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first time problems, not sure how to proceed.

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Moyuba

NewBee
Registered Member
May 20, 2018
3
0
0
Hi, this is my first time making mead and i'd really appreciate some help!

Recipe:
4 litres of spring water
950~ grams of honey
juice of a lemon
some ginger
k1 v1116 yeast
yeast nutrient

I boiled 2 litres of water with the grated ginger in, then took it off the heat and added the juice of a lemon, added another 2 litres of water to help cool it quickly, let it cool a bit on its own then strained it into my fermenting bucket and stirred in the honey and aerated the must.

Once it had reached blood temperature i added in around 1g of k1 v1116 yeast which i had rehydrated as per packet instructions. I used around a gram as the packet was 5g and said it would ferment 5 gallons.

After 24 hours there didn't seem to be any action so i panicked and added another 1-1.5g of rehydrated yeast and continued stirring a couple of times a day to aerate.

I was getting bubbles coming through the airlock for the next 3 days, then it just stopped. i was pretty worried about this but i could still hear a fizzing coming from inside the bucket. Yesterday was day 7 and I now don't even have the fizzing. I tasted some and it seemed pretty dry. Is it possible that the fermentation is done at this point? I thought it would take a lot longer than this so I'm worried that the fermentation may be stuck.

Stupidly I started making this without having a hydrometer, so I can't check the gravity. I do have one in the post but it probably won't be here for another couple of days.

I was thinking of maybe just racking it into a carboy and seeing what happens, but i'm not really sure?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:

Toxxyc

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Dec 21, 2017
377
12
18
Pretoria, South Africa
Yes. Wait until the hydrometer arrives and take a reading.

What nutrients did you use? Did you aerate in the first stages? Did you degas the mead until the end?
 

m0n5t3r

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Mar 24, 2018
106
1
18
Romania
1 jar of honey for a 5-ish liter mead will amount to pretty low gravity; playing with the sliders on https://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/ suggests an OG of ~ 1.057, and ~7.5% ABV, along the lines of a slightly above average beer; since some beers can finish in about a week, it's quite possible that your fermentation is done, indeed; if you want it stronger you can always take out some of it and add more honey

I got the numbers above by setting the volume to 5 liters, sweetness to dry and then dragging the yeast ABV until I got somewhere close to your amount of honey.
 

Moyuba

NewBee
Registered Member
May 20, 2018
3
0
0
i used Youngs yeast nutrient, and yes i aerated the must from the beginning.


1 jar of honey for a 5-ish liter mead will amount to pretty low gravity; playing with the sliders on https://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/ suggests an OG of ~ 1.057, and ~7.5% ABV, along the lines of a slightly above average beer; since some beers can finish in about a week, it's quite possible that your fermentation is done, indeed; if you want it stronger you can always take out some of it and add more honey

I got the numbers above by setting the volume to 5 liters, sweetness to dry and then dragging the yeast ABV until I got somewhere close to your amount of honey.

oh, i thought that using a 4:1 ratio of water to honey would give around 12% abv. i based my recipe off this: https://beerandbrewing.com/lemon-ginger-mead-sparkler-recipe/

so it's safe to just disolve more honey in some water and add that at this point?
 

Moyuba

NewBee
Registered Member
May 20, 2018
3
0
0
ah, i now see my mistake is in assuming my 1kg jar of honey is a litre. i just measured it with water and it's not even that close to being a litre.
 

m0n5t3r

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Mar 24, 2018
106
1
18
Romania
so it's safe to just disolve more honey in some water and add that at this point?

wait for the hydrometer first, it's good to to have an idea of what's going on before moving on

if gravity is indeed very close to, or under 1 and you want some more ethanol, you don't need to dissolve the honey in water, just add to the bucket and stir; the yeast should spring back to life soon after
if the gravity is higher than, say, 1.01, then it might have stalled for some reason and someone with more experience than me can ask the right questions to figure out why

btw, I just figured that a lack of bubbles in the airlock may simply mean that your lid is not fitted right / isn't airtight, and the gas found another escape route :)
 
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