Strawberry 3-Gallon Batch in Process

[ColeCasa]

First off, holy cow this website has been a great find! I made some basic meads in college (vanilla apple) and decided I wanted to try my hand at it again 12 years later. I've made another apple and a couple batches of blueberry in one-gallon containers and have just started to branch out a little and made a new batch of 3-gallon strawberry. It's been fermenting at a steady rate in the corner of my dining room at around 66-69 degrees.

I didn't get a starting gravity but measured at about 48 hours in and apparently I either pulled a sample that wasn't mixed well enough or I have no idea what I'm doing. It read at 1.032. Used 7lbs clover honey, 6lbs strawberries (semi thawed and smashed), and a packet and a half of D47. Water added was just over 2 gallons.

Here's where my questions start:

How can I estimate my OG with a measurement 48 hours in or how do I set up the calculator on here to estimate what my recipe should have come in at? I've taken a stab at it and I'm not sure which fields are doing what.

We're now at Day 14 and my airlock is now bubbling every 38 seconds after settling down from its daily mixing (swirling the whole fermenter in a circle to get stuff mixed up again). Should I take a reading before racking or can I go off my airlock bubble speed? Subsequently, at what time between bubbles should I rack if I use that method?

Any and all advice or articles to read on here are all greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[darigoni]

 

[ColeCasa]

Thank you so much! I was unsure of what volume to put for the target volume--whether that be volume of container or volume of just the water and honey.

Any advice on when to rack? I didn't see too much on it in the NewBees section.

 

[darigoni]

You should take a hydrometer reading, then wait a couple of days and then take another reading. Once the readings have stopped changing, then you can think about racking.

It’s been 2 weeks, right? I would think you should end up with a final gravity of around 1.000 or less.

Do you have any plans to stabilize and back sweeten?

I know you are anxious to rack and bottle, because it’s hard to do nothing. But, you’ll be better off if you slow down and let things happen In their own time. If you wait a few more weeks, it will give the yeast time to settle and your mead to clear. That’s when you really want to rack (or bottle).

 

[ColeCasa]

Looks like the hydrometer reading came in around 1.004. Is a final gravity less than 1.000 possible because of the presence of alcohol? Posted a pic of my reading--I need to get a strainer next to keep all my fruit from floating around.

I've never stabilized or back sweetened before--either bottled or racked and the put the bottles in the fridge to slow everything down, but the yeast had definitely stopped.

I think I might want to back sweeten this one as the strawberries don't seem to by quite as strong of a flavor as the blueberry one I've done. Do I need to stabilize with compounds in order to do that and not kick the small amount of yeast present after racking back up?

I think I'm nervous because I just learned about when yeast decay and affect the flavor of the mead. I think I had an apple mead do that once.

 

[darigoni]

To back sweeten, you either need to stabilize or you need to keep adding honey until the yeast have reached their alcohol tolerance. D47 has a tolerance of 15%, but that's a plus or minus estimate of the manufacturer. Once you've reached the limit, you can add more honey to your preference.

The preferred way is to stabilize; Potassium Metabisulfite and Potassium Sorbate.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Yes, the hydrometer reading can go below 1.000 and you're bang on with why, because ethanol is lighter than water. I think the lowest I've managed myself was a bit less than .990, maybe .985.

And I think realistically not too many yeasts are going to start breaking down in such a way that you can taste it if you're racking at 4-6 weeks, MAYBE 71B, but I wouldn't bet my life on being able to taste the difference at 4 weeks. I've had EC-1118 sit on the lees for embarrassingly long times and I'd have to do a bench trial of mead abuse to honestly tell you if I can taste a difference.

 

[ColeCasa]

Thank you! Hydrometer has read 0.996 for the last four days, so I'll rack tonight. How important is it to stabilize if I either keep the mead dry or use more honey than the yeast can consume? I know it's a tool, but wondering if it's one I need to add to my bat-utility-belt sooner or later.

Also looking at adding a mesh straining bag for my fruit and I've seen a lot of different micron sizes available from 75 to 300 microns. Any recommendation on these?

 

[Chevette Girl]

If you don't intend to backsweeten, I'd still let it hang around a bit before bottling if you're not going to stabilize it, as it really really doesn't take a lot of sugar to carbonate something. When I've prime something to carbonate a batch I'm adding if I recall correctly, less than a cup of honey to a 5 gallon batch, it doesn't even show up on the hydrometer. And because of the ethanol interference, you never know exactly how dry it actually is...

If you're gong to "use more honey than the yeast can consume" (ie, step feed it until the yeast max out), you need to add and monitor, and don't assume that the yeast are DEAD once it's gone dry, at any point, they can stop what they're doing for months then kick up again. I recommend picking an upper sweetness level on a small sample (say, hydrometer test tube sized), measuring that with your hydrometer, then applying it to the batch. The yeast may well perk up and chew on it, so keep an eye on the SG and whenever it goes below your lowest sweetness threshhold (which you can figure out on the same sample before you figure out the high sweetness threshhold), boost it back up to the high threshhold, monitor.... repeat until it stops consuming the sugars, then if you're not going to stabilize at that point, leave it under airlock a few months before bottling. I usually go a year, myself, or I bottle in screw-top bottles so I can check for carbonation.

My very first mead in 2004 didn't change SG for 4 months so I bottled it sweet, then it decided to kick back up after I bottled it, I probably stll have sticky spots under the freezer from the one that popped its cork in my kitchen. The weird thing with that batch was that not all bottles carbonated. And some of them were stealth carbed, didn't fizz when the cork came out but I uncorked all bottles and stuck a sanitized chopstick in to degas because I knew there was a problem with the batch and wanted to check, and first bottle, fine... second bottle, fine... third bottle POOOOSHHHHH, all over me, the table, the dining room carpet, and the kitchen floor all the way to the sink.

Moral of the story, don't be me, just stabilize your dang mead before bottling it unless you have a compelling reason not to. In general it's even beneficial to stabilize completely dry meads and wines, it will keep it more stable in the bottle, less likely to oxidize or succumb to any other spoilage organism.

 

[Chevette Girl]

If you don't intend to backsweeten, I'd still let it hang around a bit before bottling if you're not going to stabilize it, as it really really doesn't take a lot of sugar to carbonate something. When I've prime something to carbonate a batch I'm adding if I recall correctly, less than a cup of honey to a 5 gallon batch, it doesn't even show up on the hydrometer. And because of the ethanol interference, you never know exactly how dry it actually is...

If you're gong to "use more honey than the yeast can consume" (ie, step feed it until the yeast max out), you need to add and monitor, and don't assume that the yeast are DEAD once it's gone dry, at any point, they can stop what they're doing for months then kick up again. I recommend picking an upper sweetness level on a small sample (say, hydrometer test tube sized), measuring that with your hydrometer, then applying it to the batch. The yeast may well perk up and chew on it, so airlock, don't seal, and keep an eye on the SG and whenever it goes below your lowest sweetness threshhold (which you can figure out on the same sample before you figure out the high sweetness threshhold), boost it back up to the high threshhold, monitor.... repeat until it stops consuming the sugars, then if you're not going to stabilize at that point, leave it under airlock a few months before bottling. I usually go a year, myself, or I bottle in screw-top bottles so I can check for carbonation.

My very first mead in 2004 didn't change SG for 4 months so I bottled it sweet, then it decided to kick back up after I bottled it, I probably stll have sticky spots under the freezer from the one that popped its cork in my kitchen. The weird thing with that batch was that not all bottles carbonated. And some of them were stealth carbed, didn't fizz when the cork came out but I uncorked all bottles and stuck a sanitized chopstick in to degas because I knew there was a problem with the batch and wanted to check, and first bottle, fine... second bottle, fine... third bottle POOOOSHHHHH, all over me, the table, the dining room carpet, and the kitchen floor all the way to the sink.

Moral of the story, don't be me, just stabilize your dang mead before bottling it unless you have a compelling reason not to. In general it's even beneficial to stabilize completely dry meads and wines, it will keep it more stable in the bottle, less likely to oxidize or succumb to any other spoilage organism.

 

[ColeCasa]

Finally bottled it and now to let it age for a while. Sipping on my last blueberry lemon from October still and it has aged well!

I’ll let you know how it is once I crack one. Always smells a little yeasty to me even though I racked it into a side vessel and back into the original to clear it up. Thanks so much for the help you two!

 

[mhal408]

Yes, the hydrometer reading can go below 1.000 and you're bang on with why, because ethanol is lighter than water. I think the lowest I've managed myself was a bit less than .990, maybe .985.

And I think realistically not too many yeasts are going to start breaking down in such a way that you can taste it if you're racking at 4-6 weeks, MAYBE 71B, but I wouldn't bet my life on being able to taste the difference at 4 weeks. I've had EC-1118 sit on the lees for embarrassingly long times and I'd have to do a bench trial of mead abuse to honestly tell you if I can taste a difference.

My first batch i bottled them arnd 3 months mark, but the fermentation kept going i think because i didnt air them out enough i the beginning, so the bottled kept popping out its cap, so i got frustated my second batch i air them for the first 3 days and left them in the primary sitting for 6 months then bottled them, now i dont know how real good mead tastes like but i sampled them and i like what i taste, much more than my 1 yo first batch, im a lazy brewer, i dont know if i just got very Lucky or mead is very forgiving.

 

[Mx Whiskey]

Thank you! Hydrometer has read 0.996 for the last four days, so I'll rack tonight. How important is it to stabilize if I either keep the mead dry or use more honey than the yeast can consume? I know it's a tool, but wondering if it's one I need to add to my bat-utility-belt sooner or later.

Also looking at adding a mesh straining bag for my fruit and I've seen a lot of different micron sizes available from 75 to 300 microns. Any recommendation on these?

In my not-at-all-professional opinion, unless you have an allergy to those ingredients you should always use them. Campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite, or k-meta), from what I know, really helps prevent bacterial growth, and potassium sorbate (k-sorb) effectively neuters the yeast. They won't eat, they won't produce more alcohol, they won't reproduce. They don't really affect the flavor of the mead in any meaningful way and they are extremely affordable. 1 tablet k-meta per gallon and 1/2 tsp of k-sorb per gallon and you should never run the risk of a bottle bomb or higher proof brew than you anticipated.

Just my 2 cents!

 

[ColeCasa]

As it turns out, strawberry is a little harder to work with than blueberry. So, I'll be adding them all back to the fermenter and adding more honey to hit the alcohol tolerance and then step sweeten up to semi-sweet (1.015-1.020) before stabilizing. Thinking of adding more strawberries for this round to try and keep the flavor from fading and also adding some decaf black tea to add some tannins. Thoughts? How long should I soak the tea bag in the must? I know black tea is usually only soaked in hot water for 3-4 minutes and more than that can cause bitterness.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I don't know for sure but whenever I've added tea bags to sugared water I don't get nearly the extraction I do with just hot water so I brew the tea in a mug and pour that in while I'm mixing stuff up if I think I should add tannins. And the bitterness you get from oversteeping? Guess what... that's the tannins you want in your must I always used 1 cup of water per tea bag and steeped them till they were cold, and further squeezed the bags. I was unable to detect any bitterness from 1 cup with 1 bag in 1 gallon of must. Caveat, I've never added tea AFTER fermentation so I don't know if alcohol extracts differently from water.

If you want a fresher strawberry taste, stabilize before you add more fruit, if you prefer the fermented flavour, do it before you stabilize. Think the difference between grape juice and wine Just remember you're adding more water with adding more fruit so it's gonna mess a bit with your final ABV calculation and also with how much sweetness you'll get from adding honey as the fruit releases its juice, and it may cause renewed fermentation if you'd already maxed out your yeast.

 

[Mx Whiskey]

I've never added tea AFTER fermentation so I don't know if alcohol extracts differently from water.

In theory it will. Alcohol is a solvent and is what is used in even commercial extracts, so it should extract even faster than water. But that is in theory, not necessarily in practice. Kinda harkening back to Squatchy's warnings about oaking my batch I have right now, alcohol tends to accelerate extraction.

 

[ColeCasa]

Just pulled a sample after having added some honey and then some additional strawberries for secondary and it's dramatically better after two weeks. Will bottle half of it soon and then add some black tea concentrate to the other half.

From my racking off leas a couple times and two months in the fridge, the mead decided it was done making alcohol, so we wound up sweeter (1.031 rather than 1.020) and lower ABV than intended, but all has worked out with the flavor of what's in the glass. Was definitely a messier and less straightforward experience than my other batches, but I've learned a lot.