This might very well have been covered before and my apologies if it has.
I have just made my first batch of Mead. I started with a 1 gallon batch and used the ordinary blossom honey from Paynes as I did want to start with anything too expensive just in case.
My inlaws who do a lot of homebrew wine gave me Ritchies yeast to try but has no information on it, before I ask my question this is how the ferment went.
Start SG of 1.1 before yeast went in, I used nutrients after reading various posts.
Day 1 I paddled the mead to work some oxygen into it, again after hearing some advice, after the paddling the SG now stood at 1.07.
Day 2 I paddled it again and this time the SG was 1.032
Day 3 The airlock was still bubbling away so I made the decision to give it a final paddle, the SG now 1.015. However returning the fermenter back to where it was I noticed that the airlock never bubbled anymore, I gently pushed on the tub the following day and the airlock did bubble so i came to the conclusion that the mead had started to reduce it's activity.
Day 15 I decided to rack as no reaction on the airlock SG now at 0.995. Working out from a calculator I believe I have roughly 14% alcohol in there.
Now to my question, when I tasted it, it didn't taste like vinegar but noticeably a lot of the sweetness had been removed. I haven't drunk dry mead before only medium or medium/sweet. I see I have 2 options;
Option 1 - leave it, let it sit in the demijohn until it clears (it already has started to clear) and then bottle it and try to drink it in x months/years.
Option 2 - try to back sweeten it as lots of people have recommended on the web. My worry is I have no idea what the alcohol tolerance is of the yeast so if I chuck a load of honey in, it gets going again. If I back-sweeten should I drop inhibitors in at the same time to stop the yeast from trying to ferment it out?
Also what is the best way of back-sweetening, is it a case of adding honey straight into the demijohn and stirring or should it be added to a bit of water first and then added to the demijohn?
My next mead I have planned is with orange blossom and I am thinking about using KV-1116 which has a higher alcohol tolerance but gets good results, I am hesitant about using the Ritchies again.
Any advice would be appreciated, again my apologies if this has been covered but I thought since I had such a fast ferment to play it safe and ask.
I have just made my first batch of Mead. I started with a 1 gallon batch and used the ordinary blossom honey from Paynes as I did want to start with anything too expensive just in case.
My inlaws who do a lot of homebrew wine gave me Ritchies yeast to try but has no information on it, before I ask my question this is how the ferment went.
Start SG of 1.1 before yeast went in, I used nutrients after reading various posts.
Day 1 I paddled the mead to work some oxygen into it, again after hearing some advice, after the paddling the SG now stood at 1.07.
Day 2 I paddled it again and this time the SG was 1.032
Day 3 The airlock was still bubbling away so I made the decision to give it a final paddle, the SG now 1.015. However returning the fermenter back to where it was I noticed that the airlock never bubbled anymore, I gently pushed on the tub the following day and the airlock did bubble so i came to the conclusion that the mead had started to reduce it's activity.
Day 15 I decided to rack as no reaction on the airlock SG now at 0.995. Working out from a calculator I believe I have roughly 14% alcohol in there.
Now to my question, when I tasted it, it didn't taste like vinegar but noticeably a lot of the sweetness had been removed. I haven't drunk dry mead before only medium or medium/sweet. I see I have 2 options;
Option 1 - leave it, let it sit in the demijohn until it clears (it already has started to clear) and then bottle it and try to drink it in x months/years.
Option 2 - try to back sweeten it as lots of people have recommended on the web. My worry is I have no idea what the alcohol tolerance is of the yeast so if I chuck a load of honey in, it gets going again. If I back-sweeten should I drop inhibitors in at the same time to stop the yeast from trying to ferment it out?
Also what is the best way of back-sweetening, is it a case of adding honey straight into the demijohn and stirring or should it be added to a bit of water first and then added to the demijohn?
My next mead I have planned is with orange blossom and I am thinking about using KV-1116 which has a higher alcohol tolerance but gets good results, I am hesitant about using the Ritchies again.
Any advice would be appreciated, again my apologies if this has been covered but I thought since I had such a fast ferment to play it safe and ask.