Hey everyone! New mead brewer here and I was hoping to share my possible mistake and hopefully learn about what is going on and save others the trouble. Take it easy on me haha
Anyway, I started a 1 gallon batch of mead late last year. I got a good 1080 reading on the hydrometer before fermentation. Then after it had fermented for the guts of a month and stopped bubbling away on the airlock, I decided to test the reading again and maybe rack it. I got a reading of 1044 which was a bit high but I was using more honey than the last batch so I think the yeast struggled to eat it at the same rate as my first gallon. Also I didn't use a nutrient this time either. I clearly wasn't thinking straight so I decided to rack it and also use a mesh filter to remove some extra sediment that could be picked up by the syphon. (If I could go back and tell myself not to do this I would) I then got a reading of 1010, much better, I thought. Silly me, looking back it seems that the mead probably needed more time or nutrient to continue fermentation rather than a rack or filter. Or perhaps try a secondary fermentation with some fruit.
It aged for a month or two before I tested it again. Now the reading is back up to 1040 and it is cloudy with a hint of cleaning alcohol in the smell. I believe I let way too much air get to it when straining it, I also think there wasn't enough nutrient for the yeast to eat the larger quantity of honey. I wanted to make sure my suspicions were correct before I reluctantly gutter this batch and label it an infected mead in the log. Can anyone spare some time to put me right on this one?
Thank you in advance
Anyway, I started a 1 gallon batch of mead late last year. I got a good 1080 reading on the hydrometer before fermentation. Then after it had fermented for the guts of a month and stopped bubbling away on the airlock, I decided to test the reading again and maybe rack it. I got a reading of 1044 which was a bit high but I was using more honey than the last batch so I think the yeast struggled to eat it at the same rate as my first gallon. Also I didn't use a nutrient this time either. I clearly wasn't thinking straight so I decided to rack it and also use a mesh filter to remove some extra sediment that could be picked up by the syphon. (If I could go back and tell myself not to do this I would) I then got a reading of 1010, much better, I thought. Silly me, looking back it seems that the mead probably needed more time or nutrient to continue fermentation rather than a rack or filter. Or perhaps try a secondary fermentation with some fruit.
It aged for a month or two before I tested it again. Now the reading is back up to 1040 and it is cloudy with a hint of cleaning alcohol in the smell. I believe I let way too much air get to it when straining it, I also think there wasn't enough nutrient for the yeast to eat the larger quantity of honey. I wanted to make sure my suspicions were correct before I reluctantly gutter this batch and label it an infected mead in the log. Can anyone spare some time to put me right on this one?
Thank you in advance