New to mead and have a question

[Kelvin]

First, let me say hello to everyone. I have been reading this forum like crazy for the past few weeks and it's absolutely wonderful. Now, about 14 years or so ago when I was a freshman in college I decided I wanted to brew my own beer. I got a kit and made a hefeweizen. It seemed to turn out well. But I was worried that I might kill myself drinking it so I only drank half a beer and gave rest to my friend. He didn't die so I guess it was ok.

I am now over the whole dying thing and I know that there is very little chance of anything too harmful to grow in my home brews so I am ready to start it again and this time perhaps stick with it as a hobby. I want to start with meads and here is my initial plan.

3 gallons of melomel.
-------------------------
10 lbs. honey
d47 yeast
1 gallon of oceanspray cranberry-raspberry
and water of course to top off to 3 gallons.
(I will be aerating with nutrients the first 3 days)

Here is what I am hoping for and my questions.
First of all, I want it to be a little sweet but I do not want to use any chemicals to stop fermentation so stopping fermentation that way is not what I want. I do not want to back sweeten so brewing to completely dry and back sweetening is not what I want to do. So I went with d47 yeast which is less tolerant then the 1118 I was originally planning to use. I want it to be roughly 15% alcohol with a bit of sweetness. From what I have been reading the d47 might go as high as 16% or so but not much more. (I know it's rated at 14%)

from what I have been calculating this means roughly 1/2 lbs. worth of the honey sugar and all the juice sugar would not be used. Of course I know they will both be used but I mean the sugars as a whole. Of course I am new at this so this is why I am asking you experienced people. But of course the yeast could go up to 16%? and I would have less sugars left but still some.

My questions.

1. Will this be too sweet? I want it to be about medium.

2. Should I let it sit a good amount of time to make sure the yeast were all killed by the alcohol? Or should I just check my hydrometer to see how much alcohol I have and trust they are dead?

3. I was originally going to use fresh fruit but I felt for my first batch it would be better to start more simply and just use juice. Would this juice be ok? I have heard that wine made with Welch's and other such juices are pretty nasty.

Anyway, that's all my questions for now and thanks in advance.

On second thought it looks like I am not going to be able to use the D47 at this time. I live in New Orleans and our house will just not be cool enough. I know the temperature range of the 1118 is quite high and will be good but so is the alcohol tolerance and it will also eat up all of my sugar most likely. I'm ok with 18% alcohol but again I do not want to back sweeten. This brings up the question of how much sugar is the juice likely to give me? Should I add another 2 lbs. or so of honey to my recipe? Again I want it medium sweet with high alcohol content. (who doesn't like a good port?)

[dingurth]

1. The sugar from the juice won't be as significant as adding more honey. Even with 12lbs of honey though, the EC-1118 might eat through too much of it if you want it to still be sweet. I've never used a yeast with that much tolerance, so I'm not sure how much sugar you'll want to start with. I suggest trying to use the mead calculator to the left to figure out how much sugar/honey you will want to add.

2. The best way to see when fermentation is finished is to keep taking hydrometer readings, and when those stop changing for a few days, you know its probably done. Alcohol doesn't so much as kill all the yeast as it does to render them inactive because the environment is too harsh. Especially with a high tolerance yeast and a mead that you want to be sweet, you should probably stabilize before bottling. Stabilizing isn't the same as stopping fermentation early, it just makes sure that the yeast won't spontaneously start up again after you bottle (which can end very badly).

3. I would be in favor of fruit, but juices work well also. The thing to keep in mind with juices though is the less processed they are, the better flavors you will have when you are done. Look for juices that are 100% juice or only have ingredients that you can pronounce. That being said, I have no idea about the oceanspray cranberry/raspberry. I checked on their site, and if you are committed to them I would try this one as it says 100% juice (couldn't get the ingredient list on their website though).

http://www.oceanspray.com/Products/J...rry-Blend.aspx

Another option might be to find some pure cranberry juice and then add 3lbs of raspberries.

Good luck, and welcome to Gotmead!

[Kelvin]

Thank you.
Yeah I went to their website too which is where I found it. According to them none of their 100% juices have preservatives and are just pasteurized. I guess my main concern is I don't want something gross tasting because I fermented bottled juice and I don't want to spend an arm and a leg for honey in order to get the alcohol/sweetness levels that I want.

I know the 1118 is rated for 18% but that is not always the case right? And as long as my readings stay constant then the yeast are pretty much done and I can transfer to my carboy then eventually bottle?

I might just add an extra few lbs. of honey and see what happens.

I'm still waiting on some supplies. I'll let you know how it seems to be looking once it gets going. As it is now I think I will add a couple lbs. because of the yeast then see how it turns out.

Thanks for the reply.

BTW - I am really against the whole using chemicals to stop fermentation or stabilize because I really want to be able to do this without the help of chemicals that would be hard to find during a zombie apocalypse. Yes, I know I am using commercial yeast but at least yeast could come naturally if need be. I also don't want to risk any of my friends having a bad reaction. Anyway, once I get the batch going I'll update : ). Thanks again

[Kelvin]

OK, I did some calculations. I REALLY hate math but I think I managed to figure out that the juice is roughly 15% sugar. I input this into the calc. and with 10 lbs. of honey and 2 gallons of the juice (1 gallon of water) I should have an SG of 1.174 and ABV of 21.49%. Obviously the the yeast won't go that high (I hope not) but judging from the amounts would this be too sweet for a medium if the yeast fermented to 18%? I ask because I don't know how sweet something like that might be since this is my frist time. I'm not asking for perfection my fist time and I know it's trial and error but do you have any thoughts on that? If I use only 1 gallon of juice the estimated abv is 18.58%. That seems like it would be cutting it close to me as far as not ending up dry with the 1118 yeast. Thoughts? Is it safer to go with 1 or 2 gallons of the juice? Or maybe even 1.5 gallons?

[Chevette Girl]

Welcome to the forum, Kelvin!

Just guessing where your yeast are going to quit and front-loading your must to a really high gravity like 1.174 is just asking for a stuck fermentation.

My suggestion? Go by hydrometer. Pick a sensible starting gravity, and mix your honey and juice and water together until you get the right volume close to your starting gravity. You can use the mead calculator to get approximate starting values and I'd suggest something around 1.120 if you're looking to max out your yeast. Then keep an eye on the SG and every time it drops below your desired sweetness level (say 1.020), add a small amount honey until the SG's back up there, after a few such feedings (the process is called step-feeding) your yeast will eventually tap out and you'll have a strong mead near your desired level of sweetness. And no chemicals, no math, just some monitoring and mixing.

Also, your "aeration and nutrients for three days"? Also go by hydrometer, if you start at 1.120 you want all your nutrients in by the time the SG reaches 1.080 (1/3 sugar break) and you want to stop aeration somewhere between there and 1.060 (1/2 sugar break).

Oh, and I've made some really good wines and meads with bottled juice, it's definitely not a bad idea and is a whole lot less fuss than working with whole fruit if you're trying to keep it simple for a first attempt.

Just keep in mind that if you're always shooting for high alcohol meads because you want them sweet but don't want to stabilize for whatever reason, they ARE going to taste pretty hot for a good while and may need a year or two to stop tasting like paint thinner. It's the tradeoff you get for not wanting to use chemicals.

I don't much like using them either which is why I end up doing a lot of Joe's Ancient Orange mead and variations on that recipe. Plus it's easy to slap together and it's drinkable in a couple months rather than a couple years.

[dingurth]

Yeah, 1.174 is ridiculous. My hydrometer only goes to 1.16! With that much sugar, you are very likely to have the yeast stay stuck as chevette said. I'd say go with just one gallon of juice and then step feed; that will most likely get you the best results.

One other alternative might be to try a different yeast if you can get one. 71B would probably work well, and with your recipe as is, will definitely finish sweet if you have a potential of 18% as it pumps out about 14%.