Final gravity question

darthbooger · #1 02-12-2011, 11:03 PM

Okay so im making a traditional mead, 4 gallons, just honey water yeast and nutrients... Starting gravity of 1.140 TWO weeks later its at 1.041 I did stir it up about every other day to get the yeasties going again, it has been cold the past couple of weeks and the temp in the house got down to 60-63 for a couple of nights, im assuming thats gonna slow it down a bit...
Anyways onto my question, is there a good way to guess the final gravity? If so does anyone have a good guess for when this guy can go into a secondary?
And if it is complete at about a 1.035-1.040 how will that effect the taste? Will it be more on the thick sweet side or what I saw the calculator says about 12-13% alcohol for where its at now...
THANKS GM
eddie

tweak'e · #2 02-12-2011, 11:34 PM

what yeast did you use?

it all hinges a bit on what yeast you used. that temp/time could be perfect for some while it may stall others.

1.035-1.040 would be sickly sweet.
the scale i have here is
Dry: 0.990 – 1.006
Medium: 1.006 – 1.015
Sweet: 1.012 – 1.020
Dessert: 1.020+

akueck · #3 02-13-2011, 01:22 AM

It will taste...exactly like it tastes. Higher FG is obviously sweeter, but how sweet it actually tastes depends on too many things for anyone on the other side of a keyboard to guess. Taste it, and if you don't like it, change it. The "dry-sweet" SG scale is highly subjective and personally I find it not at all helpful.

fatbloke · #4 02-13-2011, 03:05 AM

All of the commercial means I've tried here have been what'd be described as "dessert" mead and when tested had gravity of between 1.035 and 1.042

I found that too sweet for my taste.

If you're in the US you can get some everclear and that is the quickest way of increasing the % ABV and reducing the body..... Me? I like my sweet means at about 1.010

Just remember that this might cause some alcohol hotness to the taste and will need some ageing to mellow it

darthbooger · #5 02-13-2011, 08:46 AM

I used white labs sweet mead yeast

YogiBearMead726 · #6 02-13-2011, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darthbooger

I used white labs sweet mead yeast

Ah, ha! The culprit is identified.

In all seriousness, I'm surprised that it got that far. White Labs Sweet Mead is a problem child that tends to crap out around or below 14%. You could try pitching something like K1V-1116, DV-10, EC-1118, or Uvaferm 43. All of these could help this to finish at a lower SG.

darthbooger · #7 02-13-2011, 12:14 PM

That sucks my homebrew store is like 30 miles away... I hate making that trip, especially for a .99 cent purchase... Oh well, i'll give it a little more time, it may still get lower (i hope) I could always get another batch ready to give myself an excuse to make the trip again =]

tweak'e · #8 02-13-2011, 02:35 PM

just a mad thought.....

why not water the must down?
if there is room in the fermenter why not water it down so alcohol drops and G drops. the yeast may just fire back up and finish some more.
no idea what it would do to flavor tho.

AToE · #9 02-13-2011, 02:39 PM

Congrats, you are one of the very few people who managed to get that yeast to actually perform decently! Of course, your starting gravity was really stinking high (which makes it even more surprising it got this far).

I actually second Tweak'e's idea of simply watering this down. You used so much honey in this that you won't be turning it into a thin mead, it'll just be turning into a regular mead.

If this were mine I'd add enough water to bring it down to below 1.020 - be warned, I don't like sweet meads much, anything over 1.004 in a traditional mead is pretty sweet for me!

This really hinges on your personal taste. Maybe you like sweet mead and 1.040 is OK with some oak for tannin, or acidity for balance... who knows!

EDIT: Also, just pitching higher ABV tolerance yeast is unlikely to work. If that's the path you choose you'll want to do some reseearch around this website searching for "restarting stuck" and similar. You'll have to build up a starter, and slowly aclimatize the starter to your mead/must.

darthbooger · #10 02-13-2011, 02:58 PM

I think I will water it down to get it to about 1.022 ish and then use some oak chips, sounds like a plan to me, I did 4 gallons because I have a 3 gallon carboy and a one gallon, so I can make a big traditional and a one gallon experimental, im thinking chocolate and mint or coconut and pineapple for the one gallon, its gonna be sweet anyways =] thanks!

tweak'e · #11 02-13-2011, 03:21 PM

doesn't hurt to have a bit extra.

something i've been trailing (and need to sort out a bit better) is i ferment a few gal more than the carboy size. the extra goes into another jar and gets used for top ups after racking the carboy.
just been using plastic juice containers at the moment which is not great. no plastic taint yet but its only in for a short time. big bonus is you can squeeze them down to remove air space.

darthbooger · #12 02-13-2011, 03:49 PM

I also usually make a little over the target volume for my batches mainly so I have my target volume after primary and the yeasties at the bottom dont get in the way

fatbloke · #13 02-13-2011, 04:10 PM

Well if its so sweet (dunno about the white labs yeast but its wyeast equivalent has a tolerance of 11% ABV), that you let it down with either everclear or vodka.

That way you'd get more boom for the buck. Plus the sweetness would mask the increased alcohol.....

regards

fatbloke

darthbooger · #14 08-22-2011, 10:02 PM

Okay, so I finally got around to racking this and tasting it on its way to tertiary, it is in no way clear and it sat on the lees for a long while... It has a nasty rubber aftertaste, I have read quite a few threads and the one that scares me mentions "autolysis" from being on the yeast too long, my question though is, wouls oak or tannin get rid of this nasty rubbery taste or should I just wait it out?

Medsen Fey · #15 08-23-2011, 08:24 AM

I'd test a glass with copper to see if it has sulfur that can be removed.
Letting things sit on a bunch of lees without battonage (and without checking for sulfur smells) can produce this type of effect.

darthbooger · #16 08-23-2011, 10:22 AM

Okay, I will definately try the copper thing out, just an old polished penny in a glass for a few minutes? And if that does not work, is the batch a lost cause? I would hate for three gallons of awesomeness to go to waste...