[Brewmeisters]

Question for you:
My brew partner made a off hand comment tonight, and I never realized one thing we forgot to do when we
started to ferment a clover honey mead.


We never took an Original Gravity reading.


Is there a way to find out the ABV after we get a F.G. reading?


Or are we screwed. I think we are.

[ethinson]

If you built the recipe in beersmith or similar program it should give you an estimate, that should be pretty close. You can also calculate it, especially with honey which is 100% fermentable.  I don't know off hand what honey is in points per pound per gallon, but for example, if it's 45 PPG and you used 5 pounds of honey in five gallons, your OG will be 1.045.  (45 points/lb * 5 lb) / 5 gallon (the 5's cancel).

[dmtaylor]

We can figure it out for you.  How many pounds of honey?  Batch size in gallons?  My mead gets an OG ranging 1.082 to 1.087, or 1.085 average, with 7 lb clover honey in a 3-gallon batch.  That's 3 gallons total volume batch with both honey and water together, NOT 3 gallons water plus the honey which would be more like 3.5 gallons or whatever.

[hopfenundmalz]

You could pay to have it tested for ABV, but I would just take the above advice and estimate it.

You only HAVE to know the ABV accurately if you are a commmercial mead maker.

[Brewmeisters]

22 lbs. of honey for 6.25 gal. of water

[dmtaylor]

Okay...... based on my own experience, I calculate clover honey to have an average of 36.4 gravity points per pound per gallon.  So...

With 22 lbs in 6.25 gallons of mead, this works out to be an OG=1.128.

But if you intended that to mean that you added the 22 lb to 6.25 gallons of water to make closer to 8 gallons of mead, then you have an OG=1.100.

Cheers.

[Brewmeisters]

22 lbs added to water to make it right at 6.25 gal.Thanks!
Incredible job