I posted this on reddit/r/mead, but would like to see what you guys here think about this and can give me some suggestions/help. Sorry it's so long.
Thanks
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Hey guys, Having a few meads under my belt, I set out to make some session strength (around 5%) meads. Started out with making a 6 gallon traditional. Here is what I did (sorry it's so long)
Steps:
8) Closed it up and put it in my temp controlled ferm chamber where I am able to keep it at a steady 65F.
24hrs in took it out of chamber, opened up fermenter and using whip and drill carefully airated/degassed must for a few minutes. I let it settle and then floated hydrometer for measurement. Looked like 1030. I then added my second nutrient addition same as first. Mixed it in for a few minutes, then closed it up.
48hrs in Again opened it up, degassed like before and took measurement. Looked like 1020. Added third addition, mixed again and closed it up.
72 hrs in Like before, opened it, degassed and took measurement. Now down to 1003! Decided not to do last addition. Closed it back up.
96 hrs in Opened it up, degassed and took measurement once more. Reading .998 At this point I called it done, and I started warming it up slowly in my fermenter (this is a habit from homebrewing beer-D rest so yeast can clean up). I went 1 degree/day until it reached my basement ambient temperature of around 70 degrees.
1.5wks in I moved entire fermenter into my keezer to cold crash. Before doing so, I pulled off a sample for my hydrometer and gravity was still .998. Using a pH meter, I measured pH to be 3.1 (use this for stabilization below)
24 hrs into the crash I added gelatin to help drop some stuff out. I know gelatin isn't the best to use with mead, but it was all I had.
48hrs into the crash I prepared another bucket for stabilization. Using the pH reading, I measured out 0.53 grams of Potassium Metabisulfate (crushed campden tablet). Going off of the chart for Potassium sorbate, I used the lowest 10% addition of 3.79 grams/5 gallon but since I had 6 gallons I also measured another 0.76g (3.79/5) for a total of 4.55 grams. I added both of these amounts to some of the warm must and mixed throughly in a sanitized jar. I had no way of measuring Free SO2, so this is what I went with.
I then added that mixture to a new sanitized bucket and then took out the cold crashed must and immediately racked the cold must into the new bucket on top of the stabilized mixture and left as much of the yeast/lees behind in the original bucket. I then left that to sit sealed with an airlock on for 48 hrs at basement room temp. During that time I didn't see any activity.
Time to fruit into secondary. 6lbs of fresh blueberries from local farmers market that were cleaned and then bagged up and frozen. 6lbs of frozen organic strawberries from Costco.
I took both bags out of freezer, dunked in bucket of star san for a few minutes, then placed into another bucket to thaw. The next morning, I again sanitized both bags of thawed fruit, then using some clean/sanitized fine mesh bags, I added the fruit each to a bag. I then placed each back into a new clean/sanitized fermenter. I then racked out 1.5 gallon of the original mead into a sanitized 2 gallon carboy to later be back sweetened for a traditional mead. The rest of the mead (about 4 gallons) were evenly racked into each fruit fermenter. I sealed each up with airlocks and covered to protect from light. Now my plan is to let them sit on the fruit for a while (at least 2 weeks) and then slowly start tasting and pull fruit when I think they are good. I will probably have to backsweeten them and I will definitely have to backsweeten the 1.5 gallon traditional as I tasted it before stabilizing and it was very thin and dry tasting.
Here is where my problem comes in after adding fruit. 24 hrs in I open each one up and using sanitized spoon, move/push bag around to keep cap from getting moldly. 48hrs in same thing, no issues. 72 hrs in (last night) I open up strawberry and it is foaming inside like crazy! I am like WTF? It appears to be fermenting again. I panicked a bit and quickly moved the fruit bag around, sealed it back up and moved fermenter into my keezer. I then checked the one with blueberries and it was fine. Not taking any chances I also moved it into keezer. I just took both out of keezer to check them and move bag. Both were back to were they were originally. I put them back into keezer.
So my plan was to back sweeten and bottle all of this, but now I guess I will have to keg it all in some of my 3 gallon kegs. I am also not sure how the fruiting will work with them sitting in the keezer? Maybe I should just pull them out back to room temp and let the yeast do whatever (let them ferment it again and they will just be high abv melomels instead of the session ones I was hoping for). I would love to hear anybody's thoughts on this.
This was my first attempt and both stabilizing and making session meads. I would really love to hear from those with ideas/suggestions on where I may have made mistakes.
Sorry again it was so long, but I want to be completely clear on all my steps.
TLDR-thought I stabilized some mead, but some of it looks like it is fermenting again after doing fruit in secondary. Not sure where I went wrong, and what to do next.
Thanks
=======
Hey guys, Having a few meads under my belt, I set out to make some session strength (around 5%) meads. Started out with making a 6 gallon traditional. Here is what I did (sorry it's so long)
Steps:
- added almost 5.5lbs of a wildflower honey and then spring water until it reached 6 gallons in my sanitized 8 gallon bucket fermenter.
- Using sanitized wine whip and drill, I carefully mixed it for awhile until I felt it was evenly mixed.
- Floated sanitized hydrometer to get reading. From what I can tell it looked like it was about 1040.
- From mead calculator online, I figured my SNA was 4.5g fermK and 8.8g DAP spread evenly over 4 additions. I then added my first weighed addition (1.1g K/2,2g DAP).
- I also added some pectin emzyme (will be on fruit later).
- using whip/drill mixed all into must.
8) Closed it up and put it in my temp controlled ferm chamber where I am able to keep it at a steady 65F.
24hrs in took it out of chamber, opened up fermenter and using whip and drill carefully airated/degassed must for a few minutes. I let it settle and then floated hydrometer for measurement. Looked like 1030. I then added my second nutrient addition same as first. Mixed it in for a few minutes, then closed it up.
48hrs in Again opened it up, degassed like before and took measurement. Looked like 1020. Added third addition, mixed again and closed it up.
72 hrs in Like before, opened it, degassed and took measurement. Now down to 1003! Decided not to do last addition. Closed it back up.
96 hrs in Opened it up, degassed and took measurement once more. Reading .998 At this point I called it done, and I started warming it up slowly in my fermenter (this is a habit from homebrewing beer-D rest so yeast can clean up). I went 1 degree/day until it reached my basement ambient temperature of around 70 degrees.
1.5wks in I moved entire fermenter into my keezer to cold crash. Before doing so, I pulled off a sample for my hydrometer and gravity was still .998. Using a pH meter, I measured pH to be 3.1 (use this for stabilization below)
24 hrs into the crash I added gelatin to help drop some stuff out. I know gelatin isn't the best to use with mead, but it was all I had.
48hrs into the crash I prepared another bucket for stabilization. Using the pH reading, I measured out 0.53 grams of Potassium Metabisulfate (crushed campden tablet). Going off of the chart for Potassium sorbate, I used the lowest 10% addition of 3.79 grams/5 gallon but since I had 6 gallons I also measured another 0.76g (3.79/5) for a total of 4.55 grams. I added both of these amounts to some of the warm must and mixed throughly in a sanitized jar. I had no way of measuring Free SO2, so this is what I went with.
I then added that mixture to a new sanitized bucket and then took out the cold crashed must and immediately racked the cold must into the new bucket on top of the stabilized mixture and left as much of the yeast/lees behind in the original bucket. I then left that to sit sealed with an airlock on for 48 hrs at basement room temp. During that time I didn't see any activity.
Time to fruit into secondary. 6lbs of fresh blueberries from local farmers market that were cleaned and then bagged up and frozen. 6lbs of frozen organic strawberries from Costco.
I took both bags out of freezer, dunked in bucket of star san for a few minutes, then placed into another bucket to thaw. The next morning, I again sanitized both bags of thawed fruit, then using some clean/sanitized fine mesh bags, I added the fruit each to a bag. I then placed each back into a new clean/sanitized fermenter. I then racked out 1.5 gallon of the original mead into a sanitized 2 gallon carboy to later be back sweetened for a traditional mead. The rest of the mead (about 4 gallons) were evenly racked into each fruit fermenter. I sealed each up with airlocks and covered to protect from light. Now my plan is to let them sit on the fruit for a while (at least 2 weeks) and then slowly start tasting and pull fruit when I think they are good. I will probably have to backsweeten them and I will definitely have to backsweeten the 1.5 gallon traditional as I tasted it before stabilizing and it was very thin and dry tasting.
Here is where my problem comes in after adding fruit. 24 hrs in I open each one up and using sanitized spoon, move/push bag around to keep cap from getting moldly. 48hrs in same thing, no issues. 72 hrs in (last night) I open up strawberry and it is foaming inside like crazy! I am like WTF? It appears to be fermenting again. I panicked a bit and quickly moved the fruit bag around, sealed it back up and moved fermenter into my keezer. I then checked the one with blueberries and it was fine. Not taking any chances I also moved it into keezer. I just took both out of keezer to check them and move bag. Both were back to were they were originally. I put them back into keezer.
So my plan was to back sweeten and bottle all of this, but now I guess I will have to keg it all in some of my 3 gallon kegs. I am also not sure how the fruiting will work with them sitting in the keezer? Maybe I should just pull them out back to room temp and let the yeast do whatever (let them ferment it again and they will just be high abv melomels instead of the session ones I was hoping for). I would love to hear anybody's thoughts on this.
This was my first attempt and both stabilizing and making session meads. I would really love to hear from those with ideas/suggestions on where I may have made mistakes.
Sorry again it was so long, but I want to be completely clear on all my steps.
TLDR-thought I stabilized some mead, but some of it looks like it is fermenting again after doing fruit in secondary. Not sure where I went wrong, and what to do next.