I blew it...

edacsac · #1 08-10-2005, 08:07 PM

Can someone check my brewlog:

http://www.gotmead.com/smf/index.php....msg10140.html

against the original recipe:

http://www.gotmead.com/smf/index.php...2.msg9293.html

And see what I did wrong? I can't find it. I bottled tonight, and filled 24 bottles, then I grabbed a sample to measure with my hydrometer, and found I was at 1.090 or better.

In the original recipe, it says to rack over an amount of honey and grape juice, so I adjusted those amounts for a 5 gallon batch. I guess thats where the problem is, but I don't understand how it went so wrong... This stuff is NASTY!

And now the questions is, what do I do with all this nasty stuff?

edacsac · #2 08-10-2005, 08:20 PM

Well, I found where in the problem lies. The honey I racked over, never diluted with the rest of the brew. I took a reading from another bottle, and I was at 1.000, and that tastes nasty as well. Plus it tastes very yeasty. Oh well.

Jmattioli · #3 08-11-2005, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edacsac

(Snip)
And see what I did wrong? I can't find it. I bottled tonight, and filled 24 bottles, then I grabbed a sample to measure with my hydrometer, and found I was at 1.090 or better.

In the original recipe, it says to rack over an amount of honey and grape juice, so I adjusted those amounts for a 5 gallon batch. I guess thats where the problem is, but I don't understand how it went so wrong... This stuff is NASTY!

And now the questions is, what do I do with all this nasty stuff?Well, I found where in the problem lies. The honey I racked over, never diluted with the rest of the brew. I took a reading from another bottle, and I was at 1.000, and that tastes nasty as well. Plus it tastes very yeasty. Oh well.

Well, I see you figured it is impossible for 30oz of honey and welches to raise the SG to 1.090 for that large batch.

One has to remember to dissolve the honey in a liquid such as the grape juice or some water before racking over to backsweeten.

Unless you like it dry and want to wait for it to age a bit, I recommend you Unbottle it and and sweeten it again by properly dissolving the honey. I assume most of it was in the last bottle or at the bottom with the lees. All is not lost but you won't make the same mistake twice.

Cheers, Joe

edacsac · #4 08-11-2005, 09:35 AM

Thanks for your reply Joe,

I'm just going to let this batch age. Is there a such thing as a dry red wine? If the yeasty taste ages out, it will be ok. and then I'll have those one or two "suprise" bottles that all the backsweetening honey is in. That should be fun; I'll call if polish roulette for my guests. I'm going to try this recipe again once I get more honey.

JoeM · #5 08-11-2005, 01:43 PM

Its a terrible thing to have to unbottle, fiddle, and then rebottle. Unfortunately i had to do it on two occasions. Neither time was fun, but both times it resulted in an awesome final product that would have been aweful if i hadnt fixed it.

edacsac · #6 08-11-2005, 02:19 PM

If I where to unbottle, wouldn't all the pouring result in oxidation? Its not like I can rack from each bottle back into the carbouy with my fat racking cane.

JoeM · #7 08-11-2005, 04:34 PM

If you pour slowly and carfully down the side of a tilted bottling bucket its not a problem. In the two batches i did it in i worked very carfully and the benifits of fixing my errors greatly outweighed the risk of oxidation.

Jmattioli · #8 08-11-2005, 05:51 PM

I'm with JoeM. Remember its a quick grape mead anyway and meant to drink without a lot of aging. A little oxidation if any might actually improve it in the short haul. SG should read about 1.012 or a little higher when you bottle it this time if you sweeten it to the original recipe.

Joe

byathread · #9 08-11-2005, 06:47 PM

Yeah, I've UNbottled once do to underpriming a Maibock. Turned out superbly in the end. Probably worth your trouble.

edacsac · #10 08-12-2005, 08:54 AM

Thanks everyone! I tried a glass with a friend, and added some of the wine conditioning invert sugar to the glasses, and it tastes great.

I need help though. What would the process be for unbottling, fixing and rebottling. I probably have 18 bottles of it. I was going to do about 6 at a time, add the invert sugar, and figure out some way to rack the small amounts back into the bottles. Do I need to re-sanatize all the bottles?

Jmattioli · #11 08-12-2005, 09:20 AM

The bottles should be fine. Sanitize your primary bucket and use it as a bottling bucket. I'd recommend doing them all together. Just remember to pour them in the bucket as JoeM recommended. Slowly and carefully down the side with as little splashing as possible.

Joe

JoeM · #12 08-12-2005, 02:54 PM

Do you have a bottling bucket? The type that has a spigot on the bottom? That would be the best way to go about it. What i would do (and have done) is empty all the bottles into the bucket (why do it in small batches? you'll just creat inconsistencies that way). Once you have all the mead in the bucket add whatever your going to add, stir gently with a sanitized instrument, then just fill the bottles right to the top using the spigot. No need to resanitize, although you may want to rinse out any sediment that has formed/settled out.