Month: november 2013

My sack mead was up for racking today. It has been bubbling nicely for almost a month now and I was curious to see how far it had come. I did set my hopes to high based on my experience with recipe 1. Anyway pH was measured to somewhere between 3 and 4 with pH strips, so that was spot on I measured the density to 1.012 which was great. This seems to end up with complete fermentation (target 1.010). Going back to a previous entry the ethanol content can be estimated by:Low estimate: ABV: (1.120-1.012) / 0.0075 = 14.4%High estimate: ABV: (1.120-1.012) / 0.0065 = 16.6% Now the high […]

The fermentation never re-started, so now after more than a week I decided to rack it again to get rid of the excess yeast which has precipitated by now. When I opened the fermenter the pleasant smell of apples and honey strikes me. Also, it is great to see how clear the mead has become. Even though it cannot be called crystal clear, I could see the siphon tip all the way to the bottom. Hmm, forgot to take a picture. I measured the density and once again it was 1.066, so nothing has happened since the new yeast was spiked. I had hoped to see just a little change […]

Like a little boy I was getting up during the night to see if the bubbling had started. Not much happened but in the morning the lid was bulging a bit and the airlock seemed like it was almost going to release it first bubble – yes. Best as I thought that I had successfully started the fermentation again, the pressure in the fermenter slowly went down, and the water level in the airlock evened out – as if the gas is let out of a ballon.  — so close but no cigar — I do not think that the mead is not going to ferment any more. I will […]

OK, time to see if I can get the fermentation restarted. Ingredients Vinoferm – Bioferm Killer 7 g Wyeast yeast nutrition 2g / 10L To get the fermentation going again I am going to add the Bioferm Killer yeast when it is through the lag period and well into the respiratory phase. I dissolved 20 g of sugar in 200 ml of boiling water in a 500 ml flask. Once the sugar was dissolved I added 0.5g of yeast nutrition and swirled the solution well. I put the solution in the refrigerator until the temperature was 23C (target was 25C or below). The flask was closed and the solution shaken […]

It has now been over a week since I added the clearing agents so now I assumed it was time to transfer the mead to a glass flask for maturing. Opening the fermenter I got somewhat disappointed – the mead did not look quite clear. I figured that it might not be so bad so I started transferring the mead and it becomes so clear: The mead is NOT clear at all. “#¤#¤”%&! The clearing agent did not do the job. On the bottom of the fermenter there was a layer of about 5 mm so at least something had precipitated. After the transfer I topped of with 5 L […]