Recent content by greyday

You'll be just fine. A lot of people ferment without even using an airlock (on large batches I generally tape some cut cloth from a jam bag over the bung hole in the lid myself, as the airlock just generally spits all the water out). The co2 being produced will keep your ferment safe, just keep...

I degas using a vacuum pump. I just transfer back and forth about 4-6 times during second racking, and 2 times during each subsequent rack. Seems to do the trick. (With wines I tend to need to do wayyyy less, like twice total)

Me too! Once I get all my meads I to secondary, this is going to be my winter project, no question. Even if it doesn't turn out, this seems like FUN!

Ah, good to know. I picked up some grains for a batch of scotch whisky style mead a few days ago and crushed them in the shop, they're in a Baggie. I figured they'd be good for a few days at least, but that comment got me worried, as I planned on starting that day but got too busy to do it...

How long is crushed grain good for?

Also my starting sg is high (1.38, down from 1.5 but I wasn't willing to water down any further). If I end fermentation around 14% (around 1.035 sg), how should I adjust the amount of buckwheat at racking? 2/3 of a pound maybe?

I decided to do my initial batch with blackberry; did 5# of clover and 5# of blackberry, but I plan to track down some buckwheat for the later racking. I think the blackberry worked ok, though, the must tastes very caramel appley...

I'm planning to start this in the next few days (found this forum from the repost of the recipe over at winemakers). This'll be my first mead, though I've done many wines. Any advice before I begin? Also, will blackberry honey be a suitable replacement for the buckwheat? Couldn't find any info...