Mead Newbie Needs advice

[mcwalkerusa]

Hey folks-

Mead Newbie here w/ a situation.

Started my first mead 3 months ago- went by the book (recipe) w/ ingredients, primary fermentation, secondary fermentation, etc.

Secondary was going great- bubbling, and sedimentary settling, great clarifying and color.

Last week- racked for first time into another 5 gal carboy (and topped up w/ 3 pints of purfified water to make up for the displacement of the sediment).

Was a little cloudy- figured it was from the racking. Clarifying now- very nicely.

Now- 4 days later- absolutely zero fermentation (bubbling) activity. Did a SG sampling and got 1.1. (Shouldn't it be lower?)

Should this still ferment a little? Or is it over already?

SG sample was gorgeous color- but VERY dry to taste (it better get better or wife will shoot me).

Recipe calls for 2 more rackings (3 months apart) before bottling. Will this settle it out, or do I need to re-invent the fermentation process? The 1.1 SG has me concerned.

Thanks,

Newbie

Recipe used-

5 gallon water
25 lbs very ripe pears
30 cups honey
7 ½ teaspoon acid blend
1 Campden tablet
2½ teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 package wine yeast

Boil water in large pot. Crush pears and place in primary fermentation container. Pour water over fruit. Crush Campden tablet and add to container. Add acid blend and pectic enzyme and stir. Let rest one day. Add yeast and yeast nutrient, stir and cover. Stir once a day for one week. On the 7th day, strain and throw out pulp. Add honey and stir. Pour into secondary fermentation container and attach airlock. Rack every three months for one year. Rack into bottles at one year, and let rest for one additional year.

 

[ellijaywinemaker]

Please post your recipe so the other mead makers can better hepl you

 

[fatbloke]

I'm trying to work out what's going on with your brew, but am struggling to work out how much you might have used with some of the ingredients.

The problem is, that with some of your measurements you've expressed them in cups, which to my understanding is volume, then also weight as well as liquid measures.....

It's often better to stick to as few as possible, then it's easier to make conversions....

Oh, and when expressing gravity readings, for ease of others understanding/following your method, it's normal to use 4 digits i.e. water being 1.000, or dry wines as 0.990 etc.

I'm not pointing that out to be pedantic, but because you say that your sample measured 1.1 which to me, means 1.100, which is a long way from dry. A 100 point drop (from 1.100 to 1.000) would equate to about 13.5% ABV - now I appreciate that you've basically fermented on the fruit pulp, which often creates a difficulty in taking gravity measurements, but then trying to work out how much that honey weighs, so to understand how many lb's of honey that is to the gallon so we can have a go at working out what your starting gravity might have been, is a headache.......

2 of the main points about trying to work out whether you've got a stuck ferment or whether the yeast might have pooped out, are the lack of that starting gravity measurement and the type of yeast used.

For instance, people often read of yeasts like the Wyeast Sweet Mead liquid yeast and think "that's the one for me"...... Yet, a search of the net would show that it's a very finicky yeast to use, and you have to make a must that is in a similar region to the max tolerance of the yeast (which I recall as being about 11% or so, but I might be remembering wrongly), otherwise it can easily get "osmotic shock" from high sugar content and cause problems.

While something like Lalvin K1V-1116 (a Montpellier strain, which I've both used often and heard it described as the "swiss army knife of yeasts") has a tolerance of about 16% but is also very hardy, and seems to work well with fruit.......

So I'm thinking that if you can take a test of the brew again and see if you can give us an accurate reading, we might then be able to suggest the next step. Oh and what was the yeast you used ??? That also might help some.

regards

fatbloke

 

[ellijaywinemaker]

What was your starting SG.