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Cool Temp Aging

i have a batch of cyser (my first home brew batch ! yay me !) that's about ready to be racked off the primary fermenter (ye 3.5 gal bucket), it's bubbling less than once every minute and a half or so.

local brew shop is closed, and i want to age in some charcoal or oak chips to help smooth and flavor the mead a bit, but i want to make sure that i'm doing the right thing. i could bottle and store in my closet or something, but i really don't want cyser all over my bedroom because the ferment wasn't finished. =)

so my questions are thus:

  1. i'd like to get the benefits of the continued fermentation, ie, the malo-lactic fermentation. if i bottled the cyser as is (filtering it, fining it) and stuck it in the fridge would it still receive the benefit of this continued fermentation?

  1. how about flavoring? if i added a little bit of charcoal or oak chips would refrigeration interfere with the "conditioning"?

  2. i don't want to because of space issues, but if cold aging isn't going to do it any good, should i just rack it into a secondary and wait it out? for my first batch, i want to run as few risks of contamination as possible.

thank you all so much for your time, i've learned a lot just by reading from the respective groups!

if it helps, here's some stats on it so far (i haven't popped the top, so i don't know my final gravity.... yet... but i'm praying its halfway decent)

OG 1.098 fermenting time 22 days and counting

basic ingredients 2 or 2.5 gal distilled water 2 lbs honey 3.5 lbs dark brown sugar (cane not beet) 1/2 gal apple juice (no preserv.) 1 can apple juice conc. (ditto, enough to make a half gal i think) couple Tbsp lemon juice 6 bags of tea (2 ea of lemon tea, orange spice, earl gray) our ending volume is a little over 2 gal, in ye 3.5 gal bucket. it started bubbling pretty decently, stayed bubbling most of the past few weeks between every 3 and 6 seconds.

tasted pretty good before the yeast was added, and the bouquet is ... complex and different. i'll keep everyone updated as it comes...

Saul Sabia saul_sabia@yahoo[o].com

Reply to
Saul_Sabia
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I do not do an MLF on mead but if you want to I think you should start it right after or even during secondary. Do not filter or cold treat. Just do it.

Refrigeration will retard aging. I think you are confusing "Cold Stabalization" with "Cold Storage". Cold stabalization is used to treat some wines to stabalize some chemical processes that go on. It can cause some reactions to complete and sedement to fall out before you put it in bottles. It is not wise to store your wine in a really cold environment.

50 to 60 degrees is okay but colder will do little other than retard aging.

IMHO Just put it in bulk aging under an airlock in a room that does not get uncomfortably hot or cold and let it sit for a year or so. Do watch the airlock and make sure that it does not dry out. Then after a year, taste it and see if you like it. If so, bottle.

Another aproach would be to bottle a gallon and put the rest back to bulk age in gallon jugs. You can sample the bottles untill they run out and then bottle another gallon.

One basic rule that over shaddows my advise or anyone else's. If you like it, it is ready to drink.

Good luck

Ray

Reply to
Ray

Well, i did it! approximately 24 days of fermentation, and my first batch of wine is done! i popped the cap off the bucket and was struck by how potent the aroma was... very strong, cheap-apple-wine kind of smell, but man oh man i could smell the alcohol from across the room!

the original must tasted all honey until about halfway through the drink, the apple juice would hit with a nice 'pang!' and fade away into sweetness. in fermented form the apple has 'fuzzed' a little bit and is emphasizing the alcohol a little much. i'm tasting the brown sugar much more now, the taste of honey has almost entirely disappeared.

what surprised me most is when i took measurements:

the original specific gravity was 1.098, and it finished at 1.045ish, which translates into

pot alc 13.%

- pot alc .5%

--------------- final alc (roughly) 12% (!)

it fermented out to "dry" and while it could probably use some sweetening, what i'm going to do is start another batch, this time i'm trying a coffee wine, and let this stuff age for a while, to see if the that apple fuzz could blend in a little better with the rest of the flavors.

i definitely need to clarify this wine, its very cloudy. it's late at night right now, and i've been bouncing off the walls, happy at hitting and exceeding my 10% alcohol mark, so i might do it tomorrow night. we'll see.

i'll try and post the pix i've been taking with my camera phone, whenever sprint gets their server up and running.

i guess i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posts to these newsgroups, you've helped me out a lot with your insights, suggestions, and recipes! now, off to dream of future (successful) homebrews!

Saul Sabia saul_sabia@yaho[o].com

Reply to
Saul_Sabia

Congratulations on making something that you seem to enjoy.

Only one comment. All your numbers seem fairly consistent except the finishing SG. You said it dropped from 1.098 to about 1.045. The 1.045 number would indicate a stuck or incomplete ferment with a very high residual sugar and probably only about 7% alcohol. You might check this one number as everything else seems consistent. Next time you open a bottle just double check the SG.

Ray

Reply to
Ray

let's try that again... 1.098 original gravity, 1.004 final gravity. there. that's a little bit better. mental note to self: don't shift the decimal point when you're taking a hydrometer reading at 2am. =)

Saul Sabia saul_sabia@yaho[o].com

Reply to
Saul_Sabia

that 1.045 should read 1.004. sorry. it was late. i was tired, and more than a little giddy. =)

Saul Sabia saul_sabia@yaho[o].com

Reply to
Saul_Sabia

That is more reasonable, what type of yeast did you use?

Steve

Reply to
Steve Thompson

yeah, so i mistyped. happens at 3 am. sorry. what i meant was

OG 1.098 FG 1.004

trust me, it's definitely got a kick to it. i couldn't wait, it's not clarified yet, and i'm kicking back drinking some right now. lots of honey and a nice brown sugar/honey base. yummmm. can't wait to see how it turns out in 6 months or so... should be really, really good. =)

Saul Sabia saul_sabia@yaho[o].com

Reply to
Saul_Sabia

Cote-de-Blanc. it was what the nice person behind the counter at my local brewshop recommended, she said it was a good all-around fruit yeast, with reasonable alcohol tolerance and reasonable competetiveness. that's about all the information i have on it. i don't know it's actual alc. tolerance, but i'm pretty sure i wasn't pushing it too hard.

Saul Sabia saul_sabia@yaho[o].com

Reply to
Saul_Sabia

You probably want to sorbat it then as it may start fermenting in the bottle if it's still off-dry.

Don

Reply to
Don S

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