Hi everyone, first post here, great forum!
So here's the situation, I have obtained after two weeks of fermentation a shockingly low apparent attenuation of... 56%!! Two weeks is short for mead, but I'm doing a "weak" mead to do a beer-like drink.
My recipe for this Sparkling Black Tea Mead is:
-Volume 8.5L (Mr. Beer fermentor that I have on hand)
- OG/FG/ABV: 1.047/1.005/5.4% (assuming an apparent attenuation of 90%, which seems reasonable considering the sugars in honey are about 95% fermentable, I believe.
Ingredients:
- 1.2 kgs all-flower honey + 65g of lavender honey for priming (CO2 level of 2.5 desired)
- 1 orange, juiced and also using the zest.
- 90g dried grapes (raisins)
- 10 Ceylan (black tea) bags.
- Safale S-04 yeast, dried, 11g. Alcohol tolerance of about 8%, apparent attenuation (for beer) around 75%, I assume 90% for honey-based fermentables. I have obtained 90% AA with bread yeast in the past. This could be wrong for S-04.
- Spring water to account for the remaining volume.
Note: regarding nutrients, I choose to avoid the commercial yeast nutrients and opt for a "natural" approach, with the raisins, orange and tea providing, I assume, enough nutrients for a healthy fermentation. Also, tea and raisins provide tannins which should avoid obtaining too thin of a drink (carbonation will also help in that matter).
Preparation:
- After steeping the tea and orange zest in about 1L water, I remove the tea bags and pour the honey in to dissolve it completely, the water being still hot but probably not hot enough to destroy the yummy flavors .
- Then I add the raisins and orange juice to the must.
- Pour into 8.5L fermentor, splashing as much as possible to aerate.
- Shake well.
- Complete with spring water. Shake well again. Wait for the must to cool down to pitching temperature.
- Sprinkle S-04 yeast on top of the must, avoiding clumps. (This is not uncommon to sprinkle without rehydrating for this yeast and I've read of people doing so with no downside apparently).
- Fermented at around 18-20°C (ideal temp. of 15-20°C for this yeast). I did not control the fermentation temperature, but for a rather small volume of 8.5L I have never had any significant heating.
Results:
- I measured an OG of 1.046, aiming for 1.047 (which includes the estimated sugars from fruit). Close enough! The sample before fermentation is very sweet (Duuuh!), and the tea flavors are just as noticeable as I wanted and complement the honey well. No taste of orange or raisins yet.
- Regular tastings show that fermentation is taking place after a day. Given the design of the Mr. Beer fermentor, I have no bubbling airlock, so to speak, so I can't really "observe" fermentation.
- Regular tasting shows that (particularly after a week), the drink is extremely refreshing, and has a good level of bitterness that I find delighting.
- Regular tastings results in the volume of fermentation to decrease from 8.5 to 7L... I know, I know, I have zero discipline... But it's sooo good.
- Anyways, after two weeks, I have an SG of 1.020, (AA 56%, ABV 3.4%), which is much higher than I would have thought after two weeks. I understand that honey can be slow to ferment, but the beers I made with a similar OG usually ferment in under a week, towards an FG between 1.000 and 1.010 ideally.
- Also, from tasting regularly, I have noticed little to no change of taste (regarding sweetness, mostly) in the last week, except that the taste of raisins is getting more noticeable. This points to a stuck fermentation. Also, the natural carbonation in the mead has decreased, which shows, at least, that fermentation is slowing down, but probably stuck.
Any thoughts on this? What could explain the very low attenuation? I have never heard of an AA as low as 56% in mead...
I will be checking SG in three days to make sure it's over, but my guts (and tastebuds) tell me it is.
I believe the potential culprits are:
- unsufficient aeration (the mr. beer thingy is not the best to shake, since it leaks from the cap... I may have not shaken enough, I haven't had any issue with beers aerated to the same level.
- the yeast was not stored properly? (the exp. date is 07/2017, so it's not old, at least)
- the yeast may have flocculated early. safale s-04 is famous for that, but I don't think that's what happened, since I tried stirring the fermentor to restart fermentation with NO effect). Also, I believe there was yeast in the last sample I took.
- not rehydrating the s-04 yeast: it seems people get good fermentations without doing it for beer, but perhaps this is problematic for mead?
- nutrients: probably not, though, since my JAOM fermented really well with a similar approach to nutrients.
- you tell me!
Thanks in advance, and being new to GotMead, I apologize if I forgot to mention something of importance!
This recipe shows great promise, but I can't bear such a low attenuation! I'm aiming for something a little dryer for the summer.
So here's the situation, I have obtained after two weeks of fermentation a shockingly low apparent attenuation of... 56%!! Two weeks is short for mead, but I'm doing a "weak" mead to do a beer-like drink.
My recipe for this Sparkling Black Tea Mead is:
-Volume 8.5L (Mr. Beer fermentor that I have on hand)
- OG/FG/ABV: 1.047/1.005/5.4% (assuming an apparent attenuation of 90%, which seems reasonable considering the sugars in honey are about 95% fermentable, I believe.
Ingredients:
- 1.2 kgs all-flower honey + 65g of lavender honey for priming (CO2 level of 2.5 desired)
- 1 orange, juiced and also using the zest.
- 90g dried grapes (raisins)
- 10 Ceylan (black tea) bags.
- Safale S-04 yeast, dried, 11g. Alcohol tolerance of about 8%, apparent attenuation (for beer) around 75%, I assume 90% for honey-based fermentables. I have obtained 90% AA with bread yeast in the past. This could be wrong for S-04.
- Spring water to account for the remaining volume.
Note: regarding nutrients, I choose to avoid the commercial yeast nutrients and opt for a "natural" approach, with the raisins, orange and tea providing, I assume, enough nutrients for a healthy fermentation. Also, tea and raisins provide tannins which should avoid obtaining too thin of a drink (carbonation will also help in that matter).
Preparation:
- After steeping the tea and orange zest in about 1L water, I remove the tea bags and pour the honey in to dissolve it completely, the water being still hot but probably not hot enough to destroy the yummy flavors .
- Then I add the raisins and orange juice to the must.
- Pour into 8.5L fermentor, splashing as much as possible to aerate.
- Shake well.
- Complete with spring water. Shake well again. Wait for the must to cool down to pitching temperature.
- Sprinkle S-04 yeast on top of the must, avoiding clumps. (This is not uncommon to sprinkle without rehydrating for this yeast and I've read of people doing so with no downside apparently).
- Fermented at around 18-20°C (ideal temp. of 15-20°C for this yeast). I did not control the fermentation temperature, but for a rather small volume of 8.5L I have never had any significant heating.
Results:
- I measured an OG of 1.046, aiming for 1.047 (which includes the estimated sugars from fruit). Close enough! The sample before fermentation is very sweet (Duuuh!), and the tea flavors are just as noticeable as I wanted and complement the honey well. No taste of orange or raisins yet.
- Regular tastings show that fermentation is taking place after a day. Given the design of the Mr. Beer fermentor, I have no bubbling airlock, so to speak, so I can't really "observe" fermentation.
- Regular tasting shows that (particularly after a week), the drink is extremely refreshing, and has a good level of bitterness that I find delighting.
- Regular tastings results in the volume of fermentation to decrease from 8.5 to 7L... I know, I know, I have zero discipline... But it's sooo good.
- Anyways, after two weeks, I have an SG of 1.020, (AA 56%, ABV 3.4%), which is much higher than I would have thought after two weeks. I understand that honey can be slow to ferment, but the beers I made with a similar OG usually ferment in under a week, towards an FG between 1.000 and 1.010 ideally.
- Also, from tasting regularly, I have noticed little to no change of taste (regarding sweetness, mostly) in the last week, except that the taste of raisins is getting more noticeable. This points to a stuck fermentation. Also, the natural carbonation in the mead has decreased, which shows, at least, that fermentation is slowing down, but probably stuck.
Any thoughts on this? What could explain the very low attenuation? I have never heard of an AA as low as 56% in mead...
I will be checking SG in three days to make sure it's over, but my guts (and tastebuds) tell me it is.
I believe the potential culprits are:
- unsufficient aeration (the mr. beer thingy is not the best to shake, since it leaks from the cap... I may have not shaken enough, I haven't had any issue with beers aerated to the same level.
- the yeast was not stored properly? (the exp. date is 07/2017, so it's not old, at least)
- the yeast may have flocculated early. safale s-04 is famous for that, but I don't think that's what happened, since I tried stirring the fermentor to restart fermentation with NO effect). Also, I believe there was yeast in the last sample I took.
- not rehydrating the s-04 yeast: it seems people get good fermentations without doing it for beer, but perhaps this is problematic for mead?
- nutrients: probably not, though, since my JAOM fermented really well with a similar approach to nutrients.
- you tell me!
Thanks in advance, and being new to GotMead, I apologize if I forgot to mention something of importance!
This recipe shows great promise, but I can't bear such a low attenuation! I'm aiming for something a little dryer for the summer.
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