1st Melomel

[RightHookCook]

Hello mead mentors!,

I started making my 1st Pineapple Melomel yesterday night, and after checking it this morning (after 12 hours) its gone NUTS!.

Its bubbling in the airlock every second, but my concern is this, the airlock has sucked up the must and is now basically full and has a lot of brown foam in it.

The neck of the dem-john is also nearly full of the brown foam, ive now left it in the large stock pot I have in its normal spot just incase it starts to over flow while im at work.

My procedure was this: Mixed the pineapple juice with the honey in a large stock pot, rehydrated the yeast as by instructions, pitched the yeast after leaving it for 15-20 minutes and then went to town shaking the hell out of the DJ until my arms couldn’t take any more, topped it of with water to just below the neck, poped on the airlock with the water filled up to the recommended fill lines and let it be.

3lbs Local Honey

3 ltrs pure pineapple juice (not the concentrated stuff)

Young’s Super Wine Compound (Bentonite, Dried Wine Yeast, DAP, Trace Vitamins, Trace Minerals)

Toped up to 1 gallon tap water

Any suggestions?

And should I empty the airlock and put a clean one on? Or just wait until I rack it?

Thanks again to every one.

;D

 

[RightHookCook]

just to say, i tried to take a hydrometer reading and it was of the scale, so i havent got a clue what that would be? my hydrometer goes to 1.120.

also note to fatbloke, i had to finnish the youngs yeast, next batch i will move onto your recomendations!

 

[JayH]

My calculations say around 1.135

Using the mead calculator and putting in 3 lbs of honey and figuring that there is approx the equivalent of 2.5 teaspoons of sugar to 1/2 cup of plain unsweetened pineapple juice (or at least that is what a sampling of one site on the internet claims)

And with all the nutrients in both your yeast package and those in the pineapple, yes it should go pretty well

 

[RightHookCook]

ok , seriously need some help with this one, when i got home from work the airlock was blocked and hissing slightly with all this brown foam and pineapple. i took the airlock off and cleared it out and sanitized it again, topped it up and left it.

then 30 minutes later it was blocked again! i have now taken the little red cap off, this has stopped the hissing noise and is oozing foam aswell.

is this thing going to blow as i really cba to clean up loads of stuff in my spare room!

ive read and seen some real horror stories and pictures.

 

[fathand]

I would just sanitize a piece of aluminum foil and place it over the opening to your demi-john and secure it with a rubber band until fermentation dies down.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I'd use plastic wrap and a rubber band, you never know what's going to eat through aluminum.

 

[wildoates]

This is why I primary in a bucket, but it sounds like it's going swimmingly otherwise!

 

[akueck]

The Al foil should be fine. Plastic wrap is fine. You could use some cheesecloth as well.

Suggestions for next time are to either use a bigger container or make less mead, presumably the choice is obvious.

 

[RightHookCook]

cool, so not to much to worry about then guys?

and its ok to clean the airlock ? also, this may seem dumb, but when you say put foil round the top? how do you meen? lol sorry

 

[K5MOW]

ok , seriously need some help with this one, when i got home from work the airlock was blocked and hissing slightly with all this brown foam and pineapple. i took the airlock off and cleared it out and sanitized it again, topped it up and left it.

then 30 minutes later it was blocked again! i have now taken the little red cap off, this has stopped the hissing noise and is oozing foam aswell.

is this thing going to blow as i really cba to clean up loads of stuff in my spare room!

ive read and seen some real horror stories and pictures.

Put a blow off tub on.

Roger

 

[RightHookCook]

Put a blow off tub on.

Roger

well im into day 3 of fermentation so i think im just going to hang tight, let it sit in the washing up bowl and clean the airlock every now and again, just been reading into blow off tubes, i think i will def be using this next time.

do most of the people use this method when they have a crazy foaming fermentation monster on the go?

 

[Medsen Fey]

The easier approach is just use a larger primary fermenter. A 10-gallon plastic trash-can eliminates the problem when making 5-7 gallon batches.

 

[RightHookCook]

The easier approach is just use a larger primary fermenter. A 10-gallon plastic trash-can eliminates the problem when making 5-7 gallon batches.

thanks for the advice, is my approach ok just for this batch? like will the fact im taking the airlock off and cleaning it once or twice a day be a problem?

 

[Medsen Fey]

Cleaning the airlock as needed is no problem.
Antifoam drops are also very useful.

 

[RightHookCook]

Cleaning the airlock as needed is no problem.
Antifoam drops are also very useful.

i have been having a read into them, the one my local HBS stocks is made by brubaks, and says mix up and spray onto to the foam to stop. could one like this be used in the must to prevent foaming,krausen etc altogether?

 

[Medsen Fey]

I'm not familiar with that specific product, but generally they won't prevent all foaming; they will reduce it though.

 

[RightHookCook]

I'm not familiar with that specific product, but generally they won't prevent all foaming; they will reduce it though.

thanks for your replys medsen, i spoke to the guy at the HBS and he suggested a couple of things, but he also mentioned he has never made mead.

the one thing he did mention which i thought was a bit odd was to use a plastic bin for primary (yes i know not very odd) but to not use an airlock with it and the bubbles and foam etc will burst on the plastic lid?

would this work? seems to me like it would explode! ;D

 

[moonie]

thanks for your replys medsen, i spoke to the guy at the HBS and he suggested a couple of things, but he also mentioned he has never made mead.

the one thing he did mention which i thought was a bit odd was to use a plastic bin for primary (yes i know not very odd) but to not use an airlock with it and the bubbles and foam etc will burst on the plastic lid?

would this work? seems to me like it would explode! ;D

Granted I'm very new to mead making however I have learned from here to do primary ferment to the 1/3 sugar break in an open topped bucket with a sanitized towel over the top. This solves the issue of the foam bursting through. My first two gallon batches made a mess, I'm currently on batch number 4 (since the end of January) and all is going well for them. First 2 batches are starting to clear nicely.

 

[RightHookCook]

do most people take hydrometer readings daily then to judge when there must hits the 1/3 sugar break?

 

[AToE]

Yup, some people use other methods (weighing the batch with some neat math, refractometres) but hydrometer is the most common way. Some people take readings more than daily too.