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Too much honey

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CosmicCharlie

CosmicCharlie

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2004
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The local grocery store sells clover honey in 40 oz (2lb, 8oz) containers. I thought that was a good amount per gallon. My hydrometer broke, so I made 2 batches without taking the OG. I finally got a new one - but realized too late its primarily for beer - the max gravity it can read is 1.080.

Seeing the hydrometer floating obviously above 1.080 made me realize I'm using too much honey. Its worked well with yeast that leaves some residual sugar, but my current batch used Red Star Pasteur Champaign yeast, and I'm afraid its going to taste alcoholic.

Any guidelines or suggestions as far as honey per gallon and yeast strains for dry mead? sweet mead?
 
How big is your batch? Are you sure that is too much honey? Usually a rule of thumb for me is 2.5 - 3.5 lbs of honey per gallon, depending on how sweet/dry you want it.

The reason your batch is turning out dry is because of your yeast. Champaign yeast is meant to be dry. It will probably finish around 18%.

It sounds like you don't want dry, right? When it is done fermenting, you can add some honey to sweeten to taste or, if this is a cyser, you can add apple juice. Before you do this though, you need to add something to kill any remaining yeast. I don't remember what this is. Maybe someone else can tell you.

If you want a sweet mead, try a medium yeast (12%) and give it alot of honey, like 3 1/2 lbs per gallon. There are sweet mead yeasts on the market but they usually have alot of problems. It seems most people end up with stuck fermentations.

A very popular medium yeast is K1V-1116, which alot of people, including myself, have had much success with.

D47 is another medium yeast with successful results. It is known for bringing out the fruitiness in a melomel.
 
Potassium Sorbate to stop the yeast from renewing fermentation and potassium metabisulfite to put the yeast beasties to sleep.

I personally try to stay away from the sulfites...
 
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