Mead noob question

So i started my first meadbatch 3 days ago.

i had 15.7lb ish of honey
and made an 5.8 gal batch..

i used the wyeast sweet med.. wich i found ut was a brewers bully mead....

the ting to is that it is sloooow fermenting.. there is pressure on the lid of my fermenter but not to many bubbles out of my air lock.

The yeast nutrient i used was servomyces.

what to do?

Just looked up the servomyces stuff.

It would seem that its a bit like goferm for beer i.e. it doesnt seem to have much if any nitrogen, hence my drawing the goferm analogy though theyre designed for different uses.

Honey is famously deficient in all things nutrient, so I'm thinking that something like Fermaidk, fermax or similar type nutrient.

Which would supply the various enzymes and amino acids, but also a source of nitrogen from the diammonium phosphate element which should/would speed up the ferment.

Beer specific nutrients might not be appropriate for meads whereas wine nutrients would likely be better. Beer tends to have all the required stuff in the wort and you'd only need something to boost specific elements.

With meads you'd use a combined nutrient and only routinely boost nitrogen. Hence a mix of Fermaidk and DAP (I use 2 parts Fermaidk and 1 part DAP). From memory, Fermaidk gives 110 ppm nitrogen per litre per gramme and DAP gives 200 ppm nitrogen per litre per gramme.

Someone with a better memory or knowledge would be able to confirm or correct that. Likewise, look up hightest and his nutrient routine/regime for one that seems to work well......

hmm. tho i red that servomyces souldn't be a problem i mead. i mean im not in a rush to fermet my mead. but i never had this staggered fermentation before... the last beer i brew. foam was spewig out of my airlock after 8h... and it went on like this for 3 days...

the problem is... i can't get hold on stuff like that quickly and easily.

i could try to aerate it more?

This thread look appropriately named for me, so here goes. I'm looking at doing Malkore's (not so) Ancient Orange Mead for my 1st mead. Is it okay to use a plastic fermetor instead of glass. I know the head space will be an issue but could I get away with it? I was thinking of doing a big batch (26 lbs of honey). Anything to look out for on large batches? What is the best way to build up Sweet Mead yeast? Thanks.

By not hijacking someone elses thread and posting a new one of your own maybe ?

As its thought of as impolite.

songe said:

i could try to aerate it more?

Click to expand...

You could try that.

Also you can just use some bread yeast and boil or microwave it to kill it off. Once cooled add it and a handful (25 to 50) of raisins too.

Maybe the nearest pharmacy keeps vitamin B1 tablets, one of those too.

Meads are more wine like in the making. Beers have a lot of nutrient naturally in the wort so don't regularly need extra nitrogen......

soo... i have learned allot brewing this batch of mead... first off. never use them damn plastic fermenting buckets. I have a cardboy in glass for wine brewing.. but missing that top plug for it...

i added 100g of raisins. 50g and 3 days later 50g...

also took a gravityreading, showing its fermenting... the odd thing is i never ever have had batches with no bubbles in the airlock.. i mean hell.. my belgian wit was spewing yeast out my blowout house for 5 days.

Sorry for going OT in your thread songe, I didn't realize it was current. All the best.

songe said:

soo... i have learned allot brewing this batch of mead... first off. never use them damn plastic fermenting buckets. I have a cardboy in glass for wine brewing.. but missing that top plug for it...

i added 100g of raisins. 50g and 3 days later 50g...

also took a gravityreading, showing its fermenting... the odd thing is i never ever have had batches with no bubbles in the airlock.. i mean hell.. my belgian wit was spewing yeast out my blowout house for 5 days.

Click to expand...

Honey isn't beer wort. Many wine yeasts are low foaming and buckets are very useful, especially with fruit batches cos some of them foam and bubble to the point where the fruit pulp is blown out the air lock.

Buckets just need a good lid seal and they're easily opened to check gravity or aerate etc.

I don't know how the mail ordering would be for you from Belgium but Brouwland do a good range of stoppers in rubber or silicone (actually you can also use children's balloons and pierce them with a needle for airlocking)......