How much is too much?

Silver Mead Wolf · Jan 27, 2013

Being a Newbie ,I am still experamenting to get things in proportion. My newest batch,I started with a foil pack of Sweet Mead yeast that came with a nutrient pack in it. Just pop it inside and wait for the package to swell.

I added also the recommended amounts of energizer and fermaid O.

Well, Lag phase was about 2 hrs long-In 12 hours it had a full foamy cap and early this A.M. , about 16 hrs into it-- It was at full boil fermentation.

Should I have waitd for the added nutrients? is this gonna affect the taste?

15 lbs clover honey
4 gallons Spring water
4 gm Fermaid O
2.5 teaspoons energizer( which looked as though it had fermaid in it as well)
1 foil pk wyeast sweet mead yeast
starting gravity was 1.140

Chevette Girl · Jan 27, 2013

Welcome to Gotmead, Silver Mead Wolf!

For a 5 gallon batch I don't think you've used too much energizer/nutrients, I typically add 1 tsp (approximately 4 grams) per gallon of a combination of energizer and nutrients and you've got a total of 3.5 tsp plus whatever was in the yeast's nutrient pack. As long as a semsible amount of the nutrients and energizers are all added while they're still of use to the yeast (before 1/3 of the sugar has been consumed), there should be no taste difference because the yeast should have eaten it all. And given that your starting gravity was 1.140 (which is kind of a high start), adding more nutrients won't hurt because this is such a high-gravity must, and the more sugar you expect the yeasties to eat, the more nutrients and energizer they will want.

And though waiting until after the lag phase to add anything with DAP (like Fermaid K) may be strictly better for your yeasties, I added all my nutrients up front for years (on top of dry-pitching my yeast) before I found out, and it didn't seem to hurt anything. As long as you're not adding anything with DAP to your rehydration water of dry yeast, you're fine, and since you used a smack pack, you're really fine

Silver Mead Wolf · Jan 27, 2013

Thanx

I appreciate your learned opinions and help. As a former Chevette owner and driver(I had 4 of them). I can see you have great tastes.
I'm trying to build a sweet show mead that rivals any of the commercial brands. Here in the midst of the middle american madmen of Kansas, This toothless redneck likes his pagan Koolaid real sweet.

fatbloke · Jan 27, 2013

Silver Mead Wolf said:
I appreciate your learned opinions and help. As a former Chevette owner and driver(I had 4 of them). I can see you have great tastes.
I'm trying to build a sweet show mead that rivals any of the commercial brands. Here in the midst of the middle american madmen of Kansas, This toothless redneck likes his pagan Koolaid real sweet.

Terminology is all. If its got nutrients then it ain't a show mead......its a traditional one.

Pedantry aside, you like sweet ? Fine, just make it lower to start then just keep step feeding it with increments of honey. Its reasonably straight forward to make it that way until it passes the yeast tolerance and won't make any more alcohol....

Chevette Girl · Jan 28, 2013

Bwahaahaa, pagan kool-aid, that's awesome...

This is my 4th Chevette, she turns 31 this year

...we have a cars thread in the Hive somewhere...

And I agree with Fatbloke, it is better to start somewhere sensible and add more honey later, a really high starting gravity is hard on the yeasties. But some lessons we must learn ourselves ;D

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How much is too much?

Silver Mead Wolf

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Silver Mead Wolf

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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....

Chevette Girl

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