Ice Pyment

1 - RJ Spagnols Ice Wine Kit

1 pkg Lalvin K1V-1116 Yeast

12 oz. Buckwheat Honey

8 oz. Tupelo Honey

3 lbs. Clover Honey

~3 qts of water

OK, my goal with this batch is to make and Ice Wine style Pyment. It's going to be extremely sweet and very potent! I plan to use the grape juice from the kit, combined with some Texas clover honey and a high alcohol yeast to create a pyment that has 18% to 20% ABV and is still Ice Wine style sweet. If it ferments too dry, I'll simply post sweeten to taste.

8/25/2004	Started the process this evening. I put the juice from the Ice Wine kit and the re-hydrated the yeast in my primary bucket. The smell of the juice is NOT what I was expecting. I was expecting something similar to the grape juice you buy at the store, and that's definitely NOT what was in the kit. I've never make a kit wine before, so this may be completely normal. Time will tell. The initial SG of the juice is 1.15 (76 deg), which is a PA of 20%. The yeast I used is rated for 18% alcohol, which means that even if the yeast goes all the way, the wine would be a little sweet. I haven't added any of the honey yet. I want to let the yeast get established before I throw even more sugar at them
8/27/2004	As of this morning, the yeast is happily bubbling away. I want at least some honey in the mixture early on, so I'm going to add the 12 oz. jar of Buckwheat Honey this evening. This Evening: I did add the 12 oz. of Buckwheat honey. Before I added it, the SG still measured 1.15, but my guess is that a temperature difference made it seem like the yeast had worked all day without using any of the sugar.
8/30/2004	This evening, I checked the Specific Gravity of the must. It's now at 1.110
9/1/2004	I checked the SG again, and it was just a fraction over 1.09. I'll plan on adding some honey tomorrow evening when I get home from work.
9/4/2004	The SG was down to 1.08. I went ahead and added the honey. I decided that since the OG was 1.15, the honey mixture should be 1.15 also, regardless of the current SG. This way, the OG of the entire batch is still 1.15. I mixed the 8 oz. of Tupelo with the 3 lbs of Walmart Clover Honey and added water until the SG was down to 1.15. I aerated the mixture then added it to the fermenting wine kit. My hope is that the additional yeast grown because of the increase in volume will be a little more alcohol tolerant than the original yeast and the yeast will be able to convert almost all of the sugar to alcohol (20% ABV). We'll see where it ends up. I plan to give this another week to ferment then I'm going to transfer everything to carboys. I should be able to fill a 3 gallon and a 1 gallon jug.
9/12/2004	Transferred everything to carboys. I broke my hydrometer, so I don't know the SG. I was able to fill both a 3 gallon and 1 gallon carboy. Both jugs are still happily bubbling away!
9/28/2004	Fermentation appears to be stopping. There are still 'some' bubbles rising in the must, but they are becoming few and far between. Some lees have settled out, but it's not ready to rack yet. I'm going to let this settle for a couple of weeks before I worry about racking.
10/14/2004	Checked the SG this morning and it is at 1.050 @ 77 deg, which works out to about 13% ABV. The sample has a very smooth taste, but is a little on the sweet side. I would have liked to see this finish at about 1.020 or 1.030. That would have given a little more alcohol, and if it was too dry, I could have sweetened to taste. After some discussion of the GotMead Forum, it was decided that I had a stuck fermentation. So, in a effort to re-start the fermentation I did the following: Added some Fermax Yeast Nutrient Raised the temp about 4 degrees Made a new K1V started, accumulated it to the alcohol and pitched Added some acid blend None of these had any effect. So everyone decided that it had to be a ph problem.
10/23/2004	Made it down to the local HBS and got a ph test kit and some calcium carbonate. Tested the batch, and the ph was setting at 3.4. The recommended range for the ph is between 3.7 and 4.0, so I added some calcium carbonate. In addition to some outgassing of CO2, there appeared to be an almost immediate fermentation re-start. Indeed, after a few hours, there was no doubt that it was again fermenting. This lasted about a day, and the activity had just about ceased. I again tested the ph, and it was again, 3.4. Added some more calcium carbonate, and it picked back up again.
10/26/2004	Well it's almost slowed to a stop again, so this evening I plan to test the SG to see where it's at, and if I'm still not satisfied with it, I'll re-test ph and add more calcium carbonate if necessary.
11/3/2004	Tested the SG and it was at 1.055 (70 deg), which after compensation, is about where it was before. But, for some reason, I remember it being 1.070 before, even though I put 1.050 in the log. The PH tested at 3.6 and there hasn't been any bubbling for the last 6 days, so I added some more Calcium Carbonate. It's taken off bubbling again (slowly) so I'll watch it for awhile and see if the SG is dropping or not. If not, I'll let it clear, stabilize, and bottle. If the SG is still dropping I'll let it go till about 1.030 before stabilizing and bottling.
12/1/2003	The SG is currently at 1.050, which is a little less than last time. The PH is still 3.6. This stuff just eats calcium carbonate for breakfast! If I keep feeding it 'antacid', it keeps bubbling, and it appears the SG is dropping (very slowly) so I'm going to let it keep going. This stuff still doesn't show any signs of clearing, so I think the yeast wants to work, and I'm going to let it.
12/25/2004	I decided it was time to rack. I carefully racked both the 3 Gal carboy and the 1 gal jug into my primary bucket. I checked the PH and it was STILL at 3.6. I added a fair amount of Calcium Carbonate, mixed it up real good, then transfered everything back into clean carboys. There was very little sediment in the carboys and this stuff still hasn't started to clear. The taste is rather nice, but you can definitely tell it is high alcohol. Even after it clears, I imagine this batch will need some time to age before its ready to drink.
3/5/2005	Racked today. Also, put up a few bottles. Well from the first taste test, this stuff is REAL potent! It also has a weird taste (it tastes the way the grape juice originally smelled. It's not 'bad' but it's a very string taste.) Hopefully, the taste will age out. If not, I've found that a little 7-Up added to the mead mellows the taste out so that it's quite pleasant and since this stuff is high alcohol, it still had a reasonable punch.