An Experiment with Mead ??

[jbullard1]

OK as stupid as I sound I'd like a comment or two on this one

I started an Orange spiced mead (melomel)sp on Dec 1 and made a mistake in measuring the the honey. The recipe called for 3 1/2 pounds of honey and was to be fermented with bread yeast. I added almost 5 pounds to a gallon and today checked the sg of the stuff it is still at 1.088@72*. All fermentation evidence has been stopped for a couple of weeks, there is a lot of alcohol present but this stuff is sweeter than pancake syrup and almost as thick.

I would like some ideas for salvaging

Right now I am starting a Cuvee' starter and slowly introducing more of the sweet wine to it. Right now the yeast is fermenting a 50/50% solution with very active fermentation. I am about to up the strength to 75/25% wine/starter

Your thoughts highly appreciated

I'm sure it will turn out to be junk but a "Winemaker" never make a mistake, they make "Experiments"


Sorry to be so long winded
Thanks
Jerry

 

[Wade E]

What was the starting sg?

 

[jbullard1]

What was the starting sg?

Wade

I have no idea what the start sg was. That was before I got my hydrometer, thus my error with the honey
This is now an experiment in how to "NOT" make a Mead
Just looking for suggestions before I pitch the Cuvee into the mix
The starter is now bubbling @ 1 bubble every 3 seconds
I'm ready to add 16 ounces of the old mead to the starter

 

[Wade E]

You are gonig to end with with a very high abv on this and it will need to tame down for a long time. I would probably make a 2 gallon batch with a much lower abv and add this to it and ferment the whole thing lower.

 

[jbullard1]

Thanks for the reply Wade

By "tame down" a long time what do you mean
6 months
a year?
I was making this in haste for a primitive rendezvous I go to in late January
But alass I messed up on this batch
If it is still salvageable for our January 2010 camp then I'm still good to go
Thanks

 

[Wade E]

It should be ready for 2010 if you do make the addition . Its hard to know what abv you will end up with either way as we dont know where it started but I fear you are going to end up with jet fuel by not adding in to this batch. Bread yeast will usualy make it to 8% or even a little bit higher so that would make your starting sg about 1.150 unless you just have a stuck fermentation. I guess you can make the starter and try to get it down and if that dont work far enough then we can do the additional batch and blend them together to get it dryer.