A while back I asked about restarting stuck fermentations, as I had
fifteen gallons sitting there not doing anything after the first
couple of months, but still so sweet as to be undrinkable. Lots of
suggestions were made, most of which I'd already tried. Well, today
we tried an experiment — adding oxygen.

Just to make sure we weren't making a major mistake, we racked off
about a quart, split that in two, and tried bubbling different amounts
of medical oxygen through them. We let them sit for twenty minutes or
so before trying, to give any nasty oxidation effects a chance to
occur. There was a direct correlation between the amount of bubbling
and the mellowing of off-flavours due to fermentation (i.e., the one
we put a lot of gas into tasted better, although still deadly sweet
and low-alcohol). So, first data point — the harshness that takes a
long time to age out seems to be helped by adding oxygen.

So, we went ahead and bubbled seven liters of oxygen through each of
the five gallon carboys (well, two fives and one 4 3/4, now). I'll
send out another update in a week or two, once I know whether or not
the yeast will be waking back up.

One other thing we did was add about a teaspoon of yeast nutrient to
each carboy. Couldn't hurt, and will probably help.

Dworkin

How prevalent is the use of sulphites in mead making nowadays? From my
reading and following this digest and making meads and talking to people, I
sort of got the idea that the current view is to not use sulphites.

On the negative side, you have to worry about anyone with an allergy to
sulphites drinking your mead.

On the positive side, sulphites do what? Slow down yeast?

Whether you boil or not, heat to pasteurize or not, is there *any* good reason
to use sulphites?

Thanks.

John DeCarlo, MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA–My views are my own
Fidonet: 1:109/131 Internet: jdecarlo@mitre.org