jjwelchNola
Member
So I'm very new to mead making, but not to brewing. For my mead, I kinda played it by ear, with a little guidance from my local brew shop. Forgot to add fermaid to my primary, so let it go for about a month til my hydrometer read approximately 1.00. Didn't take a starting gravity but believe the alcohol content is about 6.5% based on the amount of honey I used. Once it got to 1.00 SG, I racked it into a 5 gallon bucket and added some potassium sorbate. I let it sit for 48 hours in this bucket before racking into 5 1-gallon glass carboys. In each of the carboys I added pureed fruit and placed the water lock on top. I expected SOME bubbling, but a month later I was still seeing what looked like an active fermentation. I recently degassed and the bubbling reduced but didn't stop.
I was going to add some potassium metabisulfate this weekend and then backsweeten, but I'm worried I messed something up and I still have an active yeast colony reproducing and feasting on my sugars. Of course I can't verify this because I didn't take specific gravity readings after adding to the carboys. Reading around I may have added the sorbate too early? Have I mucked up this mead? Should I add more potassium sorbate to retard the yeast if they're still active? Please help.
I was going to add some potassium metabisulfate this weekend and then backsweeten, but I'm worried I messed something up and I still have an active yeast colony reproducing and feasting on my sugars. Of course I can't verify this because I didn't take specific gravity readings after adding to the carboys. Reading around I may have added the sorbate too early? Have I mucked up this mead? Should I add more potassium sorbate to retard the yeast if they're still active? Please help.