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A Newbie Story (but not mine)

I have a friend who wanted to try making a maple wine (take maple syrup and use it like honey for a mead). Being the person he knew that did this kind of thing he asked for my help. I gave him good advice, he didn't follow all of it. Namely he didn't buy a hydrometer and just guessed at how much maple syrup to put in the must (which is just water, maple syrup and champaign yeast), well it has fermented out. It is clear, looks like a very light coloured maple syrup and smells nice, tastes great, but very strong and almost cough syrup sweet. The small sample he gave me (in a jam jar) is not enough to get a Specific Gravity reading from, but I tested it in my vinometer (yeah I know because it is not dry the reading will be off) and got a reading of 23%, 22%, off the scale (I figure that one was a mistake) and 22%. He has 6 gallons of it and it is to good to go to waste (a little strong to drink in any quantity though). This is beyond my knowledge of how to deal with it, what should I tell him to do? I'm hoping someone here (like Jack Keller) can give me some advice that I can pass on. Ken

Reply to
Ken Vale
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Oh and I told him to get a hydrometer and check the SG, I figure there is a bunch of fermentable sugars left in the must (though it would have to be diluted and new yeast added). Ken

Reply to
Ken Vale

What's it taste like when you warm it up slightly? I have a maple mead that tastes horrible chilled, is barely palatable when room temp, but is quite nice when warmed up - very much like a brandy.

I used a medium/dark side amber for that batch. Started another batch last year of light amber, hoping to take some of the heaviness out of it. (Won't know for another several months whether that makes a difference - I don't tend to taste my meads or wines until I'm ready to bottle).

Woods

Reply to
Woodswun

Hrm. 22% .... tried mixing it 50/50 with water and seeing how it tastes? Perhaps blending it with a cyser?

Reply to
nospam

How about adding water. That will lower the sugar level since it's too sweet. It will lower the alcohol level, which will allow it to start fermenting again, lowering the alcohol level further. And it will also dilute the flavor, which is too strong.

Reply to
John Tanzini

The first thing is that you must determine what the current SG is. There is no way to determine the actual alcohol level but it is probably at the maximum for the yeast that was used. Maybe even a little higher as I think they are usually conservative. He used a Champaign yeast so it is probably at a high alcohol level, 18% or so. Real rocket fuel.

Let's say it is 18% and it ended up with an SG of 1.030. If you are happy with 18% then add enough water to bring the SG down to 1.015 and repitch the yeast. By adding enough water to bring in down to 1/2, it should now ferment down to 1.000 before it hits it's maximum again. This will probably not be dry. I would try cutting it down to 1.010 and hope it went below

1.000.

If you want to bring it down to closer to 14%, then you should first water down the alcohol to the level you want, then determine the SG and water the SG down accordingly.

In repitching the yeast, first water it down how much you want and then follow Jack Keller's method of restarting a stuck ferment. Make a starter, get it going well. Then double it's volume with the stuck wine. When it is going strong again (4 to 12 hrs) double it's volume again. Repeat this until the entire batch is fermenting.

Ray

Reply to
Ray

Thanks to everyone who replied I'll pass this on to my friend. Ken

Reply to
Ken Vale

I'm way late to this, but Champagne yeasts have been known to get near 22% before.. thou you usually (not always) have to feed them for this.

My recomendation is to rack 5 gallons of it to a

5 gallon carboy, then use the last gallon to experiment with a few different methods of adjusting the mead if you haven't acted alwready.

Id try diluting splits with different nethods.

10 splits to a gallon, so get a case and use 2 each. Dilute with water. with Apple Juice, possibly with a Dry Cyser. Quick and Easy dry cyser, 1.5-2 pounds honey per gallon of Apple juice. lavallin ec-1118

I used 1 gallon grade b maple syrup with 6-8 pounds of honey to make my 6 gal mapple mead. it sure is pretty. let you know in a few weeks how it tastes. plan to try it september 1, when it will be 8 months old, my new time for the first taste of most batches.

I was always in them early before i had built up a few casses of mead in the bottle.

Reply to
Thirsty Viking

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