Beer Forum

Just made my first mead tonight. Its gonna be a sweet mead, O.G. was 1.130. Now my uncle is big into wine and expects this to ferment all the way down to 1.000? Its supposed to have a F.G. of 1.025ish. Do we need to add potassium sorbate to stop the fermentation when it gets about there or do we just let it finish up at whatever it wants too? This is just a sweet show mead right now, we will rack onto different fruits when fermentation is complete. Which brings me to another question, will fermentation start up again after being exposed to fruit in secondary?

Sounds like a good start!
The FG depends a lot on the yeast you use as well as factors such as nutrition, oxygenation, etc etc.
I usually let my mead end up where it ends up and figure it from there. If it's too low, you can back-sweeten with some more honey, if it's too high, add some additional yeast.
If you are going to rack on to fruit, you should expect more fermentation to occur. As mentioned, if it's too dry, you can back sweeten.
And your uncle is right - 1.000 is not uncommon. I have had several meads end up below that (the lowest at .992).

good luck!

depends on your yeast?
i used ec1118 for my first batch of cyser and it finished at 0990.

Totally depends on the yeast and how the fermentation goes (starter, temperature, etc). But yeah, going below 1.000 with a wine or champagne yeast is certainly possible.

glasseye wrote:Totally depends on the yeast and how the fermentation goes (starter, temperature, etc). But yeah, going below 1.000 with a wine or champagne yeast is certainly possible.

It is definitely possible. I have had a couple of meads that have gone down that low. However, most of my meads finish higher than that. I would say the best recommendation I could give is to check the gravity as fermentation is beginning to slow and see how it is. If it is at about the gravity you were hoping for and if it has the amount of sweetness you are looking for, then go ahead and sorbate it.

I bottled my first mead on Thursday night. My hydrometer said it was down to 0.998. How is that even possible? I even calibrated my hydrometer in a tube of water, and it's reading everything correctly.

That said, I'm glad that there are other accounts of this happening. I was really worried about that.

squirrelpirate wrote:I bottled my first mead on Thursday night. My hydrometer said it was down to 0.998. How is that even possible? I even calibrated my hydrometer in a tube of water, and it's reading everything correctly.

That said, I'm glad that there are other accounts of this happening. I was really worried about that.

The alcohol produced by the yeast is less dense then water. At high proportions by volume, it can bring the overall density of your mead below that of water. Don't forget you're loosing molecular weight from the co2 created during fermentation.