So I'm still really horrible at staying on schedule as I didn't degas the meads (No. 11 and No. 12) on either Thursday or Friday. Both days I thought about it, but ultimately procrastinated long enough that I eventually forgot about doing so.
I took gravity readings today though and both came in at 0.994 which is below the 1.000 I think I should've been shooting for, and probably would have caught had I been degassing daily as I should have. I'm not surprised at the traditional mead being at that level as it was at 1.004 on Wednesday, so it probably hit 1.000 on Thursday. The pumpkin pie spice mead, however, seems to have plummeted over the intervening days at its prior reading was 1.034. Yet, since it was three days since the last gravity reading, it's probably not so surprising after all.
Now is the time to decide what to do with the meads. No. 12 can be backsweetened at this point, either first stabilizing it with sulfites or step-feeding it with honey until the yeast conks out and I get it to my desired sweetness level. I'll probably go with that method since this is all experimentation for me anyway.
For the pumpkin pie spice mead, however, I may add a little more spice when I rack it to the secondary. The taste of spices that were added at the start are still present but have mellowed with time. I would imagine by the time a year has passed they might not be discernible at all and I would like there to be a slight kick with the pumpkin pie flavor.
UPDATE: Backsweetened No. 12 with a 1/2 cup of honey, which raised the gravity to 1.006. I'll continue to add 1/2 cup until the yeast stops consuming it, probably on an every other day schedule. I'll try to remember to degas daily, but good luck with that!
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