Stuck Mead

[Ebob01]

I have a mead/melomel which also has died apricots and rose petals, it really fermented vigorously at first but now has stopped.

I racked it off the sediment and the hydrometer reading was 1010.

I added half a teaspoon of extra nutrients and some more D47 yeast but nothing.

When adding the honey the jar stated 80g carbs / 100g of which sugars 75g / 100g.

I used the 80g carbs to calculate the alcohol to be 14% and figured if only the sugar ferments then that's fine it just won't be quite as strong.

Is the hydrometer reading due to the carbs which aren't sugars increasing the specific gravity, and will this never ferment?

Should I just stabilise and bottle it as 1010 isn't that much sugar for mead anyway. I wanted to ferment it completely and backsweeten as I didn't want it too sweet and was only going to add a bit of extra honey to sweeten. I know with mead most people rely on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast being the limiting factor and just add extra honey at the start if they want it sweet.

OR

Should I try and restart it using something like EC-118 to get it to completely ferment?

Any thoughts and opinions on either option would be appreciated.

 

[johncrobinson]

From what you say it looks as if your yeast has done all it can.
There are several points to note.
(1) Starting off a ferment at high gravity is precisely how to achieve a stuck ferment.
(2) 14%abv is near the max for D47 (on a good day.)

I would not attempt to restart with another yeast,Stabilize and bottle it as a sweet mead or use it to blend with a dry mead or white wine.Is my advice.
You are more likely to do more harm than good at this stage by messing about with it.

If in future you want very strong DRY mead you need to investigate concepts such as low gravity start and subsequent sugar feeding or in the case of mead "honey feeding" and stepped addition of nutrient.
You will also need to use a high alcohol yeast such as ecc-1118 from the start.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ebob01]

Thanks for the input much appreciated.

I'll go ahead and stabilise, clear and bottle it

 

[Arcs]

Thanks for the input much appreciated.

I'll go ahead and stabilise, clear and bottle it

I know this may seem a little bit patronising but at the risk of your wrath, what temperature is the room you are leaving it in to ferment? I noticed this last week, I had a brew of mead in my living room which looked like it had stalled a little bit. Then I put the fire on because I was feeling entitled and wanted to be a bit warmer and it indeed kicked off the brew again. Have you considered the temperature you are leaving it in when we are in the winter months? Cheers

 

[Ebob01]

Ye generally the room doesn't get too cold stays at least 20 Deg in the day, drops a bit in the night but the house generally holds heat fairly well and my wife puts the heating on really high in the evening.

I did actually put it next to the radiator and when it reached about 27 degrees (I measured the temperature with one of those temperature gun things) I did start to see more activity, only a bit mind, and I would have expected it to find around low 20s but there was nothing...

 

[dwhite60]

Higher temp can cause CO2 to come out of solution and jiggle the bubbler.

 

[johncrobinson]

Careful------- up-down-up-down temperature swings are ONE of the TWO main causes of fermentation's sticking.

These are the twin sisters of evil.!!!!!!
High gravity at the start of fermentation
Temperature swings towards the end of fermentation.

And it don't take a lot of swing to do it.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Also can make your booze taste wierd. Like sulphury

 

[Danish]

I am new to the forum. I have an interest in mead mainly as a result of my wife's bee farmng business. I have been brewing mead for about 4 years. It has been a steep learning curve and the result sspeak for themselves. All of our mead is produced from our own honey- we produce over 1000 kg per year in an ethical way. We could easily more than double our honey production but prefer to overwinter all our colonies (90) on honey rather than sugar. Here is brief synopis of what we do to make great mead.

1. High quality honey makes high quality mead
2. We use no heat reatmnt of our honey during processing and wort production. Only warm water is used to aid must production.
3. I have been using Mangrove Jacks mead yeast prepared with a starter prepared 24 hrs prior to pitching.
4. Most people we have sampled prefer sweeter mead over drier types.
5. OG's range from about 1120-1130 and FG's range form about 1005 -1010 so it is pretty strong.
6. I have some drier mead which I am backsweetening with sweeter mead.
7. So far we have not seen any issues with fermentation restarting- but there are caveats
8. I ferment in SS Brewtech brew buckets- about 21 ltr batches - this take at least 28 days for primary fermentation.
9. I rack the fermenter to a 23 ltr glass carbuoy topping up with mead. It is left for at least 3 months and secondary fermentation is seen.
10. After at least 3 months in the 1st rack (kept dark), when it is clear, it is racked off to another carbuoy and topped up.
11. The second rack lasts at least 9 months , kept dark, and it then racked into corny kegs.
12. I have about 25 kegs in storage at present from 1-3 years old.
13. We use no fining agents, no need, or sorbate/sulphites. On early batches I used some sulphites at low level and it impaired taste and ceased using.
14. Each batch uses about 7-8 kg of honey made up to 21 ltr. The value of the hoeny at retail is £16 per kg ( so big money
15. Aim for 10-15% racking losses or more for small batches. I am good at recovering mead from the trub.

A few observations.
1. I would not backsweeten with honey. It tastes like watery honey and not mead.
2. The yeast needs plenty of nutrient. I use Fermaid K- about 5 g per batch.
3. I add about 10-12 g grape tannin. Without the tannin there is something missing. The tannin is astringent.

We are still learning but have a lot of our customers for honey asking if they can buy the mead. Commericalising mead is a major task and not for the faint hearted. HMRC will not accept gravity readings for alcohol. It is necessary to carry out a distillation method to HMRC standards. This is fine for me as I am a chemist but not so easy for a lay-person. I am in a difficult spot in that I am not sure if at my scale HMRC will entertain a licence. We will never really get above 250 litres per year.

I hope that tis is some interest to those making mead. It is not complicated but just needs some careful handling. Some of the mead I have sampled from bee-keeping associations has been truly awful. Just remember that supermarket honey is anything but. Most honey sold through the supermarkets has been adulterated with other substances. Corn syrup or sugar solution is common. If it does not crystallise after about 6-12 months it is probably not pure. Much of the honey sold in the UK is foreign, much of it from China, or Chinese honey imported into eastern europe and sold as EU produced. I would never eat anything produced in China. I have first hand experience of being poisoned after visiting China for business, which nearly destroyed my liver and left me severely jaundiced for a year.