Newbee questions

[Chefpyro]

Hi All,
I'm very new to meadmaking. I have a few questions about my first 2 meads. I made 2 one gallon batches. Both have 3# of Wildflower honey, yeast nutrient, energizer, and tannin. One has Lalvin 71B and the other 118C yeasts. They have been going for about 2 weeks at around 72F. Should I rack them into a carboy or can I just let them stay in their bucket? How long can I age them for b4 bottling?
Thanks for the help in advance!
Cheers!
Jeremy

 

[Masbustelo]

Since the fermentation is probably near completion, you should rack them into a carboy. If they have little headspace in the carboy and are properly protected by an airlock you can age them for many years before bottling. But keep them in a cool area and out of sunlight.

 

[Swordnut]

Two weeks is pretty standard for a primary. I take it you didn't do a gravity reading? If not I advise giving it another week and then rack, just to make sure the yeast had really burned through 95% of what it's going to burn through.

As a side note: 72F is a tad on the high side so it might have been producing a lot of fusels which will take a long time to mellow out. It's best to keep it below 70F with future batches and also to move this fermenter to a cooler place if possible. If this isn't possible then you have to take into account an extra year of aging at least to mellow out any fusels.

 

[Chefpyro]

Thanks for the fermenting tip. I'll move it to a cooler place for secondary. No OG, I broke or lost my hydrometer. I can't find it anywhere. I'll have to get another one so I can do a FG. I'll taste them before I transfer them and see how they are and figure out which way to go. Idk if I wanna spice or fruit them yet, but there's always time for that.
Thanks for the tips!

 

[zpeckler]

Are you noticing the yeast starting to settle out at the bottom yet?

What's your rush? Yeah, most meads are done fermenting by the two week mark, but you get some benefits to holding off on racking for a little bit. Before they go totally dormant, the yeast will consume some diacetyl, fusels, or other compounds that can produce off-flavors. Plus, if the mead isn't quite finished fermenting, racking at that point can sometimes cause it to stop prematurely.

I'd wait a bit before racking. In meadmaking only good things happen when you're patient. In the meantime, get a hydrometer and take a reading! If it isn't bone dry, wait another week and check again. If the gravity's stable, then you're good to rack.

And yes, 72F is a touch hot. Most of the winemaking strains of yeast do their best work in the mid-60's.

 

[Chefpyro]

I got a 1.096 FG reading. yeast did settle to bottom when I racked to carboy. Has a bit of an alcoholic bite. Will that age out or does it need to be fixed? debating on doing a peach mel and cinnamon for Xmas this year. Is 5 months too soon? just curious. thanks for any feedback
Jeremy

 

[Stasis]

Something isn't quite right. Your first post said you made a gallon of mead with #3 of wildflower honey. Was that 3lbs of honey to make a gallon of mead? If this is the case, you should have a starting gravity of around 1.108 according to the gotmead batch calculator. But your last post says you have a final gravity of 1.096 and an alcoholic bite. This would mean that the yeast only ate through 16 gravity points (an abv of around 2.3%). The yeast would have to be extremely unhealthy and stressed for this to happen. Your ferment would be very slow and it would be difficult to taste an alcoholic bite with so little alcohol and so much sweetness to mask it.

I think I'm either misinterpreting your first post or you took an incorrect FG reading at the end. If both posts are correct please include as many details as you can so we might find why the ferment was like this.

 

[Chefpyro]

I did read the hydrometer wrong.0.096 with fusel alcohol bite but has died down a bit. 3# of honey for 1 gallon of mead. 1 batch added 24 oz of fresh roasted coffee twice. the other batch I added 1 tsp ground ginger and 3# of fresh peaches. Just trying out a couple recipes. the alcoholic bite has died down with the EC118 yeast but not the D47 yeast yet. EC118 is coffee mead and D47 is Ginger Peach mead. I there a way to age out the bite? should I try and backsweeten instead? or just be patient and wait. It's in my basement about 66 F. Thanks for any help
Jeremy

 

[Squatchy]

The D47 likes lower temps. It's hot because the temps were too high. The EC doesn't mind that temp so you are without fussel's in that batch. The alcohol burn can be smoothed out some of adding oak cubes or spirals. Even if your not a fan of oak you can still do this. Just take the oak out before the taste get too oaky for you. Different species contribute different profiles. Same with toast levels.

 

[djsxxx]

If you like vanilla you could add a pod/bean, this can take the edge off a hot mead as well.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[rdb8879]

Joe's Quick Grape Mead
I have spent a great amount of time searching for step by step original Joe's Quick Grape Mead recipe directions. I have discovered numerous variants and general steps, but none are detailed enough for my ignorance. I am a newbie and would love to try the Joe's Quick Grape Mead recipe. Thank you

 

[David A Hill]

I have made 11 good batches of mead but still consider myself a newby. I am wanting to make a high alcohol sweet mead. Some old recipes I have looked at say to increase the amount of honey from 8 lbs to 16 lbs per 5 gallons to increase the alcohol. However, my yeast supplier tells me that at tops, I can only get about 7% using wine or ale yeast.
My question is: What is the correct way make a high alcohol sweet mead? I do not want to waste a $100 worth of honey.
Thanks in advance.
Dave

 

[bmwr75]

Your yeast supplier is wrong. I routinely get 12+% meads/wines using wine and ale yeasts.

Each yeast has a published alcohol tolerance, for example, 14% for 71B and D47.

You can use the ABV calculator at this link to see how high your starting gravity needs to be to make a sweet mead.

http://www.meadmakr.com/abv-calculator/

Sweet meads are in the 1.020-1.030 final gravity range typically. So, if you plug a starting gravity of 1.130 and ending gravity of 1.025 into the calculator, you will get a calculated 14.1% alcohol mead.

 

[David A Hill]

Thank you for the straight forward answer!!

 

[Squatchy]

I agree with bmwr75.

In fact if you do things with the most current protocols you should expect to go beyond the listed ABV tolerance levels by a little bit.

 

[WildPhil]

I'm doing a JAOM for Christmas, it's been going for about a week now and should clear up just in time for the holidays.

 

[hendenburg2]

I have made 11 good batches of mead but still consider myself a newby. I am wanting to make a high alcohol sweet mead. Some old recipes I have looked at say to increase the amount of honey from 8 lbs to 16 lbs per 5 gallons to increase the alcohol. However, my yeast supplier tells me that at tops, I can only get about 7% using wine or ale yeast.
My question is: What is the correct way make a high alcohol sweet mead? I do not want to waste a $100 worth of honey.
Thanks in advance.
Dave

You can also try this: http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp099-super-high-gravity-ale-yeast

No clue how it will taste, but it can survive in up to 25% abv. Probably will have to baby it with nutrients to get it up there

 

[Squatchy]

You can also try this: http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp099-super-high-gravity-ale-yeast

No clue how it will taste, but it can survive in up to 25% abv. Probably will have to baby it with nutrients to get it up there

That has a temp window of 4 degrees. I wouldn't even consider trying it without a temp control. Even then why would you want something that high and full of esters? It would probably take a few years or more.