10 Gallons of Mead, Oh My!

This is a continuation of the Applenoon Delight Saga.


So it has been some time since I have paid attention to this site. It is not for a lack of thinking about it, but life sometimes has a way of stealing time. If I see a little person, I oft look weary in their direction feeling that their thievery is why I do not complete as much as I do, bloody Time Bandits.

Anyway, enough of that completely unnecessary diatribe. The second batch of Applenoon Delight has been transferred to a secondary fermenter. Due to the fact that I have been out of town, the mead sat in the primary fermenter for a month. There was little to no activity from the bubble lock, letting me know that the yeast had converted all to most of the sugar into alcohol. Remember, the conversion process produces 2 chemicals, ethanol and carbon dioxide, and the airlock releases the carbon dioxide without letting any outside containment in the fermenter. Without opening the lid, and taking a reading with a hydrometer, the airlock is a good indicator when the fermentation process starts and stops.

I normally allow the mead to ferment initially for a month. The first Applenoon Delight only sat in the primary fermenter for 2 weeks. However, I believe letting it sit for about a month ensures that the sugars are all converted.

The terminal gravity for this batch was 1.000. A little math for you. The hydrometer measures the specific gravity at 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.56 degrees Celsius). To calibrate your reading for the correct calculation, you add 1.001 for 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and from there add 1.002 to every ten degrees afterward, so at 80 degrees Fahrenheit you add 1.002 to your reading. My reading was taken at 73 degrees Fahrenheit; however, I am rounding my correct reading to 1.001 for easy of calculation of percent alcohol by volume (ABV). The formula for ABV is OG-TG X .1275. When calculating you use everything behind the decimal. So, my terminal gravity for the calculation is 1 and my original gravity is 128 (from 1.128). My calculation is (128-1)X.1275= 16.2 % ABV. That is a nice amount of alcohol.