digdan

Recipes 

Why does mead ferment so much slower than apple wines or beers? Mine seem to crawl. I add nutrients and energizer.

Is it the yeast, or the complex sugars in honey? Is it the lack of free aminos?

What makes mead so slow to ferment?

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

Even diluted honey is a rather hostile environment for yeast to thrive. If you follow the SNA process described in the sticky FAQ above you can speed up your primary to around a week or two, and it also helps with keeping the yeast viable for a faster conditioning. Not a whole lot, just a little faster and cleaner in my opinion.

__________________
---
In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.

hightest

Recipes 

The answer you seek is in the Mead FAQs - Honey Fermentation Concerns.

__________________
Visit me at the Brew Brothers

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

I wish the guy that wrote those FAQ's posted more on this forum....

just kidding, hightest

I've got a ton of cherries in the freezer from the summer and just waiting for a good price on bulk orange blossom; but maybe I'll run the recipe by ya.

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

I'm not, I miss him correcting all my mistakes!
And sharing his experience, and more or less making me a better mead maker. (That takes a lot of effort)
Without his egging me on I have gone to the dark side and started a wine! Mr. Beer snob doing a Malbec.
Actually I do like wines, but usually I can buy better wines than I could make; but sooo many people have told me times have changed.
It is hard for an semi old dog to learn new tricks, but I'm working on it.

__________________
---
In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.