Please help the new guy.

[Stu]

Hello everyone,
I'm a little stuck in my mead making process and I need a little help. This is my first batch of mead. I've have researched and read but still have not been able to find a solution or similar experience. I pitched my mead on the 11/3, after the 5th day, the bubbling slowed to a halt. (The yeast started rapidly bubbling 2 hrs post pitch and continued heavily for all 5 days. You could literally hear the popping/crackling of fermentation from outside of the bucket) I wrapped my fermentation bucket in a blanket thinking that possibly the fermentation had stopped due to my apartment temperature being around 68-70 degrees. Granted, Red star suggests that the Pasteur yeast ferments between 59-86 degrees. Everything was sanitized prior to making the mead and there are no leaks in the bucket, stopper, or airlock. The OG was 1.082 and current SG is 0.992. This is almost a 0.100 drop recommended in "The Compleat Meadmaker" for full fermentation. The must tastes dry, semi bitter, and like heavy alcohol. My question is, should I move to secondary racking so soon? Should I allow the must to sit for "a couple weeks longer" as recommend by others? I understand the Specific gravity dictates final fermentation but everything I read say it takes weeks not days. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


( 1 gallon batch)
1 Gallon of water
12 oz Fresh Blackberries crushed
12 oz Fresh Blueberries crush
1 packet of Red star Pasteur champagne yeast
1 cup of orange juice
3.25 pounds of clover honey
1 cup of orange juice
1 teaspoon of acid blend
1 teaspoon of pectic enzyme
1 campden tablet (sanitizing fruit for 26 hours prior to pitching the yeast)
1 teaspoon of nutrient
1 teaspoon of wine tannin

 

[Stu]

That should be only 1 cup of OJ, total.

 

[Honeyhog]

I've had plenty of meads finish to dry in a week, especially cysers. It takes what it takes don't believe everything you read. You can rack it to secondary and age it dry to see if you like it or rack it onto sulphite and sorbate and backsweeten now and then age it. At any rate don't worry, your mead is fine.

 

[Riverat]

Oh your batch is fermented completely (I'd have dropped the acid blend and held off on the tannin until later though) but no rush to rack it just yet, leave it settle out a bit, that other week or two should do it. If you rack it now you may have a good bit of lees settle out later increasing your racking loss on the next racking.
Sounds like a very successful first batch!

 

[Stu]

Thank you all so very much. It is greatly appreciated! I was getting a little worried for a bit. It's good to be assured that I'm on the right track.

 

[Stu]

Oh your batch is fermented completely (I'd have dropped the acid blend and held off on the tannin until later though) but no rush to rack it just yet, leave it settle out a bit, that other week or two should do it. If you rack it now you may have a good bit of lees settle out later increasing your racking loss on the next racking.
Sounds like a very successful first batch!

Hey Riverat,

How long would you have waited to put in the acid blend and tannin? How does your process work with these ingredients? Even though this is my first batch, it certainly wont be the last. I definitely want to learn all that I can learn. Thanks.

 

[WVMJack]

Time means nothing, you base your next step on what your hydrometer says. Your fermentation is pretty much done. You dont say how big your fermentation bucket is? Is this 1 gal of mead in a 5 gal bucket? Air is now your meads enemy. As the fermentation stops less CO2 is produced to protect the mead from oxygen, a big headspace can let the mead have more contact with air. Also you dont want your berry seeds setting in the must to long or they can add some bitterness and you already have a lot of tannin in there now. Since this is your first batch lets play safe as we can and go ahead and rack, leave as much junk behind when you rack that ons the bottom but we want that secondary bottle full. WVMJ

 

[Chevette Girl]

Acid blend is useful in making a fruit wine must more grape must-like when you're using sugar to raise your potential alcohol, but honey has its own acidity and adding more acid up front can cause batches to stall out due to excessive acidity. Obviously it didn't do yours any damage! ;D

With meads, most of us don't add acid blend until after fermentation and even then, only if it's lacking something, a hint more acidity can really perk things up.

Tannins? Jury's out on that one, I always add my tannins up front if the recipe calls for it, but some folks only add it post-fermentation if they feel the taste needs it. Meads don't always need it.