Lack of Foam during primary fermentation

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JMB777

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Greetings All,

It has been a couple of years since I last brewed mead. I just brewed 5 batches of a sweet mead this past saturday. I pitched my starter, nutrient, energizer, etc. It's bubbling just like seltzer, but NO FOAM. Every mead I've ever made foams, these 5 buckets are all bubbling, not foaming. Gravity is currently at 1.100. I've aerated, aded water, etc.

I wanted to do my usual, which is waiting until the foam recedes and then add fruit, sparging bags, etc. At least 2 people have told me not to worry about the absence of foam... any comments, thoughts, or ideas?
 
1) it depends on what yeast you use
2) mead doesn't foam quite as much as beer, so don't expect a monster krausen
3) it's bubbling = it's mead.
 
Honestly out of all my meads, NONE of them have ever had any foam/krausen even at the peak of primary activity.

yeast, and also honey used, matters a lot. filtered honey is 'clean' and won't foam, but very raw honey will due to the proteins and wax in there.

totally normal
 
I've done a few 1 gal batches so far and the only one that really bubbled for me was my blackberry. 3 lbs honey, blackberry juice (and some berry bits including seeds) and 1/2 tsp each of yeast energizer and yeast nutrient made the tsp of K1116 I pitched go friggin' apesh!t. Massive krausen to and into the airlock even though there was about 3 inches of headspace. The JAOM, apple, and winter metheglin I've done have all fermented very well with minimal noticeable foaming, but plenty of visible activity in the must and in the airlock.
 
Good deal.. I was getting nervous... brewing my first batch of mead (1 gallon) and the air lock is going nuts, but no foam like all my beers... I had some unfiltered honey in this, but mostly filtered..., saving 12 nice pounds of unfiltered for a full size batch after I get the hang of mead... Don't guess that should take too long after 20 batches of brew!

Here's what I used... I kept it simple... correct me if wrong, I'm still learning..

3.5qts well water

2lb sourwood/wildflower/random local honey mix

1/8 palisade hops (left over from brew... I have some heather tips for a full size batch... any advice on herbal additives? I bought Stephen Buhner's book on sacred and healing beers, with the psychotropic ones too of course... looking forward to experimenting with beer, mead, and wine)

1pack (5g) Cote des Blancs (dry wine yeast)

1tbs yeast nutrient (accidentally added tbs, directions say tsp... oops. guess the extra will settle out.)
simmered but not fully boiled for maybe 30 minutes... only had to skim a little, skimmed most hops out between 5-15 minutes into the boil... then added yeast nutrient. racked, aerated, left overnight, gave it another good shake, pitched yeast @ 80 degrees F, swirled it in a little and left it. Got active pretty quick (just pitched yeast this morning and now the airlock is bubbling along like it would with any good brew).

OG 1.080 (11%)

hoping to age it to a slightly dry, but with a touch of sweetness... I went easy on the honey because I wanted a little quicker reward with my first batch... I have stockpiled quite a bit of homebrew to hold me over!
 
Good deal.. I was getting nervous... brewing my first batch of mead (1 gallon) and the air lock is going nuts, but no foam like all my beers... I had some unfiltered honey in this, but mostly filtered..., saving 12 nice pounds of unfiltered for a full size batch after I get the hang of mead... Don't guess that should take too long after 20 batches of brew!

Here's what I used... I kept it simple... correct me if wrong, I'm still learning..

3.5qts well water

2lb sourwood/wildflower/random local honey mix

1/8 palisade hops (left over from brew... I have some heather tips for a full size batch... any advice on herbal additives? I bought Stephen Buhner's book on sacred and healing beers, with the psychotropic ones too of course... looking forward to experimenting with beer, mead, and wine)

1pack (5g) Cote des Blancs (dry wine yeast)

1tbs yeast nutrient (accidentally added tbs, directions say tsp... oops. guess the extra will settle out.)
simmered but not fully boiled for maybe 30 minutes... only had to skim a little, skimmed most hops out between 5-15 minutes into the boil... then added yeast nutrient. racked, aerated, left overnight, gave it another good shake, pitched yeast @ 80 degrees F, swirled it in a little and left it. Got active pretty quick (just pitched yeast this morning and now the airlock is bubbling along like it would with any good brew).

OG 1.080 (11%)

hoping to age it to a slightly dry, but with a touch of sweetness... I went easy on the honey because I wanted a little quicker reward with my first batch... I have stockpiled quite a bit of homebrew to hold me over!
Dry and possibly bitter is the result I'd expect from this.

The yeast will ferment it dry easily. Hops and the like ? Well they're mainly beer making ingredients. Yes, they might be used in a braggot, but there's no mention of malt etc.

Honey would normally be in the region of 3 to 3 1/2 pound per gallon. Hops would just be used for balancing a particularly sweet mead as they're a bittering agent I believe....
 
Thanks for the feedback... here is my logic..

Palisade are about 8.5% alpha acid... using only 1/8 oz I don't think will contribute too much bitterness. esp since they were not boiling and only in the wort for a short time 15ish minutes? you have to boil an hour to extract the majority of the bitterness...

My last 2 6 gallon batches of beer had 3oz (2oz boiling, 1oz finish) each... so 1/2oz per gallon... using only 1/4 of that amount in a gallon of mead for a much shorter time should not be overwhelming... at least that is what I was assuming... I know a lot of Ethiopian honey wine (Tej) has hops... so I thought what the hell! I did it as much for antimicrobial properties as anything...

good thing is, I am a hop head... so if it is a little bitter that should work for me... I might take a small sample and hydrometer reading tomorrow.
 
Cote des Blancs (aka Epernay II) is not a big foamer. It also depends on the honey and preparation. Boiled and skimmed musts produce little foam. Some honey, Heather being a classic, can produce as much foam as a beer. It is common to have little foam.

A hop metheglin is certainly not unheard of; balancing the bitterness may require a bit of sweetness.
 
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