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Fermentation has slowed down ALOT 13 days into brew!

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H

Henrah

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 19, 2015
2
0
0
Hello,

I'm new to making mead and have started two gallons in seperate gallon bell jars. I used 1gal of water, 3.5lbs ish of unpasteurized honey, a tea spoon of nutrient and 2.5g of Gervin 10 gold label yeast in each.
Both airlocks have been bubbling like mad for about two weeks, but one of them 13 days in has slowed down to less than a bubble every 30 seconds and there is a thickish sediment formed on the bottom.

Should it have slowed down this early? Does this mean My yeast has died?

Any help much appreciated, i'm a self taught noob adding yeast to honey water and crossing my fingers.
 
The fact that you added nutrient is a good sign. Do you have a hydrometer? I'm willing to bet your sugars are all fermented out, but the only surefire way to tell is with a hydrometer.

Assuming your ferment is done, (a good possibility), give the mead a few more days to drop more sediment and rack to a secondary, then top up the batch. Once it's in secondary, it's time to age it for a long while.
 
If you really want to know what's going on with your yeast, you will want to get a hydrometer.

Have a sniff and a taste, it should taste like alcohol and not be near as sweet as when you started. Since you've got two batches you can compare them with each other.

Some fermentations take a few days, some take a few months or longer, most are somewhere in between so it's not uncommon that one should be winding down about now. I'm not familiar with how far that yeast is going to go but at 3.5 lb per gallon you may be getting to its alcohol tolerance.

You might want to give both of them a good gentle stir or swirl to get the sediment back in suspension. If you've got a fermentation that's actually lagging, this might help perk it up a little, and if it's getting close to done, it might actually help things settle out faster.
 
Thanks, I don't have a hydrometer but I'll get down Wilkinson at the weekend. The sediment wasn't there the other day so I'm thinking its dead yeast husks and all the sugar has run out. The yeast packet said it would tolerate up to 18%. Obviously until I get a hydrometer I can't check if it's reached this level. I would be surprised if its done already though. Can I just add more sugar and keep it brewing?
 
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