First batch of mead - a few questions

[Hassan Ben Sober]

Hello Folks! Great site you have here.

Anyhow, I just started stated my first batch of mead, here's the recipie:

on 9/6
12lbs Orange blossom honey
1 gallon spring water.
pasteurized at 160f for 15 minutes
Added spring water to make 5 gallons
Let cool to room temp.
(6.5 gallon plastic fermentor)

on 9/8
Added 8g "Go-Ferm" rehydrated in 200ml water and Whitelabs liquid Sweet Mead yeast, and stirred.
Specific Gravity was approx 1.09
Aeriated for about 5 minutes.

on 9/12
Added 10g "Fermaid K" rehydrated in 200ml water and stirred.
Specific gravity was approx 1.08
Aeriated for about 5 minutes.

So, at this point we do have some fermentation going on - I have tiny bubbles coming to the surface. When I added the fermaid and stirred, I got alot of bubbling action in the must.

The airlock shows some pressure buildup (liquid is displacing) but no real bubbling. I am assuming the airlock and fermentor lid are tight, because when I press down on the lid, the liquid in the airlock begins to displace.

Question 1 - Should I be stirring the lees daily?

Question 2 - How much outgassing should I be seeing? So far, I have not seen bubbles coming through the airlock, but pressure build up is apparent.

Question 3 - How often should I be checking the specific gravity?

Question 4 - Should I be adding Fermaid on a regular basis?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Hassan Ben Sober

 

[AToE]

on 9/8
Added 8g "Go-Ferm" rehydrated in 200ml water and Whitelabs liquid Sweet Mead yeast, and stirred.
Specific Gravity was approx 1.09
Aeriated for about 5 minutes.

Welcome to the forum! I'll let someone else tackle the bulk of this, other than saying that you do not need to pastuerize your meads in the future (people used to think this was necessary, but now a no-heat method is the accepted norm, preserves more of the honey's aroma.

I wanted to address this part (quoted) though as it's a bit of a funny missunderstanding! Goferm is a rehydration nutrient, but it is for feeding yeast while they are rehydrating (dried yeast needs to be rehydrated), it does not itself need to be rehydrated - since you're using a liquid yeast goferm isn't necessary.

Now - that said, the yeast you're using is a notoriously pain-in-the-a$$ yeast, it generally will die off before fermenting as much as it's supposed to. So, that addition of goferm will just count as some extra nutrient in the mix and will actually help you out... so this was a happy mistake that you made!

(That yeast is very common for newbies to grab for making mead, as it says mead right in it's name - unfortunately almost all other wine/champagne yeasts will probably get better results (usually dried packets are the norm, they are cheaper and actually give you a better cell count right off the bat).


Don't worry though, I'm sure your mead will be perfectly great when finished, it just might be sweeter than intended.

 

[AToE]

Bah, decided to answer some of the questions anyways, I have too much free time!

I'd like to recomend that you read the "Newbee Guide" (can be found on the left menu of this website) for a very good overview of the process. I read it probably 4 or 5 times before I started making mead, very good information in there.

Question 1 - Should I be stirring the lees daily?

Yes, this will help. Also, until this reaches the 1/3 mark of fermentation you should be aerating it by shaking/spashing/stirring etc (for you the 1/3 mark is 1.060)

And, now that I look at your starting gravity of 1.090 and 12lbs of honey, please ignore my earlier comment about this ending up sweet. This is a low starting gravity (not too low though) and unless this yeast really screws up it should be able to eat all of that sugar, leaving you with a dry mead (I highly recommend dry meads actually, and the lower alcohol will make it good to drink younger - let your own tastebuds decide). It should be about 12% alcohol, which is a nice point.

Question 2 - How much outgassing should I be seeing? So far, I have not seen bubbles coming through the airlock, but pressure build up is apparent

.

Don't worry about it. It freaked me out too when I was starting, but bubbles in the arilock are meaningless, even if you think you have a tight seal. Keep measuring the gravity and you'll be fine, that's the best judge of how it's doing.

Question 3 - How often should I be checking the specific gravity?

I'd do it every day at least until the 1/3 mark, so that you know when to stop aerating and adding nutrients, based on the pace you're going (sometimes I do multiple readings a day if it's going faster). After that it's good to monitor it anyways to make sure it isn't stalling.

Question 4 - Should I be adding Fermaid on a regular basis?

Until the 1/3 mark yes - BUT, I'm not feeling accurate today so I'd like to let someone more experienced than I recommend what amounts and when to you.

 

[akueck]

For the nutrient question, you can search around for terms like "staggered nutrient addition" and "YAN content" and you'll pick up lots of threads dealing with all the nuance behind what to add, when, and how much. Suffice it to say that you should probably be looking at adding another 5-7 g of DAP and 5-7 g of FermaidK fairly soon (before you hit the 1/3 break). You might want to add more, but it's a fairly low gravity mead so that might be enough. Continue aerating until the 1/3 point as well, that yeast tends to need all the help it can get.

If you don't have DAP (diammonium phosphate), you can add twice as much FermaidK. You'll overdose on the thiamine (the FDA has a legal limit), but I can't imagine that hurting anyone.

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Welcome and enjoy!

 

[Hassan Ben Sober]

Thanks for the input AToE and akueck.

I checked the SG last night, and it was down to 1.07, and added some more Fermaid.

I had been aerating by pouring must from the tap in my primary bucket into a large tumbler, and pouring it back in.

This time, I purchased one of lees stirrers and used my cordless 18.8 volt drill. WOW! What an experience! I was not expecting the torque required to stir the must, that drill had to put up a good fight and ran the battery down after a minute or so. It created quite a vortex in the must for a good bit of areation as well. The must really foamed up.

I'm guessing that I should be at 1.06 (1/3 sugar depletion point) later today. Ill add some more Fermaid, and give it a good stir with a freshly recharged battery this time!

 

[fatbloke]

Thanks for the input AToE and akueck.

I checked the SG last night, and it was down to 1.07, and added some more Fermaid.

I had been aerating by pouring must from the tap in my primary bucket into a large tumbler, and pouring it back in.

This time, I purchased one of lees stirrers and used my cordless 18.8 volt drill. WOW! What an experience! I was not expecting the torque required to stir the must, that drill had to put up a good fight and ran the battery down after a minute or so. It created quite a vortex in the must for a good bit of areation as well. The must really foamed up.

I'm guessing that I should be at 1.06 (1/3 sugar depletion point) later today. Ill add some more Fermaid, and give it a good stir with a freshly recharged battery this time!

Ha ha! well probably the easiest way, would be to sanitise a liquidiser with sulphite solution, put a pint or two of must in it and blitz the hell out of it. Then just back into the fermenter.

It can sometimes trigger the release of some of the saturated CO2 and foam so care needs to be taken when pouring the aerated must back in.....

regards

fatbloke

 

[Hassan Ben Sober]

OK, we're now 9 days into the primary fermentation.

I added Fermaid at 1.08 and 1.064.

SG is now 1.04

I plan on racking into a glass carboy next saturday (9/25.)

I'm figuring I'll be at 1.03 (2/3 sugar depletion) on 9/19. Would another dose of Fermaid at that SG be beneficial?

Thanks for the guidance.

 

[Medsen Fey]

Would another dose of Fermaid at that SG be beneficial?

Adding more Fermaid K won't be helpful at this stage, and may just serve to feed spoilage organisms later. I'd just keep swirling it a couple of time a day for now.

I wouldn't rack it until it finishes. This yeast is finicky and may stick if you rack it too early.

 

[akueck]

Adding more Fermaid K won't be helpful at this stage, and may just serve to feed spoilage organisms later. I'd just keep swirling it a couple of time a day for now.

I wouldn't rack it until it finishes. This yeast is finicky and may stick if you rack it too early.

I'll add my vote to this. Absolutely no need to rack it before it is done, especially if you are fairly close to the end.