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Mead versus Est ABV

So, did he just put 10% down across the board? WLP090 can hit 15% without much trouble if i'm not mistaken.

I see he's even got 099 listed at 18%, and I know that'll hit 25%+ if you're good to it and know what you're doing.

I'm curious why his numbers are inaccurate... I can understand the inaccuracies in hops and fermentables as they change from crop to crop, but yeast is a pretty set tolerance
 
I may be wrong, but I believe that most of the numbers come from the specification sheets from the manufacturers.  A lot of these have been in the program from the beginning (V1) and I am not sure any updates to more recent specs have been made.  I do know that in the 6 years I have been brewing, several of the yeasts I use have been updated by the manufacturers with new limits and I have updated these myself in my copy of BeerSmith.
 
Long and short of the conversation, I would think, would be to make your batch, take your readings and figure out your calcs. based on that. I have been making mead for some 30 years, and with all the additives, honey profiles, yeast variants, etc To expect any program to give accurate findings is possible, but would constantly be changing to add variant ingredients on top of yeast strains, batches, age, and climatic conditions.
As an armature beekeeper, there are 10's of thousands of honeys. And that is just domestic. If you buy your honey from a store, there is a good chance that you are not buying honey at all but a sugar blend from China that is sold to importers. That in itself would completely screw up any readings, baselines.
My humble advice... Make it, try it, if you like it then clone it. If you don't figure out why and change it. But ALWAYS buy your honey from a local keeper to ensure that what you are buying is actually honey, and a thumbnail of what kind.
 
The two yeasts I looked, 090 and SafAle US-05 were  at 10%.  It looks like they did not come from the manufacturer.  Maybe a new install is different.  I upgraded from 1.4 to 2 to 3 over the years.
 
Fermentis lists US-05 at 11% for alcohol tolerance right now.  I looked back on a few other forums and it seems like there was some discussion around 2007 to 2009 about what the actual limit was as no one could find it on a spec sheet for that product. 
 
Oginme said:
Fermentis lists US-05 at 11% for alcohol tolerance right now.  I looked back on a few other forums and it seems like there was some discussion around 2007 to 2009 about what the actual limit was as no one could find it on a spec sheet for that product.

I changed the entry on my BS3 to 13 so I don't have to remember the yeast settings will limit my potential though this will come back to haunts some time later I am sure. I checked their website which now says 9-11%. 

honestly, I would like to see a flag indicating the estimated ABV is based on yeast settings and not the recipe. I fnot for this post, I would have had no idea and not sure I would have crafted a good enough search term.

 
I have answered this same question several times since the update to the software, so the threads are out there.  It just may be the search based upon the title of the thread is not very revealing to the actual question asked and answered.
 
mr_beer said:
I would expect that if there were any internal inconsistency regarding ingredients or profiles that BS would advise the user -- popup window text, red blinking text, something.  After all the program "knows" there is an issue and it should not be a guessing game to determine what it is.

Sorry to go back to brewing advice, but I'm making my first mead and from what I am seeing and assuming is if you want a sweet mead then that is mainly done by overdoing the honey so there is excess fermentables and sweetness by the time the yeast get killed off by alcohol content? so there is no maximum amount you should put in? Also is it possible to make a sweet mead without hitting the maximum alcohol tolerance of the yeast? Would a certain non/part fermentable sugar be my best option or is it best to get the sweetness another way?
 
I am by no means a mead expert, but usually sweet mead is made by fermenting the batch out, stopping yeast activity by adding Sulfites, and then back sweetening with honey or sugars to get the flavor you want.  You can also try to halt the fermentation process by adding the Sulfites in some point and someone more experienced may be able to tell you how to do that.
 
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