I'm sorry if all this information has been covered before, but I couldn't find the answer to my specific questions.
I have finally somewhat mastered the ability to get a fast, clean fermentation on my meads in the primary fermenter, but now I am having problems in the secondary stage.
So say I have a mead that has gone thru primary fermentation, dropped specific gravity by 0.10 as I was expecting, and even tastes decent with the right amount of left over sweetness. Airlock activity has slowed considerably and now I rack it off the lees into a carboy for clearing and aging, or possibly for fruit and oak additions.
At this point I want the level of alcohol and sugar to stay as it was when I racked it, I don't really want any additional fermentation, but it appears the yeast has stalled out so I just let it sit in the carboy waiting for it to clear. Then I taste it again and decide whether to adjust the profile at all by adding either acid or honey.
This leads to my first question: should I expect the SG to continue to fall at this point? The problem I have encountered is that all of my meads have the SG I am shooting for at the point that I rack them off of the lees at the end of the primary stage, then they sit with no visible airlock activity (it is cocked off to the side though), and then when I go to sample later I find that the hydrometer shows that it has dropped to 0% sugar.
If I don't want my mead to change after the primary fermentation should I add potassium sorbate right away when I rack it for the first time? Is there another way to keep the mead from changing it's hydrometer readings between the point of the first racking and bottling without using potassium sorbate?
Also, I have let some meads sit until they are crystal clear, then rack them into a new container, mix in potassium sorbate to prevent the fermentation from restarting, let it sit for a day or so, then backsweeten til it tastes about right. But when I do that, the resulting mead is cloudy again, so again it goes into a carboy to sit again for several months until it clears again. Is this normal? I thought it was ok to backsweeten just before bottling, so do other people not have the problem of the backsweetened honey affecting clarity? We backsweetened two meads about a month ago now, and they are just showing the first signs of being clear, but they were crystal clear before we added the honey, and they are not dropping any sediment, just gradually becoming clear again.
Based on my experiences thus far it seems like I should add potassium sorbate when I rack into the secondary fermentor. Wait for most of the sediment to drop over the next week or so. Then rack and mix in the honey for backsweetening if needed, then age and bottle when clear. Instead of doing all those steps at the end.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Sarai
I have finally somewhat mastered the ability to get a fast, clean fermentation on my meads in the primary fermenter, but now I am having problems in the secondary stage.
So say I have a mead that has gone thru primary fermentation, dropped specific gravity by 0.10 as I was expecting, and even tastes decent with the right amount of left over sweetness. Airlock activity has slowed considerably and now I rack it off the lees into a carboy for clearing and aging, or possibly for fruit and oak additions.
At this point I want the level of alcohol and sugar to stay as it was when I racked it, I don't really want any additional fermentation, but it appears the yeast has stalled out so I just let it sit in the carboy waiting for it to clear. Then I taste it again and decide whether to adjust the profile at all by adding either acid or honey.
This leads to my first question: should I expect the SG to continue to fall at this point? The problem I have encountered is that all of my meads have the SG I am shooting for at the point that I rack them off of the lees at the end of the primary stage, then they sit with no visible airlock activity (it is cocked off to the side though), and then when I go to sample later I find that the hydrometer shows that it has dropped to 0% sugar.
If I don't want my mead to change after the primary fermentation should I add potassium sorbate right away when I rack it for the first time? Is there another way to keep the mead from changing it's hydrometer readings between the point of the first racking and bottling without using potassium sorbate?
Also, I have let some meads sit until they are crystal clear, then rack them into a new container, mix in potassium sorbate to prevent the fermentation from restarting, let it sit for a day or so, then backsweeten til it tastes about right. But when I do that, the resulting mead is cloudy again, so again it goes into a carboy to sit again for several months until it clears again. Is this normal? I thought it was ok to backsweeten just before bottling, so do other people not have the problem of the backsweetened honey affecting clarity? We backsweetened two meads about a month ago now, and they are just showing the first signs of being clear, but they were crystal clear before we added the honey, and they are not dropping any sediment, just gradually becoming clear again.
Based on my experiences thus far it seems like I should add potassium sorbate when I rack into the secondary fermentor. Wait for most of the sediment to drop over the next week or so. Then rack and mix in the honey for backsweetening if needed, then age and bottle when clear. Instead of doing all those steps at the end.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Sarai