Mead too sweet

[Druss]

Hi everyone, I have a gallon of mead that seems to be coming to the end of its fermentation (hardly any bubbling at all from the airlock, maybe one every ten minutes or so) but when I took a SG reading, it was 1070. I didn't get an OG (made it before buying a hydrometer) but according to my calculations it should now be about 14.5% ABV, I'm not sure if this has killed off the yeast, if its simply slowed right down or if my calculations are wrong.

I used five jars of Asda Smart Price honey (425g jars), one orange (chopped) and a dozen raisins, water to one gallon (boiled the honey in the water as per the recipe) all of which have been in the demijohn for nearly a month now. I used Vinclasse wine yeast, activated it before pitching and when it got underway it was bubbling like crazy.

Hopefully someone on here will know what to do, if it has finished is there any way to make it...less sweet?

 

[pittsy]

it hasn't fully fermented , you could water it down a little (split it into 2 ) and add some new yeast 1070 is a long way to go yet , i think it should finish low (not a mead brewer so unsure) or just add new yest as it is .

 

[oldbloke]

I make that roughly 5 * 425 * 80% = 1700g of sugar, or a little over 375g/l
19% if the yeast can manage it, which it probably can't.
More likely, if you left it until it stopped dead, about 15% and rather sweet.
If you don't want it sweet, as the previous poster said, dilute it a bit so the yeast can handle the sugar concentration.
I don't think I'd personally split it into 2 though - I like strong meads. I'd take out something like a third and put that into a 2l coke bottle or something, top the demi and the bottle up, and rig up some airlock on the bottle lid somehow

Towards the end they do go very slow - I wouldn't say it had given up until it was down to a bubble a day, or I saw it try to bubble the wrong way.

 

[alanywiseman.]

A full recipe would help. Did you add nutrient for the yeast? If so how much and when? I used 3.5ibs of honey in 4.55L and a yeast with a 15% tolerence and got down to 0.998. You could also look at pitching Lavlins 1118 yeast if you can get it but follows Moleys how to on stuck wines/slow fermentations :thumb:

Was this an attempt at JAOM?

 

[Cpt.Frederickson]

5 lbs of honey in a gallon batch is a lot of sugars for the yeast to ferment, I'm not surprised its pooped out already. Your OG would've been somewhere in the region of 1.150, which is a tough ask for any yeast. Personally (and I know this is the case for many other mead makers) I won't go over about 1.120 if I have any hope of it fermenting out.
The only way to kick this back into action is dilution, and you may still have to repitch. The osmotic pressure from such a high sugar content would have killed off many of the yeast by rupturing their cell walls. It's basically like trapping them in a vice and squeezing their guts out
As alanywiseman suggests, a robust champagne yeast like EC1118 could be useful, but dilution is really the only solution I'm afraid.

 

[alanywiseman.]

5 lbs of honey in a gallon batch is a lot of sugars for the yeast to ferment, I'm not surprised its pooped out already. Your OG would've been somewhere in the region of 1.150, which is a tough ask for any yeast. Personally (and I know this is the case for many other mead makers) I won't go over about 1.120 if I have any hope of it fermenting out.
The only way to kick this back into action is dilution, and you may still have to repitch. The osmotic pressure from such a high sugar content would have killed off many of the yeast by rupturing their cell walls. It's basically like trapping them in a vice and squeezing their guts out
As alanywiseman suggests, a robust champagne yeast like EC1118 could be useful, but dilution is really the only solution I'm afraid.

Would he not get away with it now that the SG is down to something reasonable? Add some nutrient then rehydrate the yeast and add the mead to the yeast doubling every 12-24 hrs? Just asking out of interest :thumb:

 

[Cpt.Frederickson]

I don't think so, because there is also about 9% alcohol to contend with in there too. This will also have an impact on the yeast as you're pitching it into an alcoholic environment rather than just a sugary one, and this will also damage the yeast.
This is my understanding anyways, following a good read of posts by some of the experienced members over at GotMead.
He probably won't need to repitch, but it depends on whether the yeast in there kick back into gear when the must has been diluted. But if you do repitch, make an acclimated starter.
Try reading this thread and this one too over at GotMead.

 

[Druss]

Thanks for the replies guys, the full recipe is as follows:

Ingredients
6 330g Jars (or 2kg) of Honey
Water to 1 gallon
12 Raisins
1 orange
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Wine yeast
1 tsp pectic enzyme

Fill the stock pot to just less than 3.5 ltr and bring to a near boil and then add the remaining litre of water to the pot, cover (to reduce the chance of any airborne bacteria or yeast from getting to the) and let the content cool, check the temperature with a thermometer.

While the honey and water is cooling, mix the yeast with 50ml of lukewarm (~27 degrees centigrade) water and a tea spoon of sugar and leave to activate. When the honey and water reaches 27 degrees add the activated yeast to the mix, stir with the mixing paddle, take a control sample and take and record a hydrometer reading (optional).

Add the mix to the demijohn using a funnel, add segments of orange, the raisins and the 1tsp of yeast nutrient. The nutrient and fruit is important to allow the yeast to develop since honey alone will not have enough nutrients to keep the yeast to develop a mead of good quality. Now apply the air lock and bung and watch the mead start to bubble after a few hours and leave in a warm place taking care not to disturb. Leave for around 30 days or until the mead stops bubbling (which ever sooner) for bottling.

At first, the honey and water will separate slightly the top of the demijohn will be lighter and the bottom darker. After about 10 days the mixture will be a solid colour.


If I dilute with water how much should I add? Would I also need to re-pitch the yeast if diluting or could I just water it down to the desired SG then stop the fermentation and bottle it?

 

[Cpt.Frederickson]

You should be fine diluting. It appears your OG was slightly less than I first thought, probably around 1.130-1.140, which is do-able. This suggests that the yeast have given up the ghost early, partly due to the OG.

A few things though; rehydrate with water ONLY, never with sugar, honey or anything sweet. This step is just to rehydrate, not to get the yeasties kicking. The sugar is damaging to the yeast at this stage (osmotic pressure again) and may be a contributing factor to your fermentation sticking

Also, boiling/heating is not really necessary, but most of us do it on the first few batches (I know I did!). As long as you sanitise all equpiment thoroughly you should be fine without it, as honey is a very difficult medium for beasties to grow in. When you dilute with water it gets easier for them, but if you pitch some good yeast that are ready for battle then they will out-compete anything else.

I usually add the required honey, mix some boiled water and cold water to create a warm mixture (40C or so) as it makes dissolving the honey easier, then top up to required volume. This also means the temp is about the same as the rehydrated yeast, so no temp difference issues when I pitch :thumb:

As to the dilution; there is a calc here that can be useful.
Although I've not done this personally, I'd suggest shooting for the equivalent of 1.100 starting gravity (giving you about 13%ABV)
or less. By putting in an estimated OG of 1.130 and the water @ 1.000, with the blended SG @ 1.100 and the original volume of 4.55 litres, you end up with an addition of 1.365, just under 6 litres total.

So, top up to about 6 litres total, and see how you go. Check the SG and add more water if necessary, aim to bring it down to maybe 1.060 or less. The decision to repitch or not is yours, but if you do I recommend Lalvin K1V-1116. It is my personal favourite, a tough alcohol tolerant strain that gets the job done without compromising flavour (as I hear that EC-1118 does). As your yeasties appear to have suffered a bit they might not make it through even if they do restart, so maybe using a 'killer' strain like this is your best bet (yes, they call it a killer strain. Makes it sound like some kinda yeast based assassin).

Lastly, hydrometers. Always take a sample at the beginning. If you don't know what your starting gravity is, then all the rest is speculation. The hydrometer is your friend, trust his glassy-lead-weighted readings!

Hope this helps mate, any other questions please feel free to ask.

Darren.

 

[Druss]

Ah, that does make things a lot clearer, many thanks :)

 

[alanywiseman.]

You should be fine diluting. It appears your OG was slightly less than I first thought, probably around 1.130-1.140, which is do-able. This suggests that the yeast have given up the ghost early, partly due to the OG.

A few things though; rehydrate with water ONLY, never with sugar, honey or anything sweet. This step is just to rehydrate, not to get the yeasties kicking. The sugar is damaging to the yeast at this stage (osmotic pressure again) and may be a contributing factor to your fermentation sticking

Also, boiling/heating is not really necessary, but most of us do it on the first few batches (I know I did!). As long as you sanitise all equpiment thoroughly you should be fine without it, as honey is a very difficult medium for beasties to grow in. When you dilute with water it gets easier for them, but if you pitch some good yeast that are ready for battle then they will out-compete anything else.

I usually add the required honey, mix some boiled water and cold water to create a warm mixture (40C or so) as it makes dissolving the honey easier, then top up to required volume. This also means the temp is about the same as the rehydrated yeast, so no temp difference issues when I pitch :thumb:

As to the dilution; there is a calc here that can be useful.
Although I've not done this personally, I'd suggest shooting for the equivalent of 1.100 starting gravity (giving you about 13%ABV)
or less. By putting in an estimated OG of 1.130 and the water @ 1.000, with the blended SG @ 1.100 and the original volume of 4.55 litres, you end up with an addition of 1.365, just under 6 litres total.

So, top up to about 6 litres total, and see how you go. Check the SG and add more water if necessary, aim to bring it down to maybe 1.060 or less. The decision to repitch or not is yours, but if you do I recommend Lalvin K1V-1116. It is my personal favourite, a tough alcohol tolerant strain that gets the job done without compromising flavour (as I hear that EC-1118 does). As your yeasties appear to have suffered a bit they might not make it through even if they do restart, so maybe using a 'killer' strain like this is your best bet (yes, they call it a killer strain. Makes it sound like some kinda yeast based assassin).

Lastly, hydrometers. Always take a sample at the beginning. If you don't know what your starting gravity is, then all the rest is speculation. The hydrometer is your friend, trust his glassy-lead-weighted readings!

Hope this helps mate, any other questions please feel free to ask.

Darren.

Great answer! :thumb:

 

[Druss]

I added water to make it up to the five litre mark, took a SG reading: 1040, now I could be way off here (and I probably am) but I work that out as now being around 11% ABV (assuming OG 1167 from 5 jars honey & SG before topping up of 1060). Is this even close?

 

[Cpt.Frederickson]

I would assume a slightly lower OG. If you look at the calculator over at GotMead and punch in the numbers its more like 1.140, which is still pretty high. Around 18% if you go bone dry (which it won't)

It looks from the numbers that one of two things has occured;
1. The water isn't fully mixed into the must, so your sample has a lower SG reading
2. Your mead is actually continuing to ferment.
Punching in the numbers to check, I've got your pre-dilution SG as 1.044 for the given volumes, which is quite a way out.

Its tough to work out your ABV as we're only guessing at your OG, but keep a good track of the dilution. Initially, you had a potential alcohol of about 17-18%. If you up the volume to 6 litres total, its more like 14%
You dropped about 80 points, which is about 10.7%; post-dilution it would be more like 9.7% as it is.
If you keep the water level the same, then you just have to calculate the fermentation of the remaining sugars, and you're there. Depending on that post dilution SG, you should get something like 5-8%.

Definitely check that the the must is well blended post dilution, but try not to aerate it too much. Just a gentle stir will do, then check your SG again. I'd still be inclined to up the volume based on that OG projection and what your yeast are capable of.
With any luck you'll get something around 12-13%...

 

[Cpt.Frederickson]

Great answer! :thumb:

Cheers mate! :