Adding yeast nutrient (DAP)

[SteBeardface]

I have just started a new 1 gallon batch of mead, I'm going to be adding cherry juice to it later on (silly me didn't check the ingredients list before buying, it has sorbate...). I've used EC-1118, rehydrated with some tronozymol before pitching, then added just under a tsp of DAP after 24 and 48 h. After doing some more research, I'm wondering if this was WAYYYY too to be adding... can anyone advise on this? Have I cocked up? Can it be rescued if I have?

Cheers guys :)

 

[BeerCat]

For high alcohol meads i normally add some every few days, normally about 3 times. EC118 is a good yeast. It will be fine do not worry!

 

[SteBeardface]

Ok, i'll just keep an eye on things then. I skipped adding any yesterday, just gave it a good swirl to degas it. I'll take a look at the SG tonight to see how it's getting on.

Any advice on when I should add this sorbate-spiked juice to the mead without it causing any issues?

 

[Zephyr259]

Ok, i'll just keep an eye on things then. I skipped adding any yesterday, just gave it a good swirl to degas it. I'll take a look at the SG tonight to see how it's getting on.

Any advice on when I should add this sorbate-spiked juice to the mead without it causing any issues?

Once it's finished or you're likely to stall the fermentation, EC-1118 should take the mead dry since it handles up to 18% abv, the juice might ferment or might not, leaving you some sweetness which I'd think would be nice.

How much honey did you add and what was the OG?

I stopped using DAP after my first mead stalled, use Tronozymol instead as it's a much better nutrient blend. Also I don't believe it's best to add any nutrient while rehydrating yeast as it can hurt them, there is a specific rehydration additive americans use called Go-Ferm, I got some off Ebay as it's really hard to get a hold of over here.

Having said that I used a 1:2 TronoAP blend (1.85 g and 3.75 g) in a 5 L batch of mead a few months back as my first go a staggered additions as per the guidance here (but they've updated their site and you now seem to need to be a member to see the older in-organic method). The bloody thing still stalled at 1.052 after 10 days, I eventually got it restarted and finished, plan to bottle it in 2 weeks.

My latest batch was a BOMM (Bray's One Month Mead) using Fermaid-O (also from ebay), potassium bicarbonate and Wyeast 1388, it wasn't ready in a month, but it should also be getting bottled in 2 weeks. The Fermaid-O seemed pretty good, kept fermentation ticking over steadily with daily degassing and gravity checks and it didn't stall.

Good luck.

 

[SteBeardface]

I used about 1.3kg of honey in 4L, gave me an OG of 1.100. I measured the OG this morning to see how its getting on, it was down to 1.010 amazingly! In light of that, I decided to chuck the juice in as I didn't want the yeast to slow down while the going was good see. We'll see how it gets on. It's an experiment, if it goes wrong, I'll try again with something else (CherryGood is apparently made with tart cherries). I did notice a lot of foaming when i added the juice, not sure if its a good sign or bad... I shall keep you all updated!

Funnily enough, i've ordered large amounts of GoFerm, Fermaid O and Fermaid K off ebay recently, so i will be very much equiped for my next attempt.

And I'm still waiting on my first batch of basic dry mead to age so I can drink the damn stuff :-P

 

[Zephyr259]

Souonds good, I'd guess the foaming was CO2 coming out of solution as the new liquid was added. Ah, glad you found some too, I've just assumed that Fermaid K and Tronozymol are close enough to be interchangeable since they're both DAP plus trace minerals. Might be worth getting some potassium bicarbonate, apparently mead fermentations are almost devoid of potassium which isn't good for yeast and the bicarb buffers the pH. based on adding 300 mg/L potassium I worked out I need 0.77g/L of potassium bicarb, the American advice says to use carbonate but that's almost impossible to get a hold of here.

How long has the dry mead been ageing?

 

[SteBeardface]

Yes, I did think that and it did worry me, but it's still bubbling away today and the yeast aren't settling out at all, so I'll take it as a good sign for now :-P the potassium bicarbonate is a good shout though. It's a shame about the carbonate, especially as there's a huge tub of it in the lab at work. I'll see what I can find, cheers for the tip :-)

Only a couple of months in the bottles, I had them in the garage outside for about a month, but found out they should age at room temp, so they're in a corner in the living room now. I'm leaving them until at least April before trying it, though I should be patient and wait till the summer...

 

[Zephyr259]

Yes, I did think that and it did worry me, but it's still bubbling away today and the yeast aren't settling out at all, so I'll take it as a good sign for now :p the potassium bicarbonate is a good shout though. It's a shame about the carbonate, especially as there's a huge tub of it in the lab at work. I'll see what I can find, cheers for the tip :-)

Only a couple of months in the bottles, I had them in the garage outside for about a month, but found out they should age at room temp, so they're in a corner in the living room now. I'm leaving them until at least April before trying it, though I should be patient and wait till the summer...

Yeah, if you're using wine bottles then trying 1 of 6 bottles is quite the risk if it's not ready, that's part of why I've been using my 500ml swing tops, I get 9 bottles.

 

[SteBeardface]

Good shout, swing tops would be good, but the wine bottles were free after a friend had emptied them :P I'm beginning to wonder if it's the bottles I used that are causing the smell - 4/5 bottles are white wine, the other is a mead bottle I bought to try before I made any, which is the only 1 that smells any good. Saying that, the proof is in the tasting, which I'll be doing this weekend, I reckon.

Update on the cherry mead - the juice didn't stall the ferment, it's still going strong and the hydrometer is dropping everyday. Not sure where it will end as about only 40g of the carbs are sugars, the other 25g are other carbs that I'm not sure will ferment out... we'll see in about a week or so!