mead dead

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Hellnar

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Hello everyone,
I'm a newbie and i tried to make mead but after 1 month, it stop bubbling and when i tried it, it's very sweet and not high in alcohol. the first 2 week it bubbling like crazy but .... i used laalvin ec1118 and yeast nutrient but it still very weak. I used 3 lbs of honey for 1 galon first and then add 2 more lbs after the bubbling slowed down .
 
Hello everyone,

I'm a newbie and i tried to make mead but after 1 month, it stop bubbling and when i tried it, it's very sweet and not high in alcohol. the first 2 week it bubbling like crazy but .... i used laalvin ec1118 and yeast nutrient but it still very weak. I used 3 lbs of honey for 1 galon first and then add 2 more lbs after the bubbling slowed down .


Did you measure the specific gravity then and now? What are the measurements? 5 lbs for 1 gallon sounds like a lot of honey. It might be that there was too much honey resulting in too much alcohol in the environment for the yeast to survive.
 
I think you OD'd the yeast LOL. Yeast has a tolerance level and if you give it too much sugar it will eventually die from alcohol poisoning. The sugar left over will leave the wine "sweet" just like when you back sweeten, post ferment. It depends on the yeast you are using, but generally you shouldn't get the hydrometer reading any higher than 1.1. The ferment is usually done in 5-10 days and if you haven't over done it with sugar the wine should be very dry at this point. This is when you back-sweeten to desired taste. I really think that you just added too much honey to start with. Do you know what your start and current hydrometer readings are?
 
Last edited:
Hi Hellnar, What is the specific gravity at this time. You used 3 lbs of honey to make a gallon so the starting gravity would have been about 1.105 or a potential ABV of about 13%. But you then added another .070 to the gravity or another 9 % (potential ABV of 22 %) . I cannot imagine that any wine yeast will be able to comfortably survive in that kind of environment, but if you can take a measure of the current gravity that will give you an idea of the actual ABV (can be determined by calculation) and the amount of residual sugars still left in the mead. Bottom line: I don't think that your mead is dead. I imagine that the mead is about as alcoholic as it can be and that the yeast have died from alcohol poisoning... So you have made a high alcohol sweet mead.
 
Sorry, I was out of town for a while. I didn't have time to check the website. athousand appologies.Actually, the mead was super strong. the sweetness hide the alcohol-ness. after 1 week, the alcohol start to smell and wow. it is strong
 

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