My measurements are killing me. Years in labs to get my B.S. pretty much amounted to B.S.
Anyway, here was my process:
I'm making a simple (ha!), traditional mead with the following ingredients:
15 lbs. of Wildflower Honey
4 gal. jugs of spring water
2 packs of Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
I added my honey to 3 gallons of room temperature water, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast energizer. The remaining gallon I boiled and used to get the remaining honey out of my containers and added that as well.
I had to stir it for a long time (10+ minutes) as I could not get some of the honey to decrystalize, even with the added hot water. Eventually everything liquified and mixed well.
I rehydrated the yeast in 1/2 cup of 107 degree water and 12 oz. of Nutriferm Energy for 15 minutes and added it to the fermenter. The must was about 72 degrees when I added it, I'm sure the temp of the cup of water had come down near that by that point.
Then I used a degasser wand & drill to oxygenate the mead thoroughly.
My OG was ~1.109.
24 hours after pitch I added another 1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1/4 tsp of energizer and gave it another degassing/aerating. Temp was ~65-66 F. My SG readings were wild that night. I'm using a hydrometer, and when I dropped it into the test tube I got a reading of about 1.112. It was foamy, so I spun it and it started rising, up to 1.116. I assumed this was due to the bubbles forming on the hydrometer, so I took it out, wiped it off and put it in again. 1.120. Moved it around, bobbed it up and down. 1.110. Took it out, cleaned it off and replaced it. 1.100. I don't know what the hell I was doing wrong, but looking at all of my measurements, only the 1.100 lines up with the other days trends.
Airlock activity began later that night.
48 hours after pitch I added the same dose of nutrients/energizer, as well as degassed & aerated. Temp was 66 degrees and I took two SG readings: 1.090 and 1.086.
72 hours after pitch I added the last dose of nutrients/energizer and give it its final degassing/aeration. Temp was 66 degrees and SG was 1.068. I also tried getting an acidity reading, but it was tough, the color change was very difficult to perceive. I got .5%.
Now, I'm new but those measurements seem out of wack, don't they? I mean, the SG is following a trend but it seems to be going very fast. Is that common, should I expect it to slow soon? I tried using a mead calculator and I think it told me to add 3 gallons of water to my batch. I'm lost!
And the acidity seems very low too, but that was a tough measurement to take, I tried it twice and didn't feel like it was very accurate either time.
I'd appreciate any help you can provide.
Cheers all.
j.
Anyway, here was my process:
I'm making a simple (ha!), traditional mead with the following ingredients:
15 lbs. of Wildflower Honey
4 gal. jugs of spring water
2 packs of Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast
I added my honey to 3 gallons of room temperature water, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast energizer. The remaining gallon I boiled and used to get the remaining honey out of my containers and added that as well.
I had to stir it for a long time (10+ minutes) as I could not get some of the honey to decrystalize, even with the added hot water. Eventually everything liquified and mixed well.
I rehydrated the yeast in 1/2 cup of 107 degree water and 12 oz. of Nutriferm Energy for 15 minutes and added it to the fermenter. The must was about 72 degrees when I added it, I'm sure the temp of the cup of water had come down near that by that point.
Then I used a degasser wand & drill to oxygenate the mead thoroughly.
My OG was ~1.109.
24 hours after pitch I added another 1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1/4 tsp of energizer and gave it another degassing/aerating. Temp was ~65-66 F. My SG readings were wild that night. I'm using a hydrometer, and when I dropped it into the test tube I got a reading of about 1.112. It was foamy, so I spun it and it started rising, up to 1.116. I assumed this was due to the bubbles forming on the hydrometer, so I took it out, wiped it off and put it in again. 1.120. Moved it around, bobbed it up and down. 1.110. Took it out, cleaned it off and replaced it. 1.100. I don't know what the hell I was doing wrong, but looking at all of my measurements, only the 1.100 lines up with the other days trends.
Airlock activity began later that night.
48 hours after pitch I added the same dose of nutrients/energizer, as well as degassed & aerated. Temp was 66 degrees and I took two SG readings: 1.090 and 1.086.
72 hours after pitch I added the last dose of nutrients/energizer and give it its final degassing/aeration. Temp was 66 degrees and SG was 1.068. I also tried getting an acidity reading, but it was tough, the color change was very difficult to perceive. I got .5%.
Now, I'm new but those measurements seem out of wack, don't they? I mean, the SG is following a trend but it seems to be going very fast. Is that common, should I expect it to slow soon? I tried using a mead calculator and I think it told me to add 3 gallons of water to my batch. I'm lost!
And the acidity seems very low too, but that was a tough measurement to take, I tried it twice and didn't feel like it was very accurate either time.
I'd appreciate any help you can provide.
Cheers all.
j.
