No more CO2

I checked on my mead this morning and went to punch down the cap and no more CO2 is being visibly produced. It has been on since 2-6-13 with me punching down the cap daily. I don't get my new hydrometer till this evening so not sure if where's it's at. My old hydrometer broke on the 9th so I havent taken a reading since then. My question I guess is, it should be ok sitting like it is for several days like it is or should I go ahead and rack it to secondary. It is a cherry berry mead. Also, once I take a reading, if I would like it a little sweeter and added more honey would the fermentation start up again.

graydragon2 said:

I checked on my mead this morning and went to punch down the cap and no more CO2 is being visibly produced. It has been on since 2-6-13 with me punching down the cap daily. I don't get my new hydrometer till this evening so not sure if where's it's at. My old hydrometer broke on the 9th so I havent taken a reading since then. My question I guess is, it should be ok sitting like it is for several days like it is or should I go ahead and rack it to secondary. It is a cherry berry mead. Also, once I take a reading, if I would like it a little sweeter and added more honey would the fermentation start up again.

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Nine days since start...if you are using an open bucket as your primary with no airlock/no lid snapped on I would go ahead and rack to carboy and apply airlock. It will not harm anything.
As far as making it sweeter, unless your yeast have died off due to alcohol toxicity you will want to follow the procedure for backsweetening, otherwise you typically start fermentation when you add more honey, etc. But I always wait for the wine to clear and no longer drop any sediment in between rackings before I backsweeten. The time the wine ages as it clears gives it a chance to finish fermenting since mead can be slow going when it comes to finishing those last points on the hydrometer, plus time allows for the mead to 'mesh', flavors meld, acids/tannins do their thing...and then you backsweeten, when it is not so raw. If that makes sense?

The bucket I am using has had a lid and airlock on it the whole time. I started off at 1.100 and just checked it and it is at 1.018. I used red star montrachet yeast which has a 13% tolerance. If I have it figured right then it is at 11% alcohol right now. Even though it was under a lid should I go ahead and rack it or should I wait and see if it changes any more. My airlock had slowed to about 1 or 2 bubbles a minute as of yesterday. Sometimes the bubbles are less than that.