Mead diaries #4
I'm impatient. I couldn't wait until the weekend. I racked meadtoberfest yesterday. I was a bit concerned at first. I could see ANY activity. This wouldn't have been a terrible thing really, just not what I was hoping for. But, as with Frankenmead I had diluted the must by racking back onto more Apple Cider so that the racking process wouldn't result in a reduced batch size.
But, with Frankenmead now looking to be ok, I was hoping the Meadtoberfest would pick back up so that I wouldn't weaken the ABV by too much. I don't really want 2 weak meads. Ideally, Meadtoberfest will still be in the high teens for ABV.
My worries ended up being misplaced though. The must cleared up a bit more overnight and now, with a light I can see there is definitely still activity going on. In fact, where yesterday I couldn't see activity even with a light (wasn't clear enough at the time to see anything really), today I can now see it activity even without the light.
Neither batch is going slow enough for me to sorbate and cold crash at the moment. I was expecting this from Meadtoberfest, especially since I only racked it from primary fermentation yesterday. I don't really know what to expect with Frankenmead, but a small part of me was hoping it would be ready to prep for bottling as soon as next week. The clarity is coming along nicely, the activity simply isn't slow enough yet. I think it might have been there by now if I hadn't added more sugars.
On that topic though, I added the sugars both to increase the level of the liquid in secondary fermentation and because I wanted to kick start a secondary ferment because I was concerned about the smell when I racked from primary. And a good note to make here; the smell indeed seems to be from the yeast. Not sure why I never noticed this smell in the past, perhaps related to the ingredients or perhaps I never bothered smelling the dregs.
But before I racked Meadtoberfest, the must still smelled great. Then I racked, and smelled the dregs before I rinsed them out, and while they didn't smell as strongly as Frankenmead did, I was definitely getting the same gross stench to some degree from there. And that batch was fully sterilized and didn't use tap water or any questionable techniques.
I had already suspected this was the case when Frankenmead started smelling good again so soon after racking. I don't think the alcohol level would have increased enough in that time, if at all with the amount of sugar, to assist in killing off what had caused that intense a smell. But, it is good have a stronger piece of supporting evidence than that.
But, with Frankenmead now looking to be ok, I was hoping the Meadtoberfest would pick back up so that I wouldn't weaken the ABV by too much. I don't really want 2 weak meads. Ideally, Meadtoberfest will still be in the high teens for ABV.
My worries ended up being misplaced though. The must cleared up a bit more overnight and now, with a light I can see there is definitely still activity going on. In fact, where yesterday I couldn't see activity even with a light (wasn't clear enough at the time to see anything really), today I can now see it activity even without the light.
Neither batch is going slow enough for me to sorbate and cold crash at the moment. I was expecting this from Meadtoberfest, especially since I only racked it from primary fermentation yesterday. I don't really know what to expect with Frankenmead, but a small part of me was hoping it would be ready to prep for bottling as soon as next week. The clarity is coming along nicely, the activity simply isn't slow enough yet. I think it might have been there by now if I hadn't added more sugars.
On that topic though, I added the sugars both to increase the level of the liquid in secondary fermentation and because I wanted to kick start a secondary ferment because I was concerned about the smell when I racked from primary. And a good note to make here; the smell indeed seems to be from the yeast. Not sure why I never noticed this smell in the past, perhaps related to the ingredients or perhaps I never bothered smelling the dregs.
But before I racked Meadtoberfest, the must still smelled great. Then I racked, and smelled the dregs before I rinsed them out, and while they didn't smell as strongly as Frankenmead did, I was definitely getting the same gross stench to some degree from there. And that batch was fully sterilized and didn't use tap water or any questionable techniques.
I had already suspected this was the case when Frankenmead started smelling good again so soon after racking. I don't think the alcohol level would have increased enough in that time, if at all with the amount of sugar, to assist in killing off what had caused that intense a smell. But, it is good have a stronger piece of supporting evidence than that.
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