Strategies to save a too high OG mead?

[Mr. No-Tip]

Put down a bunch of different meads last night using a big tub of honey I got. The honey was crystalised and even with a slight warming I wasn't confident in the OG readings I took last night. I did follow the honey to water ratios but my two main 15l batches seem a bit high today - I have a hydrometer floating in one carboy and it reads 1.140+

Given the attenuation potential of my yeasts (71b and White Labs Sweet Mead) are both around 15% I think the final product will be too sweet.

Now to come up with a dilution strategy:

• Put 1-2l of boiled, cooled water in now. Seems the most direct, least stress on the yeast, but it will fill my headspace making degassing and nutrient additions a whole lot harder.
• Add my nutrient additions with ~500ml of boiled cooled water. This will stretch out the drop in SG and might not save the high gravity stress on the yeast right now, but I guess it will help with less foaming when I add the nutrients.
• Post fermentation dilution.
• Something else.

Any suggestions?

 

[TimT]

I'd be tempted to just go with it. But if you want to water it down a bit, definitely do it pre-fermentation.

Where'd you get the 71b from?

 

[TimT]

There's a wine technique used to nudge yeasts into higher alcohol tolerance - feed the yeast with fresh food every day or so, so the yeast that survives higher alcohol environments will be rewarded with food and will keep fermentation going. In doing this you can nudge a yeast with a tolerance around, say, 14% alcohol up a few points to ferment to around, say, 18% alcohol.

I don't know the details, but I have done it in a non-systematic way for one of my porters, a kind of strong dandelion-honey porter. I gave it several feeds of honey during fermentation to try to keep the yeast going (it was a low attenuating yeast, Newcastle Ale yeast) and to hopefully get more of a honey taste/smell (some of that stuff is lost during peak ferment). I think I did succeed in getting the yeast to chew through a bit more booze and make some more alcohol.

You could skim off some of the honey water in one of the brews and use it as a reward in this situation - or just use it in other brews

And I *really* want to know where you got the 71b from, didn't think it was available in Aus!

 

[barls]

id go for ether blending at the end with ether a lighter batch or de oxygenated water.

the 71b i got last time from ibrew. tim

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Thanks fellas. Had a chat with Steve Kirby, too. He's apparently gone much higher OGs and tells me some decent acid blending at the end can combat the effect of a high FG. I had a 1.040 (maybe it was even higher) mead that I couldn't really drink unless it was cut with cider or something, but that had no adjustment.

I think I'll just leave it, maybe be a bit more liberal with mixing water for my nutrient additions, but that's about it.

Tim - your mention about feeding food - you talk about dosing beer with honey. I take it you mean fermentables not nutrients?
71b. I bought a 500g block via mashematics and split it with club members. Couldn't find smaller units in aus.

 

[labels]

You should be okay with it, I made a terrific mead a couple of years back with that sort of gravity.

The mead I intended to make and achieved was a flat, noncarbonated, high alcohol beverage that you sip much like port or sherry.

When your current yeast has given up hope, add champagne yeast and nutrient. Might be best to rack first though. Add a little oxygen with the champagne yeast if you have the ability or just shake some air into it. Keep doing this every couple of months and maybe rack a couple more times over the course of a year. Champagne yeast has a potential alcohol tolerance of up to 18% under ideal conditions and you should be able to achieve this. The whole process will take two years but it is worth it, the mead will last for years. When your alcohol level has topped out, you can add fresh honey to the desired level of sweetness. If the mead has a cloying sweetness to it, get a small pack of citrus peel from the cake section in the supermarket and drop the contents into your mead, Leave a couple of weeks and rack off. The acidity in the citrus peel will cut the cloyingness. Bottle as usual without sugar, the mead is now equivalent to a fortified wine. Don't worry too much about oxidation, it will add character in the same way that sherry is a deliberately oxidized fortified wine. It will turn out delicious.

 

[Airgead]

You haven'[t got some stratification in the carboy have you? With all the honey sitting where you are drawing your sample?

Anyway... I'd just dilute it back down to whatever you want to OG to be. If you are worried about headspace, why not pull a few l into a smaller 5l fermenmter to make room and then use that for topping up after racking?

And yes for those who want to know where to get 71B - ibrew. In 500g or 100g packs. I've been using it for my ciders and meads for years.

Edit - and if you don't mind getting it by the kilo, winequip has it as well.

 

[TimT]

Sir No-Tip - thanks for the.... er.... tip on how to get 71b!

I meant essentially feeding the brew fermentables, yes.

But there's nothing wrong with a few doses of nutrient, either. In fact that's exactly what some mead brewers will do to keep their yeast happy and have the mead age in a relatively short time - feed nutrients to the yeast at every part of the yeast's cycle.

Come to think of it I think I did add small doses of nutrient along with honey when I brewed that beer

 

[Lincoln2]

Looks like I could be in a similar situation but 2 weeks behind you. We made a few batches of mead yesterday and by the last batch we were feeling somewhat adventurous. Multiple samples of last year's batches may have contributed to this.

We added 8.5kg (all that was left of just over 20kgs) of honey and topped up to approx. 22 litres. Honey was bush honey off a mate and I think they mainly fed on macadamia flowers - quite light and delicate, not as powerful as other honey I've used previously. 90g of nutrient and 70 BILLION! cells of the Wyeast 4632 Dry mead yeast - good to 18% apparently.

I didn't take any gravity readings.

Not sure if I've created a masterpiece or a monster - should know in a few months I guess.

 

[Lincoln2]

Slightly off topic but rather than start a new thread: Have any mazers had any experience with autolysis in their meads? I made two batches some months ago and have been too busy to rack to secondary. I used the two dedicated mead yeasts from Wyeast via Craftbrewer. 4632 and 4184. As per my normal practice, I neglected to take any gravity readings.

I did read on GotMead that someone suggested extended "bulk ageing out" to dispel the rubber flavours!? Other suggestions include a rough 12 week period before any risk. Other sources say up to 5 years.

Yet another bloke suggests a slight hint of autolysis can lend a nice nutty character to the mead!? I've had it once in a stout and I nearly spewed.

Rest assured that I will be skipping any and all family/work/social activities this weekend to spend some quality time in the brewery. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers.

Any progress reports on yours Mr No-Tip?

 

[Droopy Brew]

Dont know if it will work for a mead and just throwing out a wild idea, but if you oxygenate the shit out of it you might get the yeast to attenuate low enough.

Just an idea- Im sure those that have experience with this will either shoot down or confirm the idea.

 

[Lincoln2]

Dont know if it will work for a mead and just throwing out a wild idea, but if you oxygenate the shit out of it you might get the yeast to attenuate low enough.

Just an idea- Im sure those that have experience with this will either shoot down or confirm the idea.

Yeah, I've heard about re-oxygenation so you're not far off. I racked to secondary and had a generous taste-test for quality control purposes. All good, no off flavours except a bit of alcohol roughness in the dry mead. Nothing a bit of time won't smooth out though. Pretty happy with both of them.