a friend of mine wanted me to ask if it is possible to stop your fermentation early as he is preparing mead for the holidays and hes afraid it will not be done fermenting in time to give it at least a couple weeks to age.
stopping fermentation early
- Thread starter Sir_Lancelot
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You can use the chemicals (sulfate/sulfite) to do this.
You can also cold shock it. Put it somewhere cold where it will get chilled but not freeze. But realize that it will start fermenting again once it warms up. So you need to get the bottles chilled until served if you do it this way.
Have fun,
Pewter
You can also cold shock it. Put it somewhere cold where it will get chilled but not freeze. But realize that it will start fermenting again once it warms up. So you need to get the bottles chilled until served if you do it this way.
Have fun,
Pewter
It's been my experience that a combination of cold slowing in the fridgermarator, then an application of 50 - 100 ppm of K-metabisulfite (1/4 tsp to a 5 gallon batch, or .3 - .6 grams/gallon based on the pH of your mead) follwed by an application of .5 to .75 grams/gallon of K-sorbate will ensure that fermentation does not restart.
ive heard elsewhere filtering out the yeast can work too, if you filter the yeast then put it in the fridge would it work?
I don't think you can filter out the yeast in suspension without filtering out everything else, though perhaps I am wrong.
If you filter for fine enough particles, you do not need to do anything else, even refrigerate it... A 0.5 micron filter will take out the yeast but may also take out some of the color and flavor.Sir_Lancelot said:
A compromise on filtration would be to use a 1-2 micron pore size. Since the yeast are >5 micron in size, you will remove them and not affect your flavor/ mouthfeel as much as a <1 micron pore size would. As Pewter mentioned, there would be no need to chill after filtration.
A downside of stopping the fermentation and drinking the mead early is that it won't have a chance to age and mellow.
Peace.
A downside of stopping the fermentation and drinking the mead early is that it won't have a chance to age and mellow.
Peace.
Actually, to guarantee that you get out all the yeast, you need a filter that has a 0.5 micron "absolute" (not nominal) pore size. Anything bigger risks leaving some yeast behind...
Most filters have a small, medium, and large size where the the pore sizes are around 0.5 microns, 1 to 2 microns, and 5 microns respectively. They recommend filtering through all three, using the large then medium then small. The small may take out things you want to leave in so if you want to take some small risk of refermentation and still not risk taking out the taste, I'd recommend the medium filter of around 2 microns...
Sorry, been doing a little research on filters recently...
Good luck,
Pewter
Most filters have a small, medium, and large size where the the pore sizes are around 0.5 microns, 1 to 2 microns, and 5 microns respectively. They recommend filtering through all three, using the large then medium then small. The small may take out things you want to leave in so if you want to take some small risk of refermentation and still not risk taking out the taste, I'd recommend the medium filter of around 2 microns...
Sorry, been doing a little research on filters recently...
Good luck,
Pewter
