Where did I go wrong?

[kenyashiuang]

Thank you bernard.

I've already racked it the day before. Gravity reading was at 0.998 and it has developed a sort of barley like taste. There is a lot of headroom though but I'm going to see if I can buy some marbles today. So I guess it's just a waiting game for now. But now that the gravity reading has stopped at 0.998, how will I know when it's done?

 

[bernardsmith]

Done fermenting? It must be pretty close to that now. But no matter. you want to allow the mead to quietly age and allow all the flavors to blossom and meld. Not sure I saw that you posted the variety of honey you used or the recipe... so it is unclear to me where the barley flavors might be coming from.
How you know when it is done is when it has reached the gravity you had planned for (planning is important. if you don't know where you are going you don't really know when you have arrived :3someand when that gravity has been rock solid stable for three readings of your hydrometer taken, I would say, several days apart.
Marbles are a good way to displace liquid but it does take a lot of marbles to displace any significant volume. You also want to be very carefully pouring marbles down into your carboy. If the carboy is glass you can damage the insides of the carboy and/or damage the outsides of the marbles... and tiny glass slivers in your mead is not a desirable thing. More for the future than this batch - I would always aim to make a slightly larger starting batch than you plan to bottle. And I use a bucket as my primary fermenter. That means I know that when I rack I will have more than enough to fill my carboy.

 

[kenyashiuang]

The gravity reading has been 0.998 for two days now. I'll continue to observe. I'm using Orange Blossom honey. It's blown way past the target so I guess I'm just going to have to taste every now and then until I deem it acceptable?

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[Squatchy]

The gravity reading has been 0.998 for two days now. I'll continue to observe. I'm using Orange Blossom honey. It's blown way past the target so I guess I'm just going to have to taste every now and then until I deem it acceptable?

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It's not goid to taste any different if it goes lower. I doubt it will. But even if it does, the difference is too small to taste

 

[Devin Petry-Johnson]

I'm going to see if I can buy some marbles today.

I will say the same as Bernard. Watch out for broken glass. I bought a bunch of economy marbles on Amazon for the same purpose. Wash/rinse them, then carefully look at each one for breaks or cracks. I found a lot. There are also some that are fused together and shaped like a peanut still in the shell. I also threw those out because I figured they could crack apart at any moment.

I'm also doing the same as him with regards to fermenting slightly more than one gallon in a bucket, then racking to the glass jug so it fills all the way to the top.

 

[kenyashiuang]

I also didn't account for the lost volume when racking as to not get the lees in. Lessons well learned for the next batch. It was still a fun experience to be able to create something.

I'll look in to back sweetening soon. I'll need to weigh the costs for getting the sulfites and sorbates. Quite an expensive hobby where I'm at but I'm determined.

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[Valcarion]

I also didn't account for the lost volume when racking as to not get the lees in. Lessons well learned for the next batch. It was still a fun experience to be able to create something.

I'll look in to back sweetening soon. I'll need to weigh the costs for getting the sulfites and sorbates. Quite an expensive hobby where I'm at but I'm determined.

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I live in Las Vegas and a bottle of Kmeta and Ksorbate costs me about 7 dollars total.


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