Raisins

hey guys I was thinking about tossing some raisins into the primary. I have a 5 gallon batch going So how many raisins would be ideal for this size batch? Thanks for answering my new bee questions.

I've used as much as 2 pouinds of raisins in mead/wine/cider, works great! Adds body and fermentable sugars, but not really any discernable flavour. You need to coarsely chop 'em in a blender/food processor so the yeast can get at them, but it's easy to do so.
Regards, GF.

Is it normal to lose airlock activity after you open your primary cover? Maybe i'm just being parinoid but I would hate to have stuned the yeast and and possibly ruining my batch of mead.

Zbay said:

Is it normal to lose airlock activity after you open your primary cover? Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I would hate to have stunned the yeast and and possibly ruining my batch of mead.

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Of course it is. If you reduce or remove the pressure that is allowing the airlock to bubble, then it stops.

If the ferment is slowing down and producing less CO2, then it can take a while before you see bubble evidence of activity. If you didn't manage to make a complete seal on the fermenter when replacing the lid/bung/cover then you'd have continued activity but no visible proof.

Which is why it's best to use gravity readings to monitor the progress of a ferment and not try and mistakenly use bubble activity.

You can't stun the yeast by exposing it to any air/O2 and while it depends on the ingredients and type of brew, it's not as easy as that to mess a batch up enough to have ruined it.

That makes perfect sense, I guess i'm just nervous seeing as this is my first time making mead. Thanks for the help and the informitive reply.

Added some raisins to a batch of cider. forgot to chop them first, they are all floating. should I wait for them to sink before racking? will they eventually sink?