High, off-scale, initial hydrometer reading

Hmmmm....

You didn’t say when you started this, which makes it kind of hard to say whether it’s to late to do anything.

A hydrometer reading of 1.020 is actually very low. Do you mean 1.200?

If you just started this, then there should be no problem with adding water to change the starting gravity.

EC-1118 is a fairly aggressive yeast, so you can probably get away with using 1g per gallon, but 2 grams per gallon would be better.

There are better sources for mead recipes than a 35 year old book about beer brewing.

Well you have arrived at the right place for how to make mead! I landed here about a year ago and I've consolidated a link blast for vital information that I have found here on gotmead. You'll want a new hydrometer as meads will start well past 1.020. Listen to the podcasts and your next batch of mead will get where you want it to go much more quickly. Your current batch will likely require a fair amount of aging to calm some of its angry notes and become a drinkable product as it is fermenting in less than ideal conditions.

The procedure of making mead right:

9-5-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Mead Making - Yeast in Mead: 9-5-17-ryan-carlson-modern-mead-making-yeast
9-12-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Meadmaking - Making Happy Yeast: 9-12-17-ryan-carlson-making-modern-mead-yeast-keep-happy
9-19-17 Making Modern Mead - SNA, Racking, Stabilizing and Aging: 9-19-17-ryan-making-modern-mead-snas-racking-stabilizing-aging
9-26-17 Making Modern Mead - Sulfites and Sorbates: 9-26-17-ryan-tom-repas-moder-mead-making-sulfiting-sorbating

The only significant, procedural question, you be left with by the end: How exactly do I cold crash?
Either Vicky or AJ on the podcast 9/25/18 define it as: Cold crash - place your mead (still in primary but gravity no longer changing thus no longer fermenting) in a fridge around 4C for 1+ weeks (generally 1-2 weeks). Helps with flocculation - or clearing the mead by getting yeasts/proteins to stick together.

*some dated information in those podcasts is the concept of degassing. They advise degassing routinely (2-3 times daily) but it is now generally accepted that degassing is only needed to avoid mead eruptions when adding nutrient additions rather than helping the yeasts avoid a toxic environment. So generally it is not done on a schedule but just prior to nutrient additions.

That's probably 10-12h of podcast. Quite a bit of it is banter/filler... but there is gold in there, even in the banter. I've listened to each of them at least twice; taking detailed notes!

The modern mead making series continues from there but they dive into specific meads like pyments, cysers, etc and I've not dived deeply there yet.


Extra goodies I've found helpful:
A very help glossary: https://morewinemaking.com/articles/wine_terminology - fermenters talk weird sometimes!

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/SO2_management information on how to stabilize your mead

https://www.bjcp.org/mead/Mead_Study.pdf - basically a book on this stuff. Some seems out of date but you'll be able to spot it after understanding the podcasts. very helpful section on "balance" & mead faults.

9-25-18 Ryan Carlson - Pairing Yeast to Meads: 9-25-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeast-to-meads

10-2-18 Ryan Carlson – Pairing Yeasts to Meads – Part 2:10-2-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeasts-to-meads-part-2
8-29-17 Ryan Carlson - Oaking Your Mead: 8-29-17-ryan-carlson-oaking-mead

that oaking podcast is well supported by this supplement: https://morewinemaking.com/web_files/intranet.morebeer.com/files/oakinfopaper09.pdf

Squatchy on acid adjustment/additions for balance

Squatchy on basic mead concepts: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/27263-Please-read-this!!!/page2 a large post that details much of the podcasts

Loveofrose detailed oaking experiment: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/27970-The-Barrel-Mimic-Experiment

@eric.burnham please take a picture of your hydrometer, that doesn't sound right to me. Most hydrometers have a much wider range, because I honestly don't see the point in one if it only goes to 1.020 - which is only around 2.3% potential alcohol. That's very, very low.

Seeing as how it only goes up to 1.020, I'd guess that it is primarily for measurements towards the end of fermentation unless you're looking for ABV's of <= ~2.5%.

That type of hydrometer is generally part of a set. It chops the scale down in size to allow for better resolution/precision (the SG IS 1.0145 vs about 1.014). Not sure who needs this degree of accuracy but its there to be had! That hydrometer might be helpful in the back-sweetening stage of things as you could really hammer down where you like your sweetness... though its likely overkill.

here is the complete set from the same site... you'll notice that the ranges of the three hydrometers overlap

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/brewery-essentials-herculometer-advanced-gravity-testing-kit

eric.burnham said:

Hi Toxxyc,

Thanks for your reply! Here is a link to the hydrometer I bought ==> https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/herculometer-precision-hydrometer-0980-1020

I liked it because they say it's more accurate than a triple scale hydrometer, and I didn't know enough about the range.

Click to expand...

Yeah that hydrometer isn't going to work at all. You'll notice it says that it's more for the end of the fermentation, not for the start. We might be able to help you still if you post your complete recipe and procedure here? Did you feed your yeast and are you keeping the temperatures in check?