I'm only a week into 4 batches of mead but I think they're already messed up. I'm hoping someone can tell me what I did wrong. Here's the steps I went through.
4 glass Bottles. 3 - 1 gallon, 1 - 3 gallon.
Honey from a Co-Op grocery store.
Mint leaves, Lavender, food grade rose pieces, candy canes.
"1 Step No Rinse Cleanser" - from brewery
ID Carlson Yeast Nutrient - from brewery
Sweat Mead/Wine Yeast #WLP720
All the bottles, stoppers, airlocks, and the big pot I was going to boil the mead in were all washed with the no rinse cleanser. Despite the name No Rinse I quickly rinsed with hot water just to clear out any leftover cleanser.
I used Spring Water from Walmart. I heated the water till it boiled and then added the honey. Once it was all dissolved I turned off the heat and poured it into the bottles. I had to do it in two batches to make enough. Each time I added the flavoring for each batch while it was still cooling. I also put the Yeast Nutrient into each batch while it was still cooling.
Once I thought it was cooled enough I put the yeast into each batch and sealed them up with their airlocks. Two of the stoppers didn't fit quite right. I tried to shave them down but they still came out. I them plugged them in as best I could and taped them solidly in place. (Peppermint and Candy Cane.) I then put them in a small area I'd covered up so they would be in the dark and used a space heater to maintain the temperature. (It's been dropping below 0 here recently) I then sat back and waited for them to start bubbling. In the previous batches I've made that took about 2-3 days.
It's now been 5 days since I set them aside. I've been checking the temp a couple times a day but other then that I hadn't been watching them very closely. (A watched pot never boils and all that.) However I wanted to check today to make sure everything was going well. Unfortunately it all looks horrible.
The Candy Cane mead is the only one bubbling. It also has several large clumps of white stuff floating on top. It looks kind of like mold.
The Peppermint mead is not bubbling at all. It's got one small spot of the white stuff attached to the side.
The Rose mead is not bubbling but it's got the little pieces in it that in my past meads were bubbling. Don't know the technical term for them. It's surface has a foam all over the top. It looks like there is some mold on the floating rose pieces in the foam.
The Lavendar mead is also not bubbling. It's also got a lot of the white mold like stuff floating at the surface.
If it had only been the two batches that the stoppers didn't fit tightly then I would understand but so far the possibly bad stoppers are the only batch that actually started bubbling and then the one batch that has the least amount of possible mold. What's the common mistake that screwed all of these up or are there several problems in my method that killed all of them? This is the first time I've ever used Yeast Nutrient. It says 1tsp per gallon of must so I mixed it in to each while they were warm. Did that create the problem?? Any clues would help. I'd hate to throw all these out but without knowing what went wrong I'm worried that there's nothing salvagable.
Bjorn Arnaldsson
4 glass Bottles. 3 - 1 gallon, 1 - 3 gallon.
Honey from a Co-Op grocery store.
Mint leaves, Lavender, food grade rose pieces, candy canes.
"1 Step No Rinse Cleanser" - from brewery
ID Carlson Yeast Nutrient - from brewery
Sweat Mead/Wine Yeast #WLP720
All the bottles, stoppers, airlocks, and the big pot I was going to boil the mead in were all washed with the no rinse cleanser. Despite the name No Rinse I quickly rinsed with hot water just to clear out any leftover cleanser.
I used Spring Water from Walmart. I heated the water till it boiled and then added the honey. Once it was all dissolved I turned off the heat and poured it into the bottles. I had to do it in two batches to make enough. Each time I added the flavoring for each batch while it was still cooling. I also put the Yeast Nutrient into each batch while it was still cooling.
Once I thought it was cooled enough I put the yeast into each batch and sealed them up with their airlocks. Two of the stoppers didn't fit quite right. I tried to shave them down but they still came out. I them plugged them in as best I could and taped them solidly in place. (Peppermint and Candy Cane.) I then put them in a small area I'd covered up so they would be in the dark and used a space heater to maintain the temperature. (It's been dropping below 0 here recently) I then sat back and waited for them to start bubbling. In the previous batches I've made that took about 2-3 days.
It's now been 5 days since I set them aside. I've been checking the temp a couple times a day but other then that I hadn't been watching them very closely. (A watched pot never boils and all that.) However I wanted to check today to make sure everything was going well. Unfortunately it all looks horrible.
The Candy Cane mead is the only one bubbling. It also has several large clumps of white stuff floating on top. It looks kind of like mold.
The Peppermint mead is not bubbling at all. It's got one small spot of the white stuff attached to the side.
The Rose mead is not bubbling but it's got the little pieces in it that in my past meads were bubbling. Don't know the technical term for them. It's surface has a foam all over the top. It looks like there is some mold on the floating rose pieces in the foam.
The Lavendar mead is also not bubbling. It's also got a lot of the white mold like stuff floating at the surface.
If it had only been the two batches that the stoppers didn't fit tightly then I would understand but so far the possibly bad stoppers are the only batch that actually started bubbling and then the one batch that has the least amount of possible mold. What's the common mistake that screwed all of these up or are there several problems in my method that killed all of them? This is the first time I've ever used Yeast Nutrient. It says 1tsp per gallon of must so I mixed it in to each while they were warm. Did that create the problem?? Any clues would help. I'd hate to throw all these out but without knowing what went wrong I'm worried that there's nothing salvagable.
Bjorn Arnaldsson