I hate to ask this.....

I hate seeing all the "is this infected?" pics, and I am loath to do this. However this is my first mead and I'm paranoid



That being said I know it's a pretty poor shot but to me it kind of looks like the "jelly" vinegar mother. Now I just noticed this today, and it's been fermenting along for almost two weeks with no off smells. So my last question is if it is the start of some contamination, could I sulfite it or treat the batch with someting to prevent the infection from getting worse?

You're 99.9% good Joshua. That's what mead "krausen" looks like. You don't get the "fluffy" type krausen you get with beer. I've had a dozen meads look exactly like that.

OH MY GOD!!! THAT'S DISGUSTING!!!

nah, yer fine.

Here's the odd thing, it did krausen the first few days of fermentation, then fell away for over a week. Now it seems as activity is picking up again, but I haven't taken hydrometer readings so I can't say for sure. I suppose i should just RDWAHAHB.

yep. you should RDWAHAHB. even if it's polluted, mead takes 1-2 years; so do lambics

meads tend to behave odd because of the lack of nutrients in honey compared to malt.....

also, did you have any temperature swings?

I'm still sticking to my 99.99999% that you're fine

I'm sure there were temp swings, it's sitting in a closet. Clearly I'm being done, even if it is infected, I guess that's just a reason to start a new batch. SO I'm done worrying now thanks guys

It looks like yeast residue that gets trapped on top by the surface tension of the water. Swirling it gently may submerge it and get some of it to sink to the bottom. If it were acetic acid bacteria at work, it would be smelling of nail polish or vinegar by now.

One caution though, you will not want to keep that much headspace in your carboy once the fermentation is done - that would be an invitation to spoilage organisms.

Medsen

ChshreCat said:

OH MY GOD!!! THAT'S DISGUSTING!!!

nah, yer fine.

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LOL meanie!

there was less head space at the start but I as I mentioned there was a bit of krausen at the start which resulted in a bit of blow off. this batch is getting split into 5 one gallon batches that will sit on fruit, I figure the fruit will fill up the remaining head space in my 1 gallon carboys

I'd say you're okay. My meads have looked like that, and come to think of it, most of my ciders too. Just a slight "krausen" sort of thing made up of suspended yeast, Co2, and maybe some solids or proteins from the honey.

FilJos said:

I'd say you're okay. My meads have looked like that, and come to think of it, most of my ciders too. Just a slight "krausen" sort of thing made up of suspended yeast, Co2, and maybe some solids or proteins from the honey.

Click to expand...

So have mine!

Relax, 99.9999 of the time that is just degassing pushing up spent yeast no longer active.
I see that same sight on most meads and ciders as fermentation slows.