Pineapple coconut melomel (mead) - 1/2 Break is here! Day 4

Popped the fermenter tonight for the usual maintenance work.  Stir, Aerate, Measure, etc...  First the gravity...

SG = 1.052

This is awesome.  So I've reached the 1/2 way point.  (Not exactly but close enough!)  So that means its time for the final nutrient addition.  Cool.

Pineapple coconut mead - Houston...We have lift off. Day 3

Okay, so I started my usual mead maintenance tonight and aerated the must, skimmed a little more of the strange pineapple puke off the top.  But I noticed a very active and visible 'boiling' effect in the fermenting must.  I took a video.  Check it out...

Pineapple Coconut Melomel (Mead) - Lag phase is over

Today at lunch I came home and saw the air lock giving me a bubble every 10 seconds or so.  From my perspective that means its ready for some junk food!

I added 4g of Fermaid-K and 2g of DAP both mixed into some water then poured into the must.  Gave it a good stir and closed everything back up.  Time to get back to work!

Strawberry Melomel #2 - The Stink Returns...

This AM the smell was back...  I'm at a loss here.  But since the last couple of time the smell was reduced significantly with a little nutrient addition, I'm going to do it again.  Added 2g of Fermaid-K and 2g of DAP.  Punched the cap and took a sample.

SG=1.042
pH=3.4
Temperature=63F

Sensory:  The taste is becoming noticeably bitter.  I assume this is because of the stressed yeast...  I hope this clears up after some aging.

Strawberry Melomel #2 - Updates

4/29 6:00 PM - Smells like a hobo is using my bathroom as a fart balloon!  Measured the SG @ 1.068, pH=3.4, Temperature = 59F.  The must is too cool so I raised the temperature of the water bath to 16C.  To help with the stinky ass I added 4g of Fermaid-K.  I also added 4/5 of a gallon of the must that I had reserved for later.  This raised the SG to 1.070, pH = 3.5, and lowered the temperature to 58F.

4/30 1:00 PM  - Damn it the stink is back!  I added 2g of Fermaid-K and 2g of DAP. SG=1.056, pH=3.5

4/30 10:00 PM - Checked on the fermentation and the stink is gone.  The temperature is = 64F.

Strawberry Melomel #2 - Update (pH problem...)

Aerated the must with the sanitary filter bubble wand for 20 minutes this afternoon.  Measured the SG @ 1.078.  The problem was the pH.  Its dropping quickly, today it was 3.3.  pH is a problem for the yeast if it drops to 3.2 or lower.  So I added 1 teaspoon of Asian Lye water that had been mixed into an 8oz glass of water.  I stirred it in gently and was surprised to see quite a bit of foam come out of the must.  This was after aeration after all so I didn't think there would be that must dissolved CO2 still...

Anyways, I'll give it a few hours then check the pH again.  I see how much that teaspoon of lye water moved the pH and make a proportional addition if need to bring the pH back to 3.4.

I tasted the pH sample and it was still very clean, still sweet, but quite a bit of acid bite to it.  Tasted like strawberries and honey still.  The alcohol hasn't become much more noticeable but it must be there.  So for it has dropped 34 points and that means about 4.7% abv.

Speaking of points, it occurs to me this is just about to the 1/3 break.  I'm going to add 2.5g of Fermaid-K tonight for the occasion!  Really though, since I over shot the fermaid-k at the last addition I'll cut back on the 1/3 break amount.  I've update the recipe to reflect the nutrient addition schedule changes...


Update: 3:00PM - Measured the pH and it is now at 3.4  So I am going to let it be for now but I'll be checking frequently to ensure this doesn't drop below 3.2.  I also punched the fruit cap.

Strawberry melomel #2 - added nutrients

Started to smell some off odors.  Thought it may be H2S so I  jumped the gun and added the second dose of nutrients ahead of schedule.  Added 6g of DAP, and 9.5g of fermaid-k.  Measured the specific gravity at 1.090.  This has dropped 20 points so far and tastes good as well .  Very clean, nice acid, the alcohol is just becoming noticeable.

Temperature remains stable at 60F.  The airlock is now moving along at a good rate. Much like the last batch this is going fast.  I'm a bit surprised because of the low temperature though... 

Aerated the must with a vigorous stirring.

Update: 1:46am and good news.  The smell is gone now...completely.  Lets see if I got it cut off at the pass.  Unlike last time... pH=3.5