Stuck Mead

[pdilley]

Ok,

Looks like you have a calibration issue (could be many things, your scales, volume measures, the refractometer, etc.) . Also keep in mind solution needs to be at 20 degrees C for best results - and enter another tool with calibration fun, your thermometer -- just do your best. If you are over gravity then your 14% yeast has most likely made 14% alcohol or very close to it. You need to move up to higher attenuating yeast now to pull the remaining sugars. No biggie, just more punch to your Mead and a little more ageing but in Mead time scales, its all not that long at all.

To make it simpler for your brain to get its head around Brix. If you have 100 grams of sugar and 900 grams of water and combined the two of them and made sure all the sugar is dissolved completely. Then you have 10% dissolved solids in solution by mass (weight). Or simply 10 Brix (Plato/Balling - minor differences between the scales). It is easier to be more accurate with the making of a large volume solution than making small volume of solutions. A small error on a small volume could be a large percentage of the total volume in error while a small error on a large volume is a small percentage of the total volume.

Not that all measurements are by weight which simplifies things as you may have a litre measuring container that is from a cooking store and not scientific or calibrated to give exact volumes. So it is easier to work with mass (weight) when measuring. I do this today even with my bread making recipes. I no longer use measuring cups, just weight everything and do recipes on percentage of the main ingredient (the bread flour).


I have converted the recipe from American measurements to Metric for you on my Mead program I wrote for the computer:

If you want, you can have a copy if it helps you.

That gives you a pretty good guide. As per usual add most of the ingredients and then test your gravity/brix and add more of the remainder until you hit your target. It is a lot easier to put sugars into solution then take them out

Don't stress the brain issues, its just signalling that its making all the chemical changes necessary to start learning. If you come back to this information again in for a few more times each day and go over it with a cursory focus, you'll start to absorb it. Normal learning process.

EDIT: Note that you are at 14% ABV so you need to definitely toughen your starter of say 18% attenuating yeast using the method already posted before you pitch as the yeast will experience some shock if not acclimatised to the environment it needs to continue to ferment.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[moovet]

Pete,

Did 100g and 900g water. Calibrated the refractometer to 10 Brix (wasn't far off) at 20 degrees. Hydrometer reading was 1.040 which was what it should be. So measured the must again which was 20.8 Brix and 1.051 SG which is consistent with 12.1% using that website. So a bit disappointed the 71B didn't go further. However if I use that last formula using current SG and Brix on that website it calculates the original gravity as probably being 1.050 which would give a current alcohol % of 13.6 which would explain the stuck ferment.

I think I might add the vanilla pod now and when of the right taste, rack off half into 1 gallon demijohns and then add the champagne yeast to the remainder. That way I still have some of the current mead (as I say the flavour is beautiful, just a touch too sweet) and can experiment with the rest in other 1 gallon demijohns.

I would appreciate that program. It looks excellent. I apologise for not having anything in return to offer but I always appreciate your help.

Cheers,


M

 

[pdilley]

I would recommend finishing off the fermentation before flavouring. Keeps more of the punch of the flavours you add in inside your mead instead of scrubbed out of solution and carried away with yeasts metabolism. That way you also can control your flavour better as your vanilla levels will change in between your initial steeping of the bean and the second fermentation with the champers yeast.

After the champers is done, I would then rack off the lees and then do a back sweetening with fresh honey to get your perfect sweetness level for your taste buds, then do your flavouring with the bean and then some ageing. Do note your punch of flavouring will diminish a bit with ageing so you can adjust accordingly.

Since its like making a relaxed witches brew over a decent amount of time, you can then start testing your refractometer and hydrometer at higher levels. Using what you know, a 20 Brix solution would be achieve with 200 grams of sugar dissolved into 800 grams of water and at 20 C. 30 Brix, 32 Brix, 25 Brix, 15 Brix, 5 Brix, whatever, you now have the power to mix up testing solutions to test all your gear now. Imagine the ease with which you can whip up even tins of goo and hit a target Starting Gravity or Brix reading almost spot on

You can write all your measurement results in a little log book and then you have both your hydrometer and refractometer mapped for any deviation in their scales. You may find an error at the high end of both their respective scales or if a decent bit of kit your error will scale linearly across the entire scale. Either way you'll be so much better off than your average brewer on the forum with your calibrated brewing tools and a better understanding of Gravity and Brix

I'll PM you about the program.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete