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Nucleation in BOMM

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L

leuchtenbergia

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 6, 2015
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Howdy!

First time post from a new member.
I've been making mead for a few years and recently ran across the BOMM recipe.

I started two 1 gallon batches on 2 days ago. I measured SG yesterday and today and decided today was the day for the second batch of FermaidK and DAP.
I've never done SNA before. I read about nucleation issues before hand. I wasn't totally sure how to degass a nearly full carboy so I stirred it up with the hydrometer for a couple minutes. I measured the dry ingredients into a shot glass and poured some must/mead into the shot glass to fill it. I stirred up the nutrients well and thought I'd be okay dumping them in. WRONG! Major volcano and lost a fair amount of my precious mead of the future. So I'm not totally sure what I could do better next time and should I assume all those nutrients became lava and went out, or should I assume enough got in and hold off and only add the stuff again for the 3rd addition?

I've searched for solutions to this issue but only find recommendations to degass and mix dry ingredients with must, which I did.

I was pretty excited about trying the BOMM method and am pretty bummed about messing it up.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Please don't use your hydrometer for mixing. Learn from my experience. I did it once (and only once) and was as careful as I could be, but all it took was one accidental clink against the lip of the jug and it broke. Luckily, none of the glass made it into the must, but I strained it anyway. Get a cheap wooden spoon from the baking aisle of the supermarket. One of the ones with a thin, dowel-like handle. Hold it by the spoon part and use the thin handle to mix.

As you probably know, what happens in an eruption like that is the particles in whatever you're adding give the dissolved CO2 something to grab onto and come out of solution. Swirling the must around 'jostles' the stuff and knocks the CO2 loose, allowing it to go from the must to the atmosphere (yeah, I know you probably know this, but there may be a newbie out there reading this that doesn't) less violently than it would if you dumped a bunch of particles in.

What I have done to avoid an MEA (Mead Eruption Activity) is to lower the level of must in the carboy by siphoning about a quart into a used honey bottle (I buy 3 lb bottles of honey at BJ's, and 3 lbs of honey is right around a quart), swirl the heck out of the must left in the jug (you did say these were 1 gallon batches, right?) and the must in the honey bottle, then add the nutrient/energizer to the quart and mix well, then add it back to the jug while swirling that puppy around. I've always avoided a serious MEA in this way, although I've cut corners when in a rush and had a few very minor ones.

Don't worry about losing a little bit of must. Just mix up some honey and water until its close to your original SG and top off the jug to where it was before. I use one of those empty honey bottles for this too. I mix up some raw must and keep it in the fridge (if I'm going to be using it within a few days) or freezer (if I'm holding it for secondary or something). Its a good way to always have something to top off a batch with.

Welcome to the site! There are lots of people here who've forgotten more about making mead than I'll ever know. Its a great resource!

Good luck,
Joe
 
Thank you all so much.
I dealt with my other gallon batch last night after work with no MEA!
I did mix the nutrients with must still but then I added 1/4 tsp of that mixture at a time. It still caused a bit of ruckus but stayed well contained in the carboy.
Thanks for the advice and positive encouragement, I needed it. Also, thanks for the idea about topping of the must. I will try to top that batch off tonight. I knew using the hydrometer was a bad idea but did it anyways. Last night I used a spoon handle, worked a lot better anyways.

Thanks again!
Look forward to using this forum more.
 
I'm on BOMM #4 and #5, and the first three all volcanoed! So far with the two batched I've got going one volcanoed once (and it's a cyser -- I don't have any extra cider on hand). There's a certain finesse that I'm starting to figure out, but I think I'm done trying to mix and add, I think slowly and directly seems to be the best way for me. Glad to see loveofrose does it that way too.
 
Head is a nice perk, sure, but I think smell and taste is more important.
 
I weigh my food and then mix it up with a tiny bit of hot water and swirl until it is all dissolved, then I add it to my carboy. In the early stages when lots of gas is cranking, I stir out the gas pretty good before I add the wet food. Works great. The one and only time I had a small volcano was when I drizzled some honey in a carboy when it was pretty gassy without stirring out the gas first..
 
I hear ya smertz, I laughed inside when I posted this thinking the same thing :)
 
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