Realisticly, The only way to calculate this is the gravity measurement. In Mead making that is how you tell if it is done. The yeast will eat up a certian amount of sugar before making the environment unlivable due to the % of alcohol. And a percentage of alcohol in a solution, removing the sugar, will lower the gravity as it becomes less dense. When the gravity stays the same for x period of time you know it is complete. Also, if you know how much sugar you start out with and the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you are using then you can aproximate how much alcohol it will make, ie how many points the gravity will drop. I think with honey in meads it basically amounts to about 1 pound of honey to 1% of alcohol. But it stands to reason that the fermentation isn't complete until one of two situations occurs: 1. The yeast run out of sugar or 2. The yeast can't survive in the solution as it is goes beyond the toxicity of the yeast tolerance.
Now with #2 you are getting an average because even with yeast there are more hearty versions/mutations than the rating. With #1 you are setting it up so that the yeast literally don't have enough food to survive, not enough fermentables. Now this will end up with a dry product and if you like sweet some backsweetening will be needed. Many mead brewers do take this into account and acutally stop the fermentation via potasium sorbate and sulfates to arest the yeast and stop the fermentation at a desired point. Then add more sugar once it is safe. Now yeast have a specified lifespan of around a few days to a week, normally. That is for a given yeast cell. But the other problem is you can't be sure you get all of the yeast with out sterilization. But no matter there.
All that is background. The end result is that the only real way to tell is by the gravity to see if the fermentation is complete. The gravity is measurable by a hydrometer. There are several styles of hydrometers the most common requires a sample to be taken put in a tube and the hydrometer, looks almost like a thermometer, and take the reading and compare to the last reading and timing of the last reading. You want about a week of no change or more.
So how would you best go about this. Well for beer there has been developed a series of Brew Balls, ping pong sized balls that drop at a certian gravity. That is a current product out on the market today.
So, I suggest an improvement on this, one that will work for what ever fermentation. An electronic one that will keep constant track of both the tempature (as the gravity is adjusted by the tempature) and the gravity and hook up with a device via bluetooth or wirelessly and then a graph can be made with time/temp/gravity data points.
If such a device is used on several ferments an idea on the yeast strain and conditions of the brew can be made and you can even set up alerts on the computer or device to alert you of various levels. Like a timer for when the gravity stays the same for a week or more, within a certian tolerance rating.
That sounds like it can work.
This idea has been running around my head for several months, ever since I became aware of the Brew Balls.
As for having remaining sugar in a brew to make it less dry ... one can do that with lactose right? Because I believe brewing yeast cannot ferment lactose. That's the trick in cream stouts ... I've never heard it done with mead before though.
The other idea I had pertaining to a flow meter was what if one could design the ventilation lock so it would still release excess gas, but only at a certain pressure -- so the whole thing won't explode but it would keep the pressure up enough for it to become carbonated, thus resulting in you having a carbonated beverage as soon as the fermentation is done, and not needing to force carbonate / priming sugar it.
True, Lactose is a non-fermentable sugar, like Maltodextrin. Problem is that they are not very sweet when compaired to sugar or honey. You would need to add about twice as much. And adding that much will end up with a stronger of a mouthfeel. Possibly undisireable. I still recomend Stablizing and then Backsweetening. It isn't that hard and it makes the most of the honey. Lower ABV% making it more drinkable and keeping all the sugars the same yet not using tons of honey. Figure about 12% ABV is you use 12 pounds of honey in a 5 gal batch, aprox. If you use 18 pounds of honey up front then your ABV% will be to the tolerence of the yeast, firgure around 14-16%. And aging time will be a bit longer.
Now with #2 you are getting an average because even with yeast there are more hearty versions/mutations than the rating. With #1 you are setting it up so that the yeast literally don't have enough food to survive, not enough fermentables. Now this will end up with a dry product and if you like sweet some backsweetening will be needed. Many mead brewers do take this into account and acutally stop the fermentation via potasium sorbate and sulfates to arest the yeast and stop the fermentation at a desired point. Then add more sugar once it is safe. Now yeast have a specified lifespan of around a few days to a week, normally. That is for a given yeast cell. But the other problem is you can't be sure you get all of the yeast with out sterilization. But no matter there.
All that is background. The end result is that the only real way to tell is by the gravity to see if the fermentation is complete. The gravity is measurable by a hydrometer. There are several styles of hydrometers the most common requires a sample to be taken put in a tube and the hydrometer, looks almost like a thermometer, and take the reading and compare to the last reading and timing of the last reading. You want about a week of no change or more.
So how would you best go about this. Well for beer there has been developed a series of Brew Balls, ping pong sized balls that drop at a certian gravity. That is a current product out on the market today.
So, I suggest an improvement on this, one that will work for what ever fermentation. An electronic one that will keep constant track of both the tempature (as the gravity is adjusted by the tempature) and the gravity and hook up with a device via bluetooth or wirelessly and then a graph can be made with time/temp/gravity data points.
If such a device is used on several ferments an idea on the yeast strain and conditions of the brew can be made and you can even set up alerts on the computer or device to alert you of various levels. Like a timer for when the gravity stays the same for a week or more, within a certian tolerance rating.
That sounds like it can work.
This idea has been running around my head for several months, ever since I became aware of the Brew Balls.
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As for having remaining sugar in a brew to make it less dry ... one can do that with lactose right? Because I believe brewing yeast cannot ferment lactose. That's the trick in cream stouts ... I've never heard it done with mead before though.
The other idea I had pertaining to a flow meter was what if one could design the ventilation lock so it would still release excess gas, but only at a certain pressure -- so the whole thing won't explode but it would keep the pressure up enough for it to become carbonated, thus resulting in you having a carbonated beverage as soon as the fermentation is done, and not needing to force carbonate / priming sugar it.
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