Hello all. Used the search and the wonderful resources you normally recommend. I've gone and done it. Made a batch of mead and made plenty of newbie mistakes. Thing is. What I have tastes great to me. Was a touch off but time has mellowed it out nicely.
Recipie:
15 pounds local honey from bee keeper friend
1 packet of Lavlin D-47
3.5 gallons of RO/DI water (80 degrees at time of creation to help mix the honey)
Place in a 5 gallon glass carboy at the end of October 2017, racked into a second glass 5 gallon carboy after about three months. Bottled into 750 glass wine bottles mid June 2018 with a specific gravity reading of 1.014.
Now to my problems and toughts about what to do. First off I failed to get an orignial specific gravity or brix number (calculator I used online estimates a 1.120 OG). I also didn't use any chemicals or additives. Also didn't degas the mixture (didn't even know about this until reading through this forum) Lastly I fear I bottled too soon. I bottled after a lack of water lock activity. I fear fermentation *may* actually be ongoing despite a lack of water lock activity after reading and searching through this forum.
Now to my thoughts and I hope you all can help. Is it possible to take all the mead out of the wine bottles and back into say a plastic fermenter bucket to degas this mixture and then add the chemicals to guarantee a stop to the fermentation process? I don't want bottle bombs.
I made a put a portion of the mead in a smaller 375 flip top style bottle to taste and share while I waited until October 2018 to enjoy a bottle of one year mead (not sure when you start counting...I chose when I started the process...). However when I opened it there was an audible pop/hiss as gas escaped the bottle. That concerned me and caused me to research more. Had a beer brewing buddy help with this process, however my ignorance to the differences is painful at this point.
Any advice on how to ensure I don't start popping off bottles would be wonderful.
I am getting mixed feelings about avoiding oxidation and then outright stirring this stuff to degas. The more I read the more I am unsure on what to do. Guidance would be greatly appreciated.
-Tim
Recipie:
15 pounds local honey from bee keeper friend
1 packet of Lavlin D-47
3.5 gallons of RO/DI water (80 degrees at time of creation to help mix the honey)
Place in a 5 gallon glass carboy at the end of October 2017, racked into a second glass 5 gallon carboy after about three months. Bottled into 750 glass wine bottles mid June 2018 with a specific gravity reading of 1.014.
Now to my problems and toughts about what to do. First off I failed to get an orignial specific gravity or brix number (calculator I used online estimates a 1.120 OG). I also didn't use any chemicals or additives. Also didn't degas the mixture (didn't even know about this until reading through this forum) Lastly I fear I bottled too soon. I bottled after a lack of water lock activity. I fear fermentation *may* actually be ongoing despite a lack of water lock activity after reading and searching through this forum.
Now to my thoughts and I hope you all can help. Is it possible to take all the mead out of the wine bottles and back into say a plastic fermenter bucket to degas this mixture and then add the chemicals to guarantee a stop to the fermentation process? I don't want bottle bombs.
I made a put a portion of the mead in a smaller 375 flip top style bottle to taste and share while I waited until October 2018 to enjoy a bottle of one year mead (not sure when you start counting...I chose when I started the process...). However when I opened it there was an audible pop/hiss as gas escaped the bottle. That concerned me and caused me to research more. Had a beer brewing buddy help with this process, however my ignorance to the differences is painful at this point.
Any advice on how to ensure I don't start popping off bottles would be wonderful.
I am getting mixed feelings about avoiding oxidation and then outright stirring this stuff to degas. The more I read the more I am unsure on what to do. Guidance would be greatly appreciated.
-Tim
