Mango Mead Attempt

[Meadmaker.XB]

Hello Everyone!

So I am planning on attempting a 1 gallon yeild mango mead batch but am having problems figuring out the mead calculator's results to reach my target SG.

Based off the NewBee guide of:
Dry: 0.990 – 1.006
Medium: 1.006 – 1.015
Sweet: 1.012 – 1.020
Dessert: 1.020+

I want to reach a 1.015 or so SG for a medium to sweet mead. I plan on using Lavlin D47 yeast but I do have EC 1118 and Champaign yeast as well, if those would work better.

The mead calculator with 1 gallon yeild, 2 pound honey as my first sugar, and 1 pound mango as my second sugar yelds a target SP as 1.074 with a 10.24 ABV. Am I inturpriting that correctly as being sickenly sweet or am I missing something in the calculator that is needed to have accurant results?

I have 24 pounds of clover honey and current 2 pounds of froze mango chunks to play around with, planning on primary fermentaiton to go into a 5 gallon food grade bucket.

My plan is to put the honey, mangos, and water in with a camden tablet, following the directions on the bottle of course, then let sit for 24 hours before pitching the yeast. I also have the local home brewers yeast nutriant to use at suger breaks if nessciary (was planning on using it at pitch and 1st sugar break).

This is my second mead and i'm new to the site so sorry if my lingo or knowledge base isn't up to par as of yet.

Thanks for the help!

[mccann51]

It's all personal taste, but yeah, I'd say 1.024 is sickeningly sweet; honestly, I think 1.010 or above is pretty sweet, though, especially once the mead has aged a bit.

Also, I've never used mango, but I'd guess 2lbs of mango in a 5gal would be way too low if you're trying to get your mead having some mango flavor. Most melomels call for at least a lb of fruit per gallon, and that's usually on the low-end for flavor influence. You might consider 2lbs of mango PER gallon if you want the mango to really come through. But again, I'm not talking from experience here, so take it as you will.

[triarchy]

mccann51, I think this is a 1 gallon batch (fermented in a 5 gallon bucket). But its late so maybe Im mistaken? It wouldnt be the first time.

Welcome Meadmaker.XB. I think that this batch will go dry (roughly 1.000) with a starting gravity of 1.074 (if it is a 1 gallon batch). The calculator is just telling you what you will get before fermentation, you have to take into account the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you chose to determine if your mead will be sweet after fermentation. D47 will eat thru the sugars in your mead and leave you dry with no problems. You could either stabilize and backsweeten once fermentation is done or you could add more honey to bring your SG up so that when the D47 dies you will still have a semi sweet mead.

The rest of your plan (campden tablet and nutrient additions) seem good.

[Meadmaker.XB]

awesome thank you both for the replies. I believe that gave me the information I was looking for.