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Question before racking, or smack me before it's too late, adding juice or no.

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Stilgar

Stilgar

Worker Bee
Registered Member
May 24, 2012
75
2
8
Belfair, WA
Firstly Greetings and Hello. Really am enjoying this sight and has proven very helpful thus far.

Ok so I started a 1 gallon batch or bochet on the 10th and it's getting close to racking time here. My question is, when I move the mead into the 2nd carboy could I(or should I) add a cup or more of apple juice/cider to the mead to add some flavor or would something like this be best closer to bottling? Was just a thought and anything to help this mead gain a nice mix and character in the end would be nice.

What I used;
4lbs clove honey (caramelized 1 lb of the 4)
gallon water
stick cinnamon
orange zest

I had forgotten to add a nutrient or more correctly someone found my raisins and thanked me later for the snack, so the ferment has been a slow one. I was just curious if my adding juice to this to sort of replace using water after siphoning would be wise or not, and if I should just see how this comes out in the end given the caramelizing should add a fairly distinct flavor. Any help, suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I come off jumbled, running off 3 hours sleep after two trips to urgent care and ER for my girlfriend . Thank you again.
 
Stilgar said:
I was just curious if my adding juice to this to sort of replace using water after siphoning would be wise or not, and if I should just see how this comes out in the end given the caramelizing should add a fairly distinct flavor.
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Apple juice won't add much in the way of flavour at this point but it's not a bad idea at all if you need to top off to decrease headspace.

Welcome to the forum, hope your gf's OK!
 
Thank you! And she should be fine soon hopefully. 5 days off and I'll pretend she'll take my advice and stay in bed to relax and rest up.


If I go the route of Apple juice should I be concerned at this stage about the pot sorb level? I'd use store bought organic or worse case tree top. Same applies with the cider. If neither would add to flavor at this point any suggestions what might?
 
If your fermentation is done what it was going to do, topping off with sorbated juice isn't a problem, there should be enough yeast left to finish the job (I did this myself last year with about half a gallon of sorbated cider to top off my crabapple mel), sorbate prevents them from breeding, it doesn't stop them from processing sugar, and the concentration from a cup or two in a gallon shouldn't hurt anything.

You don't want to add it near bottling because sometimes apple can leave a pectic haze (although in this quantity it's probably not going to be an issue), and also more of a concern, if you don't hit it with sulphites and a full dose of sorbate first, it may continue to ferment, which you DO NOT want happening in your bottles.

Unfortunately, you can't tell by time or airlock activity if your mead is REALLY done, and 4 lb per gal is a fairly hefty amount of sugar to go through for any yeast, and you didn't mention which kind of yeast you used. So I can't even guess at it, not without a hydrometer reading.
 
Knew I forgot something on the list sorry bout that. was using Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast. When I visited our local brew supply store they handed that off to me with the carboys figured it'd be safe for a first run.
 
I'm mainly familiar with Lalvin products but I'd imagine Red Star's champagne yeast can't be that different in its properties. Quick clean ferment, good on the lees and high alcohol tolerance would be my guess, generally good for a first attempt. So it may well chew through the whole 4 lb of honey :)

Next trip to the brew store though, I highly recommend a hydrometer...
 
If I remember right Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast has a tolerance of around 16%. So with a good SNA schedule you can bump that up a bit and you should finish with some residual sugars in the Semi-sweet range, but than again if you didn't aerate and add nutrients you could stall out early since you did start with a pretty high gravity somewhere in the 1.140-1.145 range (these are some of the reasons we recommend getting a Hydrometer).
 
Aerated yes(via shaking the unholy hell out of it when I started), Nutrients unfortunately lacking due to someone finding and consuming planned raisins, Zest however did make it.

The hydrometer is my own fault and I do deserve a slap. I'd bought one roughly 4-5 years back when I made Blackberry wine. Since that time most of my old brewing equipment was 'misplaced' or to put politely, were in my ex fiances possession and last I saw/heard were either tossed or now used for collecting loose change. I hunted for my hydro and ultimately decided to commit a sin and told myself since this was more for an experimental run I should be fine without. Of course after having said that I find the hydro tucked neatly away and looking neglected.

And if join us was creepily replaced with one of us, I might worry before giving a thumbs up.

Thank you again for the replies and help. I started this on a whim as I found myself with a bit more free time and I'd wanted to get back into brewing as it was relaxing and something fun, so this was doing that for me and hopefully more soon. I promise I will love and respect my Hydro again and once sanitized again put it to use shortly.
 
Stilgar said:
Aerated yes(via shaking the unholy hell out of it when I started), Nutrients unfortunately lacking due to someone finding and consuming planned raisins, Zest however did make it.
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You'll notice that most here on the site recommend aeration and nutrient additions until your must has hit the 1/3 Sugar Break, especially with a high Original Gravity. Raisins will provide some nutrients, but you'll get better and more consistent results with Fermaid K and DAP. That being said good mead has been made with raisins alone.


Stilgar said:
Thank you again for the replies and help. I started this on a whim as I found myself with a bit more free time and I'd wanted to get back into brewing as it was relaxing and something fun, so this was doing that for me and hopefully more soon. I promise I will love and respect my Hydro again and once sanitized again put it to use shortly.
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Welcome back to the obsession :)
 
Hehe, it's never too late to check the SG, at least you'll know where you are. Glad you found it safe!
 
HunnyBunz said:
Not to worry. I think that he's quite a bit more warped than you are. ;D
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I wouldn't count on that, I really wouldn't. I maintain some amount of professionalism on this forum out of respect for Vickie and Oskaar, the mods I've befriended, and everyone else who reads my verbose blathering, so everything you've seen from me has been through the "for public display" filter... there's some pretty twisted stuff that gets caught in there, and a deep groove in the backspace button...

AToE will be pleased to see another Dune fan :)
 
Seeing as this is a pretty slow fermentation, should I worry about the Lees gathering in mass changing any of the overall flavor and transfer to secondary to continue ferm or should it be fine as is, wait to transfer once it the hydro reading reaches .995?
 
Stilgar said:
Seeing as this is a pretty slow fermentation, should I worry about the Lees gathering in mass changing any of the overall flavor and transfer to secondary to continue ferm or should it be fine as is, wait to transfer once it the hydro reading reaches .995?
Click to expand...

I doubt that you will get down that far on the Hydrometer. The calculator says you started around 1.140 based on the recipe you supplied. Your Yeast has a 16% tolerance which equates to about a 1.120 drop in Gravity so you'll probably end somewhere around 1.020 give or take a couple points depending on how the fermentation went.

I would wait until I hit that 1.020 mark or when the Hydrometer gave me a consistent reading for like a week straight.
 
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