My 3 gallons of mead, question thou..

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Cattleskull

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 13, 2012
7
0
0
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Does this look right to ya'll? :confused: the airlock is bubbling VERY slowly and I see sediment on the bottom of the 3 gallon jug.
 
Hey, Cattleskull. That part up there about posting "your EXACT recipe, ALL ingredients and quantities"?

We really need that information, as well as your gravity readings (and dates) if you took any, to suggest anything about your batch. Those floaties could be orange peel or mutant globules from outer space for all we know :)

I presume you started the batch Sept 24 this year?
 
Hey, Cattleskull. That part up there about posting "your EXACT recipe, ALL ingredients and quantities"?

We really need that information, as well as your gravity readings (and dates) if you took any, to suggest anything about your batch. Those floaties could be orange peel or mutant globules from outer space for all we know :)

I presume you started the batch Sept 24 this year?

Honey
Organic Yeast
Organic Honey Bee Pollen
Distilled Water

I didn't use any energizers
 
OK, my best guess is that the floating stuff is coagulated bee pollen...

Have you been stirring or aerating this batch at all?

Does it smell OK?

Have you tasted it?

Some batches go quick, some go slow, some look like they're going slow but they're really almost done because they did their job while you weren't looking. This is why we usually verify everything with specific gravity measurements; you really can't tell much about the state of your fermentation by looking at the airlock, other than that it's bubbling does usually signify that there is something going on.

If you haven't been stirring it, give it a swirl.

If you haven't tasted or smelled it, pop the top off and have a sniff. If you've got a sanitized turkey baster or something, maybe grab a sample to taste. If it's not tasting very sweet, then it might be getting close to the finish line.

 
OK, my best guess is that the floating stuff is coagulated bee pollen...

Have you been stirring or aerating this batch at all?

Does it smell OK?

Have you tasted it?

Some batches go quick, some go slow, some look like they're going slow but they're really almost done because they did their job while you weren't looking. This is why we usually verify everything with specific gravity measurements; you really can't tell much about the state of your fermentation by looking at the airlock, other than that it's bubbling does usually signify that there is something going on.

If you haven't been stirring it, give it a swirl.

If you haven't tasted or smelled it, pop the top off and have a sniff. If you've got a sanitized turkey baster or something, maybe grab a sample to taste. If it's not tasting very sweet, then it might be getting close to the finish line.


We already did the primary fermentation (3 weeks in a plastic beer/wine bucket) and then transported it into a 3 gallon glass jug as seen in the photo.

We forgot to take gravity measurements during the second stage of fermentation. But we did taste it. That we didn't forget to do ;D

When we took the lid off of the wine bucket, a strong aroma almost like beer! when we took taste tested the must (young wine), it was strong, sweet and left a short burning sensation in our throat's. All and all, I think we did a pretty good job for it being our first batch of mead.

Yes, this batch was dated Sept 24th of last month of 2012 of this year.
 
If it smells OK and tastes OK it's probably fine. The beer-like smell is likely to do with the yeast/fermentation. If it's still sweet, it's still got a fair ways to go, but that burn should mellow out a bit with some age, it's probably compounded by the dissolved CO2.

Did you get an initial gravity reading? Or do you at least know the proportion of honey to water?
 
originally we had 4 and half gallons of distilled water with honey levels of 12-14% we put the other gallon into another container and it seems to be doing the same thing.