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Please help me troubleshoot.

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Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Thanks for the information. I tasted it today, and it still is very carbonated. This that to stay, or will it eventually go away?
The must is a little cloudy since I started adding extra honey, so I was hoping that it would clear before bottling, but I thought I would leave it at least a week before I decide if I want to backsweeten just a little more.
Oh well, at least I am learning things with this one, that may have taken a number of batched to learn otherwise.
 

wayneb

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
The dissolved CO2 will slowly come out of solution as it ages, or if you're really impatient you can de-gas the mead by stirring it, or putting it under a slight vacuum, to force some of the CO2 out. I prefer to wait it out most times, by keeping the mead in an aging carboy under an airlock until all signs of pent-up CO2 are gone.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Ok Wayne an update. I removed the bung and replaced it with an airlock, and it bubbled occasionally for a couple of days. Gave it a gentle swirl a couple of times and released a bit more. I have left the airlock in.
The taste really went dry and bland again, and it still was a bit carbonated, so a few days ago put in a couple of cups of honey. That really seemed to spark it up, so today I decided to put another cup of honey with a couple of liters of water, (to much headspace from all my thieving) along with some more oak. This addition has released quite a bit more gas, so air lock still in, and I will watch for the next couple of days and see what happens. No bubbling at the moment, just holding it's own.
Plan to rack off the oak next weekend unless I think it needs to come off earlier.
Thanks again for your patience.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Well it seems that the sorbate was "off" as my mead was still blipping every minute of so the next morning, and the mead has lost it's sweetness again. :BangHead:
So went out and bought new supplies yesterday and started again. Hopefully this time I can get the fermentation to stop.
 

Medsen Fey

Fuselier since 2007
Premium Patron
Sorbate and sulfite may not be able to stop an active fermentation, as you can see.

One way to stop a fermentation is to "cold crash" it. Put it in a fridge or freezer with the temp down near freezing and let it sit for a week or two. The yeast go dormant, and precipitate, and you can rack off of them. The clearer your mead (i.e. the fewer yeast cells left in suspension) the easier it is for sorbate and sulfite to be effective. It may be good to repeat this a second to try to clear the yeast even further.

I usually do this before adding the sulfite/sorbate. I'm not sure of the exact amount of sorbate you used, but there might be room to increase the dose a bit, if you can tell us exactly how much was added (and to what volume).
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
Administrator
Dec 26, 2004
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The OC
Another issue to be aware of when using sulfite and sorbate is the pH which will dictate what amount of sulfite you'll need to add. This takes a bit of research along with knowing the SO2 tolerance of your yeast. You can look at some of the LHBS websites that sell sulfites and they sometimes have little charts or estimates of how much sulfite to use based on pH. For all intent and purpose use the white wine chart as it will be more accurate for a mead than a red wine sulfite addition chart will be.

If you don't find that information then about 1/4 teaspoon of S02 per 5 gallons (US) will yield about 50 ppm. At last measure 1 teaspoon of SO2 is about 5.9 grams.

You may also make a 10% solution of SO2 in H2O and use a graduated pipette (I use a 5 ml size). Just take a 750 ml glass wine bottle (clear preferably) and measure out 75 grams of K-metabisulfite. Fill the bottle about half or slightly more with warm bottled water, dump in your K-meta, shake or swirl until the sulfite is dissolved and top up with more water.

Desired ppm 10 ppm 30 ppm 50 ppm
/liter .18 ml .53 ml .88 ml
/gallon .67 ml 2.00 ml 3.33 ml

There's also a formula you can use if you use sulfite titrets and have a reference chart for ideal free SO2 levels for white wines:

PPM of free SO2 needed x 3.785 x Gallons (US) of mead/white wine you're adjusting
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.57 (the actual % of SO2 "free" in your addition)

So if your titret reads 30 ppm of sulfite in the wine, you look at your handy dandy reference chart and see that the optimal ppm is actually 50 ppm. So, you'll need to bring your current sulfite level up by 20 ppm. Well you can't just add 20 ppm (.020 for calculation purposes) so you'll need to run it through the formula as in below:

.020 * 3.785 * 10 (gallons of mead you're adjusting) = 1.328 grams K-Meta
------------------
.057

The amount of sulfite you'll need to add is 1.328 grams K-Meta to bring your ppm up to 50


Hope that helps,

Oskaar
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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The reason I thought that the sorbate was off, is because it was two years old and the campden tabs were purchased new. Instruction are 1gr sorbate + 1 campden tab for every 5lts. I probably only have about 22ltr in the carboy, but added 5gr + 5tabs and stirred gently for a couple of mins after adding.
I will admit that the must is fairly cloudy, but I thought that was from the addition of the extra honey, but from your explaination it could well be the yeast.
As I have a large family fridge and freezer space is at a minimum, but I will see what I can do about organising something. Will try the cold crash before I do anything more.
Much to read up on and comprehend in your post, so bear with me please.
Many thanks for your reply.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Ok quick update again. Boy I hope I am doing this right. Couldn't beg borrow or steal a fridge from anyone, so I approached the local corner store, and asked if they have any room in their cold room, and they said yes!!! Shot home and picked up the carboy and put it in the cold room, which is set on 0C. If I need to get it cooler they said that I can move it to the freezer room if I need too.
So is 0C cold enough, or should it be colder. I can tell you that I was the butt of a lot of ribbing as I carried that thing through the store, so I hope this works.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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So the mead is back from being out in the cold. Forgot that I put oak in before I sent it away, so racked and tasted, and amazingly, even though it is still cold, it is not too bad. Definately tastes better than before it was cold crashed. I am going to wait for it to come back to room temp before I decide whether to tempt fate and backsweeten again.
There maybe hope for this one yet.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Ok just for the record, I put another 2 cups of honey and another spice tea and bag in yesterday. Will leave in for a week and check again.
After sampling the JAO, this one is definately lack in a few areas.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Well I am sure that this feels just a slightest bit carbonated again. :BangHead:
Tasted again and well, I'm not sure. I was wanting to use the carboy, so I am not sure whether I should leave this to bulk age a bit more, or just bottle it and put it away for later consideration. Not sure which way to go.
 

Tyred

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 11, 2005
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I'd take a specific gravity reading, leave it alone for a week and then take another specific gravity reading.

If there are differences between the readings then I wouldn't bottle it. As you probably know taking readings is a good time to do a taste test as well.

Bottling too early can lead to bottle bombs and no-one wants to go there.
 

Tea

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 18, 2008
100
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Update again. I have just returned home after being away for a couple of weeks and checked the mead. When I removed the stopper it went off with a loud pop and quite a release of gas and of course it is also carbonated again. :BangHead:

So I decided that the best thing is going to be leaving it alone, and not try and back sweeten anymore, as it is being counter productive. I am going to let this age for another 12 month or so, and try it again. From there, depending on what I find, it might just be added to other batches, we'll see.

Many thanks to everyone for the help and advise. Even though this one may not be rescued, I have learnt a lot of valuable lessons doing this, so it has been worth the effort.
 
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