Hi, just looking for some advice/discussion. I had quite a bit of crystallised honey from hives so decided to make some mead, so a complete newbee to mead making ie first batch.
I took advice from a local brew shop and he advised I didn't need to add nutrients but the mead is fermenting very slowly, now he is saying maybe he should have advised me to add nutrients but it is too late now as it is 5 weeks into ferment. He also told me to have a starting SG of around 1.01. From my initial research most recipes call for around 2.5-3kg honey to 10 litres. I couldn't get anywhere near that SG with that amount of honey so added more to the second batch to try and bring it up. The guy at the brew shop has now said the reason I needed to add more honey is that I added the the honey to 10 litres of water, therefore the volume was greater than 10 litres once the honey was added. He said I should have put the honey in first then bring it up to 10 litres with water??
Anyway, I made up two recipes. First was 3kg honey added to 10 litres water, handfull of raisins and Lalvin EC-118 yeast, starting SG 1.06, second recipe was 4.5kg honey added to 10 litres water, handfull of raisins, a punnet of blueberries and Lalvin EC-118 yeast, starting SG 1.092. Temperature has always been maintained close to 20degC (68degF). Ferment bubbles throughout on each batch has been pretty constant at every approx 20 seconds. It is now 5 weeks and still fermenting, they aren't stalled, still bubble at 20 secs after a shake up. At 4 weeks I took an SG, the first was at 1.03 and second was at 1.06, so still a way to go.
Is there any way to safely speed it up or do I just have to wait it out?
Thanks for your thoughts and input in advance.
I took advice from a local brew shop and he advised I didn't need to add nutrients but the mead is fermenting very slowly, now he is saying maybe he should have advised me to add nutrients but it is too late now as it is 5 weeks into ferment. He also told me to have a starting SG of around 1.01. From my initial research most recipes call for around 2.5-3kg honey to 10 litres. I couldn't get anywhere near that SG with that amount of honey so added more to the second batch to try and bring it up. The guy at the brew shop has now said the reason I needed to add more honey is that I added the the honey to 10 litres of water, therefore the volume was greater than 10 litres once the honey was added. He said I should have put the honey in first then bring it up to 10 litres with water??
Anyway, I made up two recipes. First was 3kg honey added to 10 litres water, handfull of raisins and Lalvin EC-118 yeast, starting SG 1.06, second recipe was 4.5kg honey added to 10 litres water, handfull of raisins, a punnet of blueberries and Lalvin EC-118 yeast, starting SG 1.092. Temperature has always been maintained close to 20degC (68degF). Ferment bubbles throughout on each batch has been pretty constant at every approx 20 seconds. It is now 5 weeks and still fermenting, they aren't stalled, still bubble at 20 secs after a shake up. At 4 weeks I took an SG, the first was at 1.03 and second was at 1.06, so still a way to go.
Is there any way to safely speed it up or do I just have to wait it out?
Thanks for your thoughts and input in advance.
