So here is my story...
I made a two gallon batch of must by adding 3kg of clover honey and 2lbs of pureed blueberries (using the 1lb of fruit per gallon rule of thumb for a light flavor). I added water till just over the two gallon line in my three gallon bucket and used the nutrient instructions from the Bray's One Month Mead. The pH level just below neutral at 6.8 and had a SG of 1.118. I pitched a packet of Lalvin EC-1118 into the must and within an hour it was churning away live you would not believe.
I was keeping track of the SG to use the staggered nutrition that is recommended in the BOMM recipe and the hydrometer was dropping like a stone. It was incredible, the must finished with a SG of 1.000 in seven days!
I gently stirred the must to get rid of the carbon dioxide and then transferred the by siphon to two single gallon jugs. The siphon was filtered using a muslin bag so the pulp was left behind. I screwed caps on the jugs and put them in a cold room to settle.
Here is where things get interesting... I check on the mead a couple days later to see if the lees are settling and they are but there is a sound of escaping gas coming from both the jugs. I slowly unscrew one the the jugs and it almost erupted on me like some soda vinegar volcano experiment! Only by the grace of my super human reflexes do I manage to cap it down just in time to not lose any of the mead. I try to very slowly loosen the cap again and I manage to find the sweet spot between foaming and gas escaping that keeps it from overflowing.
This seems like an incredible amount of Carbon Dioxide being released, it lifted the lees off the bottom and started to swirl them around on its own. Is it possible that the mead is still fermenting? It is in a cold dark cellar at about 10 degrees Celsius and like I said the SG reads 1.000 (it also tasted dry). How do I degas this batch without loosing mead in an eruption?
I made a two gallon batch of must by adding 3kg of clover honey and 2lbs of pureed blueberries (using the 1lb of fruit per gallon rule of thumb for a light flavor). I added water till just over the two gallon line in my three gallon bucket and used the nutrient instructions from the Bray's One Month Mead. The pH level just below neutral at 6.8 and had a SG of 1.118. I pitched a packet of Lalvin EC-1118 into the must and within an hour it was churning away live you would not believe.
I was keeping track of the SG to use the staggered nutrition that is recommended in the BOMM recipe and the hydrometer was dropping like a stone. It was incredible, the must finished with a SG of 1.000 in seven days!
I gently stirred the must to get rid of the carbon dioxide and then transferred the by siphon to two single gallon jugs. The siphon was filtered using a muslin bag so the pulp was left behind. I screwed caps on the jugs and put them in a cold room to settle.
Here is where things get interesting... I check on the mead a couple days later to see if the lees are settling and they are but there is a sound of escaping gas coming from both the jugs. I slowly unscrew one the the jugs and it almost erupted on me like some soda vinegar volcano experiment! Only by the grace of my super human reflexes do I manage to cap it down just in time to not lose any of the mead. I try to very slowly loosen the cap again and I manage to find the sweet spot between foaming and gas escaping that keeps it from overflowing.
This seems like an incredible amount of Carbon Dioxide being released, it lifted the lees off the bottom and started to swirl them around on its own. Is it possible that the mead is still fermenting? It is in a cold dark cellar at about 10 degrees Celsius and like I said the SG reads 1.000 (it also tasted dry). How do I degas this batch without loosing mead in an eruption?
