First mead

[GreatNorthernLlama]

Alright alright alright. My SG for my cider sitting right at 1.000. My mead is still 1.023. First question then, can I had off racking this till tomorrow? 4 month old has me gassed tonight.

The second question, I've got so much "foam" or whatever technical term floating on top. To try to get a clear rack am I just trying to thread the needle here between this floating stuff at the top and the sediment at the bottom? If I'm okay to rack tomorrow is there anything I can do now to help my future self like skim some off the top layer?

I've got apple peels in here. Maybe even just skin these guys out and let it settle again overnight before racking?

 

[winemaker81]

First question then, can I had off racking this till tomorrow?

Absolutely. At 1.000 the wine is not done fermenting, and wine will continue outgassing for weeks afterward. Although I personally wouldn't wait that long, you could wait a few weeks.

The second question, I've got so much "foam" or whatever technical term floating on top. To try to get a clear rack am I just trying to thread the needle here between this floating stuff at the top and the sediment at the bottom? If I'm okay to rack tomorrow is there anything I can do now to help my future self like skim some off the top layer?

A while back I created a very high-tech tool for racking, one that keeps chunks out of the racking cane.

Ok, maybe it's not such high-tech ... it's a 2' piece of 4" PVC with a bunch of 1/4" holes drilled in one end. I wrap it in a fine mess bag and drop the racking cane in the middle.

 

[GreatNorthernLlama]

Absolutely. At 1.000 the wine is not done fermenting, and wine will continue outgassing for weeks afterward. Although I personally wouldn't wait that long, you could wait a few weeks.


A while back I created a very high-tech tool for racking, one that keeps chunks out of the racking cane.

Ok, maybe it's not such high-tech ... it's a 2' piece of 4" PVC with a bunch of 1/4" holes drilled in one end. I wrap it in a fine mess bag and drop the racking cane in the middle.

View attachment 116506

Music to my ears that it's not super urgent.
Re: offgassing, I've got a confession. After learning my lesson I still opted to leave the lids on my buckets with a valve. The fruit flies in my house are just terrible. Each valve has about 5 in the trap alone. I know yeast needs o2 so I make sure to open them up for a few min at least a few times a day. Is this sufficient? I notice a strong smell of course if I stick my head in the bucket. Not quite sulfer. Maybe that's just how strong the yeast smells since it gives me memories of my sourdough but absolutely kicks the nostrils.

That PVC hack is perfect. I've got some 5 gallon paint strainer bags I got as brewbags. Will use one of these to surround it. And racking from a bucket I assume I just do my best to avoid the lees but hard to see. Usually a second rack will help clear me up? I've got a ton of pulp haze right now so I am sure it will take the extra effort to clariy

 

[winemaker81]

I know yeast needs o2 so I make sure to open them up for a few min at least a few times a day. Is this sufficient?

Stir the wine each time. That is sufficient O2.

I notice a strong smell of course if I stick my head in the bucket. Not quite sulfer. Maybe that's just how strong the yeast smells since it gives me memories of my sourdough but absolutely kicks the nostrils.

Are we talking swamp gas / dog farts? If so, that's H2S. In this case, add a dose of K-meta and stir well, several minutes. That may be sufficient to address it.

That PVC hack is perfect. I've got some 5 gallon paint strainer bags I got as brewbags. Will use one of these to surround it. And racking from a bucket I assume I just do my best to avoid the lees but hard to see. Usually a second rack will help clear me up? I've got a ton of pulp haze right now so I am sure it will take the extra effort to clariy

I documented things I do to reduce wine loss in the following post. My first rackings are "dirty", some sediment is sucked up. Remember that if it dropped once, it will drop again.

https://wine.bkfazekas.com/reducing-wine-loss/

 

[Rice_Guy]

I follow a white wine protocol with fruit wines and meads. At about 1.050 I run the wine through a bag filter and press out the liquid. This introduces some oxygen into the wine to keep the yeast happy. If down to 1.020 I feel that extra oxygen isn’t needed, but if life gets in the way I have done it.
Yes you can skim foam. Choke cherry and Maurivin B yeast are the two worst cases I’ve seen. With apple this year foam gushed through the airlock. The apple was a juice and the foam melted back into the wine once fermentation slowed down.

 

[GreatNorthernLlama]

Finally an update on my first mead experience. Last weekend I finally bottled my first brewing attempts: An apple cyser (11.3 ABV) and traditional cider (6% ABV). My issue with bottle bombs appears to be completely a non-issue.

The cyser is incredibly sweet. This is more my fault as when I back-sweetened I added 4oz honey instead of 3 as planned. Sampling it warm it tasted still dry almost even at 4oz, but once cooled and let to age for only a week, it really is sweet. More like a desert wine. Still very tasty and has a time and place, but not exactly what I was going for. Gotta get my pallet dialed in.

The cider has a definite funk to it. I lack the experience to really put my finger on it, but I suspect it is a yeasty taste. This batch was not stabilized to allow for some bottle conditioning. I've yet to really test if my conditioning added carbonation to it but initial tests from a half bottle were still quite flat after 4 days (yes should be longer to allow bottle conditioning).

My primary lesson from these batches was consistency and efficiency. Every time I would check my carboys it ended up being such a production as I was new and inexperienced. Just checking SG was about a 20 min endeavor for the first few weeks. This also led to inconsistency in how often I would even check them. I have no idea how long the cider sat in primary after finishing fermentation. It then sat in secondary for a good 3 weeks before I re-racked once more to clarify, and then bottled the next day with priming sugar (honey). I think this extra time sitting on the lees is likely what added to the "funk" I'm tasting. It also could just be my apples, since as I said this years harvest wasn't strong and maybe the lack of extra sweetness seen in the cyser allows some funky flavors from the apples themselves to come through.

Next batch I'm looking to do an apple cinnamon cider for the fall weather, and following that finally moving to an initial 5 gallon of my plum wine with the extra experience in my pocket. I'm trying not to get pulled exclusively down the mead / beer brewing rabbit hole but man it's been fun and tempting. Hoping to get back to some basics when I transition to the plum wine, and maybe do a few experimental single gallon batches of wine / mead with my plums. Maybe some fortification to make a sherry etc.

 

[Hazelemere]

Music to my ears that it's not super urgent.
Re: offgassing, I've got a confession. After learning my lesson I still opted to leave the lids on my buckets with a valve. The fruit flies in my house are just terrible. Each valve has about 5 in the trap alone. I know yeast needs o2 so I make sure to open them up for a few min at least a few times a day. Is this sufficient? I notice a strong smell of course if I stick my head in the bucket. Not quite sulfer. Maybe that's just how strong the yeast smells since it gives me memories of my sourdough but absolutely kicks the nostrils.

That PVC hack is perfect. I've got some 1 5 gallon paint strainer bags I got as brewbags. Will use one of these to surround it. And racking from a bucket I assume I just do my best to avoid the lees but hard to see. Usually a second rack will help clear me up? I've got a ton of pulp haze right now so I am sure it will take the extra effort to clariy

catch the fruit flies with cider vinegar traps pinhole punctured saran wrap tops on any small cider vinegar containers. re pectic enzyme use 1 tbsp per gallon.

 

[GreatNorthernLlama]

catch the fruit flies with cider vinegar traps pinhole punctured saran wrap tops on any small cider vinegar containers. re pectic enzyme use 1 tbsp per gallon.

Ya I had three of these traps going with minimal success. Just that time of year here though. At this time there's none around

 

[Codfish]

Ya I had three of these traps going with minimal success. Just that time of year here though. At this time there's none around

use beer instead of vinegar, it works way better!

 

[GreatNorthernLlama]

use beer instead of vinegar, it works way better!

I'll give that a try next time thanks! At this point, if I have a similar issue next fall I'll probably look to purchase some proper specialized traps and see if they work, but will exhaust all options first lol

 

[Hazelemere]

https://www.amazon.ca/WD-CD-FPestic...9&sprefix=fruit+fly+stick,aps,340&sr=8-6&th=1

 

[Raptor99]

use beer instead of vinegar, it works way better!

I use a cheap red wine. That works well, better than vinegar in my experience. But like any trap, it will work better if there aren't any other food sources nearby for the fruit flies.

 

[sour_grapes]

I use a cheap white wine, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and some dish soap. White wine allows me to see how many buggers I got!