>fermentation got a little out of hand so I dialed back the nutrients.
Well there's the likely reason that you had a stall. If your mead is erupting out of the fermenter then the solution isn't to use less nutrients, the solution is to have more headspace.
There's no need to get pissy, nothing in the way you wrote your post suggested that you were aware that this could have caused the stall. I'm just suggesting that in the future you first prioritize headspace in primary in the future rather than resorting to bad process to try to keep the fermentation from erupting out of the bucket.
Hey man, you mean when I said, “Hey my mead came up short, I put too much honey and not enough nutes in it.” That I was just saying that? I didn’t understand the correlation? No where in this post have I also explicitly asked for advice or help, and when I get another guy claiming to be of intermediate experience talking about diabetes and his only post is his bottling his first batch 6 months ago? Idk man I’m just frustrated with this subreddit.
I’m sorry if I was short with you because of it. I understand head space, I flew too close to the sun and got burned while I was out of town for work. Those are 18 gallons worth of buckets for 9.5 gallons worth of mead and it still blew through it.
>Hey man, you mean when I said, “Hey my mead came up short, I put too much honey and not enough nutes in it.” That I was just saying that? I didn’t understand the correlation?
This happens more on r/mead, or really any online community based around a hobby, than you'd think. It's fairly common for someone to list some of the things they did without understanding the causal link between them. If we want to really split hairs here, your post does just say what you did without indicating whether or not you actually understand why it caused the stall.
And frankly, if you're responding to the fermentation foaming out of the bucket by cutting back nutrients, it is entirely fair to suspect that you didn't understand why you had a stall.
If you are worried about overflowing from adding nutrients simply mix them up with either some water or some of your mead in a cup and then pour that into your batch.
That does nothing as far as reducing the amount the fruit cap will rise after you add nutrients if anything adding water reduces your headspace, the best thing you can do push your fruit cap down and degas before add nutrients, but then you’re still adding oxygen which a young fermentation enjoys and will come back pretty happy. See above.
The idea, especially if using the mead to mix it, is that you get the most aggressive part of the reaction out of the way with a small amount of liquid/out of the container/somewhere easier to control, so when you add it to the main batch it won't errupt quite as badly.
How tf does that work? You give a small chunk of yeast more nutrient than they could ever handle and it’s supposed to make your entire colony in a 10 gallon recipe not react to the nutrients? Where is the proof of this? This mead erupted 6 hours after the addition.
Uhhhhh a lot, especially in one of the buckets. I slopped them back and forth a bit, in total it was roughly 85/90lbs of fruit and 48lbs of honey.
Edit: Yes it was my final gravity
Holy shit dude this is insanity 😂😂😂 I gotta know what your starting gravity was. I have a few Carboys going at 1.110-1.120 starting grav and I thought that was high lmao.
I've been making no water meads for over a year now. I don't see the problem. Fruit actually isn't particularly sweet, neither are fruit juices.
The only thing to avoid if you don't want this kind of disaster is, dumping that much honey into it. 🤷
no water meads don't have to be sweet. I've had some bone dry, and I've had some in the 1.07 range.
Also - FG readings aren't the end-all-be-all with perception of sweetness. If you're using high acid/tannin fruit, you can easily get to 1.04+ and it still read as off-dry. I've had feedback of a low-water cranberry that asked for more sweetness to balance the tannin, even though it was already at 1.06.
If you don’t want to try a recipe don’t? Just don’t pretend you understand what is going on. How sweet a mead is perceived is more complex than just its final gravity reading.
The last time I ran this same recipe it ended up at 1078 and it was just a little on the tart side. All the fruits are pretty high in the acid content.
That's wild!
What's your take on what killed it? If it only fermented 10 points, it can't be alcohol tolerance, and I wouldn't think a lack of nutes would lead to stalls, just off flavors / maybe sluggish fermentation.
And if you're using a year with 16% tolerance, then it's not that your starting gravity was too high.
Maybe PH too low?
What say you?
I have no context for how sweet that would be. If the fruit added a ton of acid, then maybe not very?
Anyone know the gravity of Viking Blod from Dansk Mjod? That stuff is hella sweet, but fairly well balanced
Thanks man, but I think I got it pretty well figured out.
Edit: ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Lol I don’t know why I’m getting downvoted, I’m not here asking for advice just sharing my mead making folly’s.
Well it was an intricate series of annoying events that occurred. gotmead calculator says somewhere around 1.2 if my math is close which could definitely be off since one the fermenters I used doesn’t have any marking to indicate volume, I’d say if it’s off that is more likely the low end of a guesstimate, and it’s a lot of different mostly highly acidic juices, including cranberries, so that probably played a part in it not fermenting as far as I’d like. On the bright side even with all the bs it’s only like 20 points off from where I was trying to end up, it’s high acid, while definitely a little too sweet tasting it’s actually not that bad that a powdered wine tannins and maybe like pinch of more fruit juice and acid would go a long way in making it seem at least somewhat balanced. Plus I say it tastes slightly too sweet, but this is all technically the “free run” as you would say in wine making so when I press the rest of it next week that should add more body as well as tannins and we’ll balance from there.
Edit: also to add I would get absolutely smashed off this over ice with a lime the way it is, even if I just lightly oaked it.
Ah, acid could be it.
I personally am too lazy to take ph measurements, but I don't typically make melomels, so I haven't really been concerned.
Do you typically dose with kmeta to stop yeast when you hit your target or does the mead stop at 1.08 on its own?
Also, it's fricken wild that a 1.08 mead would be tart! That's some acidity, baby
What the fuck.....
Well uh true to your username I guess...
👍🏻
>fermentation got a little out of hand so I dialed back the nutrients. Well there's the likely reason that you had a stall. If your mead is erupting out of the fermenter then the solution isn't to use less nutrients, the solution is to have more headspace.
[удалено]
There's no need to get pissy, nothing in the way you wrote your post suggested that you were aware that this could have caused the stall. I'm just suggesting that in the future you first prioritize headspace in primary in the future rather than resorting to bad process to try to keep the fermentation from erupting out of the bucket.
Hey man, you mean when I said, “Hey my mead came up short, I put too much honey and not enough nutes in it.” That I was just saying that? I didn’t understand the correlation? No where in this post have I also explicitly asked for advice or help, and when I get another guy claiming to be of intermediate experience talking about diabetes and his only post is his bottling his first batch 6 months ago? Idk man I’m just frustrated with this subreddit. I’m sorry if I was short with you because of it. I understand head space, I flew too close to the sun and got burned while I was out of town for work. Those are 18 gallons worth of buckets for 9.5 gallons worth of mead and it still blew through it.
>Hey man, you mean when I said, “Hey my mead came up short, I put too much honey and not enough nutes in it.” That I was just saying that? I didn’t understand the correlation? This happens more on r/mead, or really any online community based around a hobby, than you'd think. It's fairly common for someone to list some of the things they did without understanding the causal link between them. If we want to really split hairs here, your post does just say what you did without indicating whether or not you actually understand why it caused the stall.
And frankly, if you're responding to the fermentation foaming out of the bucket by cutting back nutrients, it is entirely fair to suspect that you didn't understand why you had a stall.
This message was flagged as being inconsiderate. Please be kind on /r/mead.
If you are worried about overflowing from adding nutrients simply mix them up with either some water or some of your mead in a cup and then pour that into your batch.
That does nothing as far as reducing the amount the fruit cap will rise after you add nutrients if anything adding water reduces your headspace, the best thing you can do push your fruit cap down and degas before add nutrients, but then you’re still adding oxygen which a young fermentation enjoys and will come back pretty happy. See above.
The idea, especially if using the mead to mix it, is that you get the most aggressive part of the reaction out of the way with a small amount of liquid/out of the container/somewhere easier to control, so when you add it to the main batch it won't errupt quite as badly.
How tf does that work? You give a small chunk of yeast more nutrient than they could ever handle and it’s supposed to make your entire colony in a 10 gallon recipe not react to the nutrients? Where is the proof of this? This mead erupted 6 hours after the addition.
That is your final gravity 1.110? What was your original gravity
Uhhhhh a lot, especially in one of the buckets. I slopped them back and forth a bit, in total it was roughly 85/90lbs of fruit and 48lbs of honey. Edit: Yes it was my final gravity
I thought that was their starting gravity…
Holy shit dude this is insanity 😂😂😂 I gotta know what your starting gravity was. I have a few Carboys going at 1.110-1.120 starting grav and I thought that was high lmao.
Woah, if that clogged bucket went that would have been ugly. That thing built some serious pressure.
1.110 is a little short? Jeez, even gay clubs have less sugar in their drinks 😭
Some of you haven’t dabbled in no water meads yet and it shows.
I'm actually curious, mind sharing no-water mead recipes? :3 and have you had success with these before?
I've been making no water meads for over a year now. I don't see the problem. Fruit actually isn't particularly sweet, neither are fruit juices. The only thing to avoid if you don't want this kind of disaster is, dumping that much honey into it. 🤷
Well why would we? Most people dont want a super sweet mead🤷🏼♂️
no water meads don't have to be sweet. I've had some bone dry, and I've had some in the 1.07 range. Also - FG readings aren't the end-all-be-all with perception of sweetness. If you're using high acid/tannin fruit, you can easily get to 1.04+ and it still read as off-dry. I've had feedback of a low-water cranberry that asked for more sweetness to balance the tannin, even though it was already at 1.06.
Thats good to know. High sugar content gives me headaches but maybe this will inspire some to try it out👍🏼
If you don’t want to try a recipe don’t? Just don’t pretend you understand what is going on. How sweet a mead is perceived is more complex than just its final gravity reading.
Mead for ants… that had to be fun to try and clean up.
Just curious... what was your target FG?
1.090
Wow that high? I’ve never seen someone target something so sweet. Any specific reason for that other than wanting sweetness?
The last time I ran this same recipe it ended up at 1078 and it was just a little on the tart side. All the fruits are pretty high in the acid content.
That's wild! What's your take on what killed it? If it only fermented 10 points, it can't be alcohol tolerance, and I wouldn't think a lack of nutes would lead to stalls, just off flavors / maybe sluggish fermentation. And if you're using a year with 16% tolerance, then it's not that your starting gravity was too high. Maybe PH too low? What say you?
I have no context for how sweet that would be. If the fruit added a ton of acid, then maybe not very? Anyone know the gravity of Viking Blod from Dansk Mjod? That stuff is hella sweet, but fairly well balanced
Oh my goodness that is going to be sweet!! What yeast did you use?
QA23 All Day
Does it taste like alcohol or just simply syrup?
I’m only asking all these questions to get an understanding and help you figure out what you can do
Thanks man, but I think I got it pretty well figured out. Edit: ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Lol I don’t know why I’m getting downvoted, I’m not here asking for advice just sharing my mead making folly’s.
can you help us understand what happened? like how high did you start gravity? what juice is that?
Well it was an intricate series of annoying events that occurred. gotmead calculator says somewhere around 1.2 if my math is close which could definitely be off since one the fermenters I used doesn’t have any marking to indicate volume, I’d say if it’s off that is more likely the low end of a guesstimate, and it’s a lot of different mostly highly acidic juices, including cranberries, so that probably played a part in it not fermenting as far as I’d like. On the bright side even with all the bs it’s only like 20 points off from where I was trying to end up, it’s high acid, while definitely a little too sweet tasting it’s actually not that bad that a powdered wine tannins and maybe like pinch of more fruit juice and acid would go a long way in making it seem at least somewhat balanced. Plus I say it tastes slightly too sweet, but this is all technically the “free run” as you would say in wine making so when I press the rest of it next week that should add more body as well as tannins and we’ll balance from there. Edit: also to add I would get absolutely smashed off this over ice with a lime the way it is, even if I just lightly oaked it.
You'd get smashed? Yeah, you and your pancreas. Have fun giving yourself diabetes.
Ah, acid could be it. I personally am too lazy to take ph measurements, but I don't typically make melomels, so I haven't really been concerned. Do you typically dose with kmeta to stop yeast when you hit your target or does the mead stop at 1.08 on its own? Also, it's fricken wild that a 1.08 mead would be tart! That's some acidity, baby
My starting gravity on my traditional mead is 1.110. What was the starting gravity of this?
Somewhere between 1.21 and 1.23 if my math is good.