Hopefully I'm doing it right...

Hey HBT,
I brew my first batch of mead on saint pattys day (3-17-13) it is just a standard orange blossem traditional mead 13 lbs of honey to 5 gallons of water yeilding close to 6 gallons now after rack (probably less after bottling)
It's fermented with Lavlin D47 - SG was 1.082, checked gravity (6-17-13) and i'm sitting at .998, (tastes great btw: not hot) I added the proper nurtiants and degassed upto the 1/3 sugar break during fermentation, i saw no activity in the carboy UNTIL i hit it with bentonite on 6-17-13. now if i shine a flashlight throught the carboy i see just a couple of tiny bubbles rising from beneath the bentonite. I'm guess it is just trapped C02, i figured it would have stopped by now but it hasn't. I would like to bottle but i dont want to mess up all this time and effort i have put into it. would you guess it is safe to bottle?

I would say its Co2 degassing, fermentation is done at that gravity (0.998). I think it's safe to bottle in terms of fermentaion for sure. But to be sure you can check your gravity in the next week or two and then see if its crept down from .998. If its stays, you're good.

Ok so think of it like this. It's settled and calm, but as it's a finished ferment that has dropped clear, but despite what many think, without help, some of the carbonic acid a.k.a. dissolved CO2, remains and will do unless removed.

So by adding the bentonite and even a gentle stirring, incorporates the particulates which provides the nucleation points for the carbonic acid to attach to and rise as gaseous CO2.......ergo bubbles.

The biggest criminal offence is the poor, nay incorrectly used deminutive of St Patrick. Patty is a contraction of Patricia i.e. a womans name.

The correct contraction would be Paddy (think of the Irish version of Patrick.....Podraigh). Hence the usual term would be "Paddys' day".

Damn, Uncle Victor would be turning in his grave.........

I digress. At 0.998 there's not much in the way of possible residual sugars, but there is a small possibility of limited further fermentation (however small/unlikely). You should be ok to bottle but if you're at all concerned, then stabilise it with sulphites and sorbate, or if you have access to sterile filtration you could try that (personally I prefer stabilising).

Don't forget to adjust actual SG based on calibration temp of your hydrometer. Ex: if hydrometer calibration is 60F, actual temp 70+, you actually have an extra 0.001-0.002 to deal with...can cause some issues if bottled prematurely.

I'd say let the bentonite ride for a week, rack, check SG, stabilize with k-meta, and +sorbate if sweetening it up...and then move to bottle UNLESS you want to bulk age.

fatbloke said:

The biggest criminal offence is the poor, nay incorrectly used deminutive of St Patrick. Patty is a contraction of Patricia i.e. a womans name.

The correct contraction would be Paddy (think of the Irish version of Patrick.....Podraigh). Hence the usual term would be "Paddys' day".

Damn, Uncle Victor would be turning in his grave.........

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:smack: please forgive my ignorance, i do appriciate the clarification

And thank you all for the replys, HBT always helpful!

I appreciate having the day off in Boston!

MarshmallowBlue said:

I appreciate having the day off in Boston!

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Nah..... Boston is full of fake wannabe's

Uncle Victor was "the real maccoy". Belfast born and bred

fatbloke said:

Nah..... Boston is full of fake wannabe's

Uncle Victor was "the real maccoy". Belfast born and bred

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Oh I don't go out pub crawling and being fake OI-Rish. Boston gets the day off though where other cities do not. I do eat lamb and potato products though.