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Krausen in Chcolate Mead

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H

Honey

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 31, 2012
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My chocolate mead (Joe's recepie minus the cinnamon and clove, + 2/3 cup heated-in-water cacao nibs) that I made yesterday afternoon did not get a krausen on it - the original "no receipe changes" Joe's I made got one within minutes. But the Chocolate Joe is fermenting - it has so many bubbles going I could hear it buzzing and (being it's only my second mead) I though a fly had got into it until I took off the towel and saw the fizz. Does it matter that the K never appeared?

Honey
 
Some meads bubble so much that they escape no matter what you do (someone posted a picture of a rather scary bucket not too long ago, but I forget which thread), some don't seem to do much at all but they still ferment right along. Krausen has a lot to do with protein, (and in beer your grains and hops residues) so we'll never see as mighty a krausen as in beer. (And I think the bucket of doom was a braggot, too.) All a krausen really shows is yeast producing CO2 at a rate that it can't just bubble, but it foams, due to the consistency of your must. That's why you only have krausen for the first few days, as your yeast produce alcohol, it lets the bubbles break open instead of foam.

Trust your hydrometer above all else if you're concerned about fermentation. It knows the truth. ;D
 
Most oils are great foam killers. The chocolate in there is probably keeping the foam at bay.
 
Which is the opposite I found when I added cocoa powder in secondary when it was almost (but not quite) finished fermenting, the particulate stuff made for a ridiculous head and was very close to overflowing every time I touched it for about a week after adding it, it only calmed down when all fermentation was complete. I'm guessing the cocoa particulate was great nucleation site and the rest of the particulate got in the way of the bubbles popping... Which is why next time I play with cocoa in mead, I'm going to try to get some nibs!

But yeah, as long as the SG is dropping, the appearance of the fermentation really has no actual bearing on its progress. Some look almost still, some just fizz a little, some fizz violently to the point of overflow, some make a little foam, some make a lot, some make none at all.
 
I dodn't have a hydrometer to trust, lol, but one is on it's way in the mail along with the other necessities...

Honey
 
If I am remembering cross threads correctly, Honey boiled nibs into a liquid solution, releasing a visible amount of oils. It probably does behave differently than a dry powder, but it would be an interesting side by side experiment! (I know, I know, no more adding to the to-do list, right?)
 
Soyala_Amaya said:
If I am remembering cross threads correctly, Honey boiled nibs into a liquid solution, releasing a visible amount of oils. It probably does behave differently than a dry powder, but it would be an interesting side by side experiment! (I know, I know, no more adding to the to-do list, right?)
Click to expand...

Good memory! lol - but I kept it off the boil on just the barest of simmer. I know that one shouldn't use boiling water to make coffee as it can lend a "burned" taste so I wasn't sure if the same would be true for the cacao bean. I totally can't wait to see how it comes out :-) The colour of the brew is lightening as it ferments, and it is interesting as the bottom is still very dark but the slight lightening is moving "down" each day in a visible line.

Honey
 
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