I know it's a childish thing to do ... but i don't care im still young yet. How do I raise my meads alcohol content whil keeping the taste and fermenting time relitively unchanged? And I say relitivly because there are bound to be some changes. My friends and I drink for pleasure but other times .. we drink to drink because thats what young men do haha. So rather than handing out bottle after bottle I'd like to give them one bottle that'll give them a real hit, then kick them while they're down haha. I was thinking 30-40% but really i think 20-25 would do very nicely. Thanks for any advise.
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Raising Alcohol Content
- Thread starter phoenix_dancer31
- Start date
Yo Phoenix,
By starting with a high gravity must, or feeding (adding honey as the must ferments), you can ferment a mead to at least 18% using Lalvin DV10, EC-1118 and 20% with K1-V1116, providing proper conditions and nutrients.
I've had batchs go as high as 25% using K1-V.
Information on yeast ~ http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp ~
To calculate the must ~ http://www.gotmead.com/making-mead/mead-calculator.shtml ~
The other method is to distill, you would have to contact your local ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) board for licensing information. Distillation without the proper permit will land you in jail.
Anthony
By starting with a high gravity must, or feeding (adding honey as the must ferments), you can ferment a mead to at least 18% using Lalvin DV10, EC-1118 and 20% with K1-V1116, providing proper conditions and nutrients.
I've had batchs go as high as 25% using K1-V.
Information on yeast ~ http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp ~
To calculate the must ~ http://www.gotmead.com/making-mead/mead-calculator.shtml ~
The other method is to distill, you would have to contact your local ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) board for licensing information. Distillation without the proper permit will land you in jail.
Anthony
SuperYeast says that it will ferment to 20% in 10 days. I haven't tried it yet, but I have a pack waiting for me to try.
I've run K1v to 23% but that was by feeding the must and it took quite a while. EC 1118 is supposed to be a faster fermenter, though I've never used it.
David
I've run K1v to 23% but that was by feeding the must and it took quite a while. EC 1118 is supposed to be a faster fermenter, though I've never used it.
David
I'm trying to get mine past 12.6% with LALVIN K1-V1116 yeast, but I think it's "stuck". It still tastes very sweet, and I did add enough honey to reach 18% ABV according to meadmakr's online calculator. Anyone know of any reason it won't continue to ferment if I go through the full procedure to restart a "stuck" fermentation?
Please check the dates on posts that you respond to. This is from 2006 and I don't think anyo of them have been seen around here since 2012.....
That stuff you read above is bullshit about getting 23%, especially by adding more honey at the end of the fermentation. It's just not possible. When you follow the modern protocol you Superman the shit out of the yeast. And by keeping the temps correct and feeding the all the nutrients. It doesn't get better than this. When we rehydrate with GoFerm. One of the things it does is gives the yeast what it needs to make the strongest cell membrane it can have. Cloer to the end of fermentation, the cell wall starts to deteriorate due to the higher alcohol present. Eventually, the higher ABV gets to a point that the cell wall can no longer control what passes through it. At that time the ETOH gets inside the cell wall and kills off the cells. And then it's job over. If/when you oxygenate the must in the first 36 hours or so after fermentation starts. This is when they want O2 specifically for the reason of building the cell wall. And that is why we want to do that.Thanks, I also posted a new thread where I'm getting lots of helpful advice. If in fact my mead is "stuck" at 12.6% I'll follow their advice to start it again
Thanks again! I'm keeping an eye on my sack mead, and it's very-gradually tapering off its fermentation ... the airlock was bubbling every 1 minute 25 seconds a couple of days ago, and now it's only slowed to 1 minute 35 seconds. If I understand correctly, I have to wait until it slows to less than 1 bubble per 5 minutes before I take Final Gravity readings a few days apart to ensure it's done? Any and all advice welcome, as this is my first Sack Mead making attempt
Hi all, on a related topic,
Second year Beek here. I have one more honey harvest left to do this weekend, then no more until Fall in Portugal. By then, I am hoping to create my first Braggot using minimal ingredients, starting with liquid malt extract and honey from my own Eucalyptus-fed bees. I love black beers but hate hops. Can anyone recommend a good ratio of liquid malt to honey as the two sources of sugar I will use for my Braggot? Other than those two ingredients, I plan to use the best yeast for a black beer, e.g., Guiness, Super Bock Preta, Sagres Preta, etc., perhaps Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale) yeast? After that, I suppose I am supposed to add barley, maybe just to feed the yeast? Finally, since I hate what hops taste like, I wonder if anyone can recommend adding something a Gruit might use as a hops alternative? Once I have an idea of what's available, I'll see kinds of Gruit I can find in my local area to taste the potential options for a good match to my "Black Mead Stout". Thanks in advance for any advice
Second year Beek here. I have one more honey harvest left to do this weekend, then no more until Fall in Portugal. By then, I am hoping to create my first Braggot using minimal ingredients, starting with liquid malt extract and honey from my own Eucalyptus-fed bees. I love black beers but hate hops. Can anyone recommend a good ratio of liquid malt to honey as the two sources of sugar I will use for my Braggot? Other than those two ingredients, I plan to use the best yeast for a black beer, e.g., Guiness, Super Bock Preta, Sagres Preta, etc., perhaps Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale) yeast? After that, I suppose I am supposed to add barley, maybe just to feed the yeast? Finally, since I hate what hops taste like, I wonder if anyone can recommend adding something a Gruit might use as a hops alternative? Once I have an idea of what's available, I'll see kinds of Gruit I can find in my local area to taste the potential options for a good match to my "Black Mead Stout". Thanks in advance for any advice
Don't rely on the frequency of bubbles to determine when the fermentation is done. If you take readings every few days with no change, then your fermentation is done (or possibly stalled).If I understand correctly, I have to wait until it slows to less than 1 bubble per 5 minutes before I take Final Gravity readings a few days apart to ensure it's done? Any and all advice welcome, as this is my first Sack Mead making attempt
A few days is not long enough to know if it's done or not. We hear of meads that sat dormant for over a year or sometimes more. And someone will rack it, or move it to a different room, or whatever. And it starts back up. This is why I encourage everyone to sulfite and sorbate every mead they make.
Okay, I checked my 5L carboy of Sack Mead today, and it's only bubbling once every 15 minutes. With SG of 1.135 and FG of 1.039, it still tastes very sweet. My target was FG of 0.99 or 1.0 with 18+% ABV but it seems fermentation stuck at 12.6% ABV. I will check the gravity again in a week or so. If gravity stays constant at 1.039, and with only 1 bubble every 15 minutes, is it safe to bottle it, and just accept that I won't reach my target ABV and it will just have to be very sweet? I am wondering what the risk of bottle bombs is, since it could theoretically increase by 6% or more in ABV if I go through the full procedure to restart a stuck fermentation.
So for the last time. Bubbles do not mean a thing. Of course, you will have a huge chance of bottle bombs. Even stabilizing this will not ensure it has stopped. Sulfites are very hard to kill off yeast while still active, especially if there is a long way to reach zero or the ABV limit. Why are you in such a hurry to bottle it? It doesn't taste at all what it will taste like later. Don't you want to tweak it with acid and oak?
If it's too sweet, an acid test will change the perception a lot. Oak tannins can do the same thing. And your yeast might also chew a couple more points up
If it's too sweet, an acid test will change the perception a lot. Oak tannins can do the same thing. And your yeast might also chew a couple more points up
I'm in no hurry to bottle it. I was just hoping that since it is only bubbling every 15 minutes, it might be safe to bottle if the gravity (1.039) stays constant until 1 week from now. It started at 1.135 so it should have 12.6% ABV now, which is 6% less than I was going for. So it's nowhere near the target gravity I was going for, and I already added a tea mixture that should have introduced enough tannins (I soaked the tea in the musk inside a hops bag for 2 weeks). I can always bulk age it in the glass 5 liter carboy with the airlock on, but unless it reaches my target gravity of 0.99 or 1.0, I'm afraid to bottle it in case it starts to ferment again, causing bottle bombs I guess I could pasteurize it, but I'm sure that's bad for the flavor and would evaporate off a lot of alcohol
I guess I could pasteurize it, but I'm sure that's bad for the flavor and would evaporate off a lot of alcohol I saw a video stating I could bottle my mead first, then heat a stock pot of water (taller than the bottles) up to 90 Degrees Celsius, place the bottled mead in the hot water and cover with the lid, wait 10 minutes, then remove. Can anyone tell me if this is a good or bad idea and/or if it will negatively impact the taste of my mead?
Do a search, in the Gotmead site, on "pasteurization".
Here's one thread form last year: https://gotmead.com/community/threads/why-not-stabilize-mead-with-heat.34936/#post-290216
Pay particular attention to the last post (#6).
Here's one thread form last year: https://gotmead.com/community/threads/why-not-stabilize-mead-with-heat.34936/#post-290216
Pay particular attention to the last post (#6).
I get what they're saying here. I made a melomel and definitely will not pasteurize it. However, if the mead I pasteurize has only honey and a bit of nutrient, what would be the harm in pasteurizing? Will it change the flavor of mead made with only honey? If pasteurization could ruin the flavor, I definitely want to use sulfites, but one of the replies in this thread says there is still a risk of bottle bombs? What gives? I know there is enough sugar left in my must/mead to increase ABV by 6% (it's 12.6 now with FG of 1.039 but my target was 0,99 or 1.00 so a lot of honey wasn't converted to alcohol). Can I be sure the normal prescribed dosage of sulfites for 5 liters of mead will prevent bottle bombs, or do I need to do some combination of things to ensure fermentation cannot re-start (for example, adding sulfites and sealing the bottles to keep out wild yeast before applying a milder heat than full-on pasteurization)? I just want to reach the goal of preserving the best flavor without significant risk of bottle bombs.
I used to be like you and didn't want to add any chemicals to my awesome mead because that's why we make mead at home, so we can avoid all the chemicals. that evil corporations put in there because they are lazy... (ok, maybe I'm an evil corporation because I too, am very lazy) But, coincidentally, I was just posting about this on Facebook. Bottle bombs are not the only reason for stabilization. K-Meta is an anti-oxidant, anti-microbial. K-Sorbate is used in conjunction with K-Meta to prevent re-fermentation. Nothing is worse than spending a ridiculous amount of money on a batch of mead to have it oxidize into wet cardboard sherry.
