71b-1122 is running away from me

[Alchemy]

Made a very large berry mead and of all the problems i thought i would run into i did not think it would be the yeast eating too much sugar.

71b-1122 is good for up to 14% alcohol.

This is my recipe:

Ingredients
Dutch Gold Orange Blossom Honey 21lbs
Triple Berry Mix (black, red, blue) (frozen) 12lbs
Strawberries (frozen) 6lbs
black currant juice 100 ounces

Yeast: 71b-1122
Original Gravity: 1.144 Brix: 33.1
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.037
Estimated ABV: 14%


The current gravity is 1.020 meaning this guy is up over 16% and still going. I am getting a bubble every second or so.

I am even guessing that the OG was likely higher due to sugars not crushed completely out of the fruits. likely around 1.160, that would put this at 18% right now...

Anyone ever had this happen with this strain?

 

[fuelish]

Have never used that strain, but am sure it's possible.....I'd take it as a sign of happy, healthy yeast doin' their thang Of course, maybe not so if you were wanting a 14% and it turns out higher, but....it is what it ends up being at this point....should still be great with some age

 

[bernardsmith]

I think you are fortunate... A final gravity of 1.037 is astronomically sweet. That is almost a pound of residual sugar in every gallon. You would need to put a health warning on every bottle.

 

[RichBrewer]

I've been researching mead lately and in the process I discovered that adding fruit to the must can actually lower the gravity of the mead. I the water content of the fruit affects the gravity more than the sugars. I'm sure it varies depending on the type of fruit though.
This begs the question; how do you get an accurate gravity reading in mead with added fruit? To that I have no idea.

 

[Yooper]

Did you use a hydrometer for the latest reading, or a refractometer? A refractometer reads the refraction of light in a sugar solution, and doesn't 'work' when alcohol is in the mix.

Still, I've seen 71B go near 18% in the past.

 

[Alchemy]

Did you use a hydrometer for the latest reading, or a refractometer? A refractometer reads the refraction of light in a sugar solution, and doesn't 'work' when alcohol is in the mix.

Still, I've seen 71B go near 18% in the past.

I did both, i did the refractometer and adjusted for alcohol content and did not believe the reading so i went ahead and pulled a sample for the hydrometer and it was almost dead on.

Guess i will see where this one ends and if it completely dries out and i don't like it i will back sweeten.

Apparently i made the yeast very happy with staggered nutrients and pure o2 for two minutes every 24 hours for 3 days.