US - UK Conversions

[A Stephenson]

Hi,

I am looking to make a medium sweet show mead and have made the following calculation.

5 US gal = 18.930 lit / 5 UK gal = 22.730 lit

Based on the info on the forum my recipe is as follows.

5.28 US Gallons (20 UK lit).
14% Abv
Medium-Sweet Show Mead
6.30kg honey = 14% + 0.85 kg for residual sugar = 7.15kg honey
10g Lalvin D47 Yeast
Spring water to make must up to 20 liters.
TronOzymol (similar to Fermaid K)
3 teaspoons per 4.5 liters for sweet wines = 13 teaspoons.
7 teaspoons to be added before pitching the yeast and 6 teaspoons either after 3 days or 1 week of fermentation.

Does the above sound correct?

Many thanks,
Alex.

 

[Bob1016]

Sorry to be the style nazi, but show meads are honey, water, and yeast, zero nutrients, SIY, acid, tannin or other additives.
You are making a traditional: Mead with whatever additives you feel nessescary to achieve a dominant, and exceptional, honey flavor, so long as all the fermentable sugar comes from honey and it is not flavored with any ingredients other than honey and natural esters formed by yeast.
Now, to the recipe. If the nutrient has DAP, it is best to add after lag, and the rest at around the 1/3 sugar break.
Remember to aerate, be patient, and sit in awe at the remarkable transformation unfolding before your eyes!

 

[kudapucat]

10g of yeast is overkill 5 will do, but 10 wont hurt.

D47 has tight temperature constraints. Check out the documentation, and keep it cool or it will go funky on you.

(Semantics Nazi, Litres are universal, they don't change like Gallons depending on what country you're in)

Out of interest, what variety of honey are you using?

Some Maths:

7.15kg honey @1.400 SG (on average) = 5.1 litres
so 14.9 litres of water @ 1.000 = 14.9kg

totals: 22.05kg / 20 L = 1.102

In my experience, D47 will drop more than 100 points (0.100 SG)

My calcs say about 103 points.
As such I reckon this will be bone dry.

Mix it to a gravity you're happy with, if this means only 18 litres, then so be it.
IMHO FG for flavours are as such:

1.000 = Dry
1.005 = Medium Dry
1.015 = Medium
1.020 = Medium Sweet
1.030 = Sweet
1.050 = Dessert

So I would shoot for a SG of 1.118-1.123

Which will require more honey or less water. Your choice.

 

[Marc F.]

This utility was suggested by someone on this board to me.
It has helped me out quite a bit because it converts about anything known in this world.

http://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/

This will save you a lot of trouble surfing from one online tool to another.
Put it in your toolbar and be happy.

 

[A Stephenson]

Hi kudapucat,

Thanks for your reply.

I am using a 25 lit fermentation bucket holding a total of 35 lit.

Decided to up the volume to 25 lit.
I have been reading 'the compleat meadmaker' by Ken Schramm where I got the basic recipe.

Medium Show Mead
5 gallons (18.93 L)
12.5 - 14 lbs (5.7 - 6.4kg) honey
4 gal (15.14 L) water approx; enough to make 5 gallons
2 tsp (9.9 ml) yeast energizer
2 tsp (9.9 ml) yeast nutrient
1 liter starter of Lalvin D47
OG 1.094 - 1.112
FG 1.010

Having read through this website and forum I looked at the recipe calculations and have come up with the following;

25 L (5.5 Imp gal)
1 oz (Imp) = 28g

1 gal (Imp) = 3.12 oz (Imp) or 87.36 grams (Imp)
5.5 gal @ 3.12 oz/gal = 17.16 oz or 480.48 grams
17.16 oz x 14% = 240.24 oz or 6.726 kg

Medium Sweet FG 1.020 = 2.6% Abv (9.05 oz Imp)
17.16 oz x 2.6% = 44.62 oz or 1.249 kg
240.24 oz + 44.62 oz = 284.86 oz (7.976 kg)
or
6.726 kg + 1.249 kg = 7.975 kg of honey.

Using your calculations then;

7.975 kg @ 1.400 SG (approx) = 5.7 L
19.3 liters of water @ 1.000 = 19.3 kg
27.275 kg / 25 L = 1.091

So it would turn out very dry

Would you be right to say that I would need the following;

11 kg @ 1.400 = 7.85 lit
17.15 lit @ 1.000 = 17.15 kg
28.15 kg / 25 L = 1.126

Assuming full fermentation to 14% SG should drop by .105, based on 105 / 7.46 = 14% Abv. This would be the desired OG to achieve 1.020?

The honey I am using is Littleover Apiaries English Honey, which is the best I can find. It is not heated during extraction or filtration so contains all enzymes and proteins and keeps the original state of the honey.

Due to this I will be using the no heat method.

As I have upped to 25 L then possibly 7.5 - 10g of yeast would be appropriate?

Thanks for your help.

Alex.

 

[A Stephenson]

Hi kudapucat,

or if I stick to 20 L then;

8.5 kg of honey @ 1.400 = 6.07 L
13.93 L = 13.93 kg
22.43 kg / 20 L = 1.121 - .105 = FG 1.016

This should then be the sweeter end of medium.

Never really worked it out with such exacting figures but I want to get off on the right foot.

Thanks.

 

[kudapucat]

Those numbers look good to me, I'd like somebody to back me up though.
As for the yeast, 5g would probably still be OK, but 20g would not hurt your brew, so if you want, go for it.

To explain the yeast...
on the packet it recommends how much yeast to add per how much water.

BUT

the first phase of brewing is the 'Lag Phase' this is where the colony of yeast eats oxygen and reproduces, building a colony to suit your brew size.

If yeast double it's colony size every x minutes, then adding 10g instead of 5 will shorted the lag phase by x minutes.
There really is no harm done. It could even shorten the phase by hours, I don't have those figures.

Thus, even if the packet says for 25 litres you need 10g, it's not necessary. The reason is this:

to repopulate the world it is said we need a biodiversity as provided by 24 individuals as a bare minimum.
However it will take a long time.
If you had millions, we would breed more.
The problem comes if the 24 ppl are spread on more than 24 countries.
As long as you have a colony, it will grow.
If you're short of yeast, creating a starter will increase the 'live cell count' that you add to your must, just lobbing in the dry yeast works, but many will not survive (this provides food for the living yeast) so sometimes it's worth it if your yeast is cheap.
When using "Grandma's bread yeast that's been in the cupboard for 7 years" as Joe says in his recipe wont work, I add LOTS, cos some of it's gotta be alive, and I've not had an issue yet ;-)

I also buy my yeast in 500g bags, as it's the same price as 10x5g sachets.

This allows me to use 50g instead of 5g, and still know I'm getting a good deal. I often microwave 5-10g to kill it and add it as food. As the bag gets old, I simply use more. I definitely get more than 10 batches from a bag of yeast.

But I fear I'm now rambling a little bit. I hope something I wrote above was helpful, also, I'm sure I've rambled soemthing not 100% correct, so let's see if anybody picks holes in my understanding :-D

 

[kudapucat]

Hi kudapucat,

or if I stick to 20 L then;

8.5 kg of honey @ 1.400 = 6.07 L
13.93 L = 13.93 kg
22.43 kg / 20 L = 1.121 - .105 = FG 1.016

This should then be the sweeter end of medium.

Never really worked it out with such exacting figures but I want to get off on the right foot.

Thanks.

Yeah that looks good too.

This may be 'exacting' but really it's just a guide for your shopping list, and a starting point.
The 1.4 is average density of honey. You may have denser honey or more watery honey.

As such, whack 8.5kg in a bucket, add 10 litres of water and measure the SG.
Then add water until you get the SG you calculated. You may want more honey than calculated, you may want more water.

Just like alcohol is produced by unpredictable living beings (yeast) honey is similarly made by unpredictable bees. We can only guess until we have the product in our hands. (Unless using supermarket honey with is homogenised for uniform density)

 

[A Stephenson]

Thanks, the honey is quite dense so SG may be 1.423, will see how things turn out.

I looked on my hydrometer and 14% Abv is 1.090 which after losing .105 would put the reading .985
Medium Sweet is around 1.016.

1.016 - .985 = 0.031 difference

So if I added 0.031 onto OG 1.090 = 1.121

If D47 achieves 14% should lose SG .105 and that would leave 1.016 FG

So I think your math is sound based on using the hydrometer as a guide.
Thanks for showing me how you work out what is needed to achieve a certain % and volume. Makes shopping a little easier.

Just got a digital PH meter also as I am told PH should be kept above 3.7
Lalvin D47 has a temperature tolerance of 15 - 20c so I expect to pitch with a must temp of 15c to allow for a max temp rise of 5c due to fermentation.

Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers.

 

[piojo]

Note that Google can do a more complete unit conversion, using natural language. For example, try searching for:

10 grams per us gal to grams per uk gal

It will tell you the answer is 12 grams per UK gallon. Occasionally you need to play with the equation, such as adding parentheses or substituting "/" for "per". Some computer programs can also do complex equations, but I don't know any other than "GNU Units", which can be very daunting to install and use.