So um... When exactly can I bottle this?

[Echostatic]

Hopefully this is the right subforum... It's not mead, but it's the only troubleshooting subforum I know of. Long story short, I made this hard lemonade.

http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16484

It says it takes 7-10 usually before you can bottle. Wait for foam to stop appearing when you check on it daily, let it sit a day or two and bottle. I'm at day 12 now and I have just as much foam as when it started fermenting. I'm concerned it will ferment too far along. Can I bottle this now and keep it refrigerated, or is that still going to give me bottle bombs?

 

[fatbloke]

If you're normally bottling during the ferment, then the hazard is always gonna be there.

The recipe for ginger ale I make uses 2 ltr PET bottles. I mix it up, then leave it somewhere warm until the tiny air space can't be depressed, then its straight to the fridge to chill it down to arrest the ferment.

If your recipe calls for a longer ferment, then maybe a hydrometer is needed. Then plastic bottles and fridge.....

 

[Oskaar]

Heya Echo,

This forum is fine. You can also post these types of questions in the Ask about the process of meadmaking in this area forum which I just realized is a dumb-ass Title for a forum so I have changed it to The Process of Making Mead because it just sounds better.

I concur with FB in his post below. Get that stuff into the refrigerator and let it put your yeasties to sleep, and then cold stabilize.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[Echostatic]

Alrighty then, I will get it chilled and add my stabilizing chemicals. Thanks folks. It's tasty stuff right now, I'd hate to screw it up.

 

[Echostatic]

Having come to the realization that I had no space available to cold crash this, I went out and bought a wine cooler big enough to hold the fermentation bucket with the shelves removed. This thing is gonna come in so handy, I should be able to use it to ferment mead now that needs temps in the 60s. No having to mess with an ice bath!

Of course the first challenge was in getting it home. Lacking transportation with large enough storage space, I just made do and made a stressful drive home. (pay no attention to the dirt...)

Made it home safe, let it sit upright for 24 hours, and this evening I placed my bucket right in there.

I guess I will let it sit in there until Friday. Then I will rack it into a glass carboy, get it off the yeast. Then maybe place the carboy in there and let things settle, just to be safe, then bottle in swing tops. (And then, I imagine, I will remove that infernal light bulb that is apparently designed to never turn off...) The recipe didn't call for any preservatives, or even racking at all, but I guess I'm deviating a bit. I will still store the lemonade in here, which I imagine will keep it from fermenting. Does this all sound alright?

 

[kudapucat]

That's some spoiler!
Glad the downdraft didn't squish your fridge!

 

[Echostatic]

I kept it below 25mph, I was concerned about damaging the fridge, damaging the back glass, about the fridge sliding out and falling into the street, etc... I need a bigger trunk >.>

 

[Loadnabox]

Still trying to figure out myself how to cold crash my large 6.5 gallon carboys. Heck, my shelves are too close together to put a gallon carboy into (milk jug barely fits but glass jug is about 1" too tall) I've been thinking of buying a used fridge for this but don't know where I would put it.

I used to have a Firebird identical to that in looks, had the Chevy 305 though, wasn't the IROC version. Had the T top and everything.

Super fun car.

My new car has a bit more trunk space though (just got it Sunday)

OK, I've sort of been wanting to brag

 

[Echostatic]

I think you might be getting confused with the Camaro. The Camaro had the IROC version. I drive an '89 Trans Am, one of the few Indy 500 pace cars they made that year. It comes with a turbocharged 3.8 liter v6, the same engine that was put in the much more famous 86-87 Buick Grand Nationals. At the time, it was the fastest production Trans Am made. It's one of my other hobbies, I've been doing some work to it. I estimate it to be putting out ~500hp right now. Once I get the heads ported it should be close to 600hp. That doesn't count for much when you actually want to move anything though... I have no trunk.

Have you checked craigslist for smaller refridgerators? It would be easier to find room for one of those, I bet. Maybe in the corner of a garage, if you have one?

 

[Chevette Girl]

Mmmm, Pontiac Firechicken... <drool> ... the Chevette in my avatar is actually a Pontiac Acadian (in the US it was T-1000) and for some reason any GM car that's ever caught my eye has been a Pontiac... The Firebird tail end is up straight and the Camaro/IROC/Z-28 ones stick out back past the taillight assembly a little.

I got to drive a black '77 Trans Am complete with Firebird hood decal, my friend's husband gave it to her for Xmas a few years back...

For comparaison, brand new off the line Chevette/Acadian engine? 68 horsepower. Mine, at 29 with 333,000 km? Most likely, significantly less than that... 0-60 mph in 13 minutes... (actually 36 seconds last time I timed it). But it does have a surprising amount of space in it, managed to fit two new toilets in it and almost got the hatch closed, roommate's Jeep could only fit one!

Are the shelves in your fridge not adjustable, Loadnabox? I wonder if a used bar fridge would fit a big carboy? You'd have to measure... and probably take off the airlock yay for plastic wrap...

 

[Echostatic]

I have to admit to cringing when reading those numbers. That thing's slow! But I guess there's no arguing with toilet capacity. That's what really counts!

 

[Chevette Girl]

It teaches you to be a very patient driver ;D Seriously, it doesn't feel that bad, there's nowhere legally where you'd be expected to go from 0 to 100 km/h (60 mpg) unless you'd stopped on the side of one of the kinds of major highways that have on and off ramps. It gets from 0 to 50 km/h (30 mph) (city speed limit) at the same rate as any other vehicle and it's not horrific to get from 0 to 80 km/h (50 mpg) which is standard highway speed limit. And it's not even that bad to get to 100 km/h (60 mpg) when I hit the major highways from regular highways (even with a 40 km/h ramp speed), I'm generally up to speed before I run out of on-ramp lane, which is more than I can say for a lot of drivers around here, regardless of what their cars can do . The little Beast just can't take it all in one shot. But boy can she fit a lot of cargo. I just need a loooong lead-time before I pass anyone at 80 km/h... hence, patience...

So your wine cooler has a light that never goes off? That sounds like wonky design concept, surely they'd know that light exposure is BAD for wines??

 

[Echostatic]

Oh that's right, the darned thing never shuts off. It's a silly thing, and once this lemonade comes out for racking, I'm pulling the bulb. What were they thinking?

 

[Loadnabox]

I think you might be getting confused with the Camaro. The Camaro had the IROC version. I drive an '89 Trans Am, one of the few Indy 500 pace cars they made that year. It comes with a turbocharged 3.8 liter v6, the same engine that was put in the much more famous 86-87 Buick Grand Nationals. At the time, it was the fastest production Trans Am made. It's one of my other hobbies, I've been doing some work to it. I estimate it to be putting out ~500hp right now. Once I get the heads ported it should be close to 600hp. That doesn't count for much when you actually want to move anything though... I have no trunk.

Have you checked craigslist for smaller refridgerators? It would be easier to find room for one of those, I bet. Maybe in the corner of a garage, if you have one?

It wasn't a camero, there was a couple of years in the...F? body where they had a formula edition Firebird that was in between the Trans Am and the standard/w a V6. That's what I had with the 305CI V8. Admittedly easy to confuse the two cars though as they were built in the same factory, on the same frame and looked freaking close as heck.

As for the fridge, I don't have a garage, but my wife and I applied for a new place that will have one, we'll see if we get it, in which case I might get a fridge for the Garage.

Mmmm, Pontiac Firechicken...

Funny, that's what I always used to call mine! The Firechicken!

Are the shelves in your fridge not adjustable, Loadnabox? I wonder if a used bar fridge would fit a big carboy? You'd have to measure... and probably take off the airlock yay

Shelves are somewhat adjustable but my wife would complain if I threw out all the food to fit a carboy in :-D

Bar fridge coule be OK... I have a bit of space in the room where I chuck the carboys now.

As it is right now they get covered with a heavy blanket and I hope if I have an MEA it doesn't spray down my airplanes. You can see the tail of one right here *innocent whistle*

Fridge would help contain that too!

 

[Echostatic]

I'm still confused by what you mean when you say your firebird was not the "IROC version".

 

[Loadnabox]

I'm still confused by what you mean when you say your firebird was not the "IROC version".

I thought they did make an IROC Trans Am but then again I'm not a huge car guy, just enough to understand and enjoy some of the more interesting ones

 

[Echostatic]

I racked it off the lees and into a carboy yesterday. I took a hydrometer reading on this stuff today, turns out it fermented dry. I estimate 11-12% ABV. I had some friends try a bottle I racked out and backsweetened until they said it was good. They said it was really good at 1.005. I just finished backsweetening the batch and stuck it back in the minifridge. I will let it sit a couple days and bottle in swing tops, which will also be stored in the minifridge. This is pretty tasty stuff!