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Help! White spots/bubbles

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honeybee41

NewBee
Registered Member
Aug 19, 2013
2
0
0
Hi, I started my first batch of mead about 4 weeks ago in a 20 liter glass carboy and 1.5 weeks ago I noticed some small white areas at the surface. The recipe was:

6 liters of honey
14 liters of water
2 liters of apple juice
80 g lactic acid
yeast and yeast nutrient

The guy at the shop with wine supplies suggested a dry yeast (I will have to go there to check the brand) and also suggested to start it 12 hours or so in advance in a container with some water and 0.5 liters of apple juice and a tiny sprinkle of yeast nutrient. I did this the night before and it looked good before I started the mead process the next day. Everything seemed great, was also bubbling rapidly (more 1-2 times per second) within 24 hours. It has slowed down to about 1-2 times a minute now and has not cleared up much yet. The problem is these little spots or bubbles on top. I have searched for answers also, but the descriptions that are similar still don't sound quite the same. I have tried to attach a picture here where it is (hopefully) possible to see one of the bubbles near the front and some areas where there may have been a bubble and it has popped, however it gives me an error even when I make the picture very small (at 80 Kb, it still says 22.5 Kb over my quota). I will retry in a moment. Are the bubbles/spots ok? Is this bad? If so.... how bad!? :confused: Please help! :) :)
 
Marshmallow Blue said:
If you upload the image somewhere (like photobucket or something) else, copy the image link, and use the IMG html tags (basically just IMG inbetween [] before the link and /IMG between [] at the end of the link.)

Otherwise, its really hard to give any real answers without a photo.
Click to expand...

Get yourself a free imgur.com account, when you upload photographs to imgur.com, you can create a link with "BB Tags" right on the site.

Lots of very smart people here will help you get to the bottom of this.

Do you have a hydrometer?

Regards

Tony
 
Thanks for the replies! Here is the image on imgur, unfortunately the focus is on the outside of the carboy. I can also retake the photo if it will help. I do have a hydrometer and the OG was 1.085. We are in Germany (no A/C) and the temperature shot up for a week or so at the beginning of fermentation, may have been up to 80 F inside for some days.

 
Looks like yeast....

I'd give it a stir with something (sanitised, as should anything that comes in contact with the must be....)

Infections are often lighter coloured and will often have "streamers" or string like parts growing/hanging down into the must.

You should also smell it. Problems often manifest with off smells like hydrogen sulphide for nutrient problems some times or of course the dreaded vinegar smell for some acetobacter contamination.....

Generally, if you've been sensible with your hygiene technique its likely just yeast on the surface.....
 
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