Here goes. My yeast attenuated like crazy and I was down to a SG of about 1.00 after 2.5 weeks. The must has been in the primary vessel for almost 4 weeks now. It tastes drier than I'd like, so I was thinking of racking to a secondary, hitting it with some K-sorbate, and backsweetening with some fruit puree. I want this to be somewhat sweet and fruity, as it is partly for my wife, who hates my hop bomb beers. I am also cool with this being a still mead, so carbonation isn't an issue for me.
Two questions:
#1 Will the mead (melomel, actually, I guess) age properly if the yeast is toast, or should I rack to secondary and leave it a while before slaying the yeast?
#2 My final volume is ~ 4 gallons, while my fermentation vessels are 6.5 gallons. So there is going to be some significant head space in the secondary, and very little c02 to push out the oxygen (since this thing has already attenuated so low). How do I deal with this? Is just letting it clear and age in the bottle an option?
This was my first mead attempt, though I've got some beer under my belt already, including high-gravity (>1.1) brews. Here's my recipe:
12 lb orange blossom honey
10 lb fresh cherries
1 Vial White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast (pitched from a 1L starter)
Water
I boiled 2 gallons of water, dissolved the honey, then added that to my fermenter and topped off until the SG was about 1.09, and cooled. Then pitched the yeast and added the cherries.
In retrospect I should have used more honey, since I was going for a sweeter mead. Live and learn. FWIW the beverage at 3 weeks actually smelled and tasted not too awful, jet fuel alcohol aside. Just a little drier than I intended.
Appreciate any help you folks can offer!
Two questions:
#1 Will the mead (melomel, actually, I guess) age properly if the yeast is toast, or should I rack to secondary and leave it a while before slaying the yeast?
#2 My final volume is ~ 4 gallons, while my fermentation vessels are 6.5 gallons. So there is going to be some significant head space in the secondary, and very little c02 to push out the oxygen (since this thing has already attenuated so low). How do I deal with this? Is just letting it clear and age in the bottle an option?
This was my first mead attempt, though I've got some beer under my belt already, including high-gravity (>1.1) brews. Here's my recipe:
12 lb orange blossom honey
10 lb fresh cherries
1 Vial White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast (pitched from a 1L starter)
Water
I boiled 2 gallons of water, dissolved the honey, then added that to my fermenter and topped off until the SG was about 1.09, and cooled. Then pitched the yeast and added the cherries.
In retrospect I should have used more honey, since I was going for a sweeter mead. Live and learn. FWIW the beverage at 3 weeks actually smelled and tasted not too awful, jet fuel alcohol aside. Just a little drier than I intended.
Appreciate any help you folks can offer!
