personally would not use stormthecastle as my reference for making mead. He seems to use some bad and dated techniques. He adds acid blends and tannin's upfront, when common practice is to do so after fermentation, and as needed.

You've already racked? That's why it's still bubbling after one month. You removed a lot of your yeast, so it will take a long time to finish.

 

[PixelMnkey]

I've racked after more than a month bubbling yep, should I add more yeast?

 

[PitBull]

A few things…

The ABV tolerance listed for yeast is rough at best. I have had 71B reach over 16%. The “nicer” you treat the yeast, the higher past the listed ABV that it will go. If you want 14% ABV with some residual sweetness, the only way to go is to cold crash and stabilize (while cold).

A much more sure way is to provide only enough honey to reach 14% ABV. Then stabilize followed by back sweetening. Back sweetened mead will have a different flavor profile (taste) as compared to residual sugar mead.

“Stable” is a relative term. If you fail to chemically stabilize your "finished" residual sugar mead, a temperature increase will likely cause a re-fermentation, which can result bottle bombs.

Adding additional yeast will likely not help mead that has fermentation almost completed. The high alcohol content will shock the fresh yeast and most likely inhibit its fermentation.

 

[PixelMnkey]

I see, but that's in the case of carbonating the mead? Or without carbonatating it can explode aswell if I bottle once the FG is reached? (That I don't know yet what it should be). I shoulda been more prepared tbh, it's my fault but I don't wanna lose the mead I'm alrdy waiting for :/

 

[PitBull]

Carbonating is similar to, but not the same as, back sweetening. First, only dry mead can be carbonated without risking bottle bombs, unless you force carbonate (CO2 system) stabilized sweet mead (see cold crashing). Second, you absolutely have to ferment to completely dry, so you must have a good handle of maximum ABV for the amount of honey in the must. Third, your yeast has to have reserve capacity, for example, choose a yeast with an alcohol tolerance of 16% for a mead that is 12% ABV when fermented dry before carbonating. Most important, add only a small amount of honey immediately before bottling to produce carbonation. The amount to add is probably in the new-bee guide. Corked bottles should not be used as they do not hold pressure well, unless they have a wire bale securing the cork (think champagne). Crown top beer bottles work well. Read up on carbonation techniques there before attempting to do so.