fermentation speed?

I am a bit over a week with my first mead, and for a couple of days my ferment has been really slow compared to what I had for the first several days. Now I get about one bubble ever 40-50 seconds. I had an initial SG of 1.1 and am down to about 1.065 now, so I have a ways to go. Is this slow ferment normal with mead or should I do something to kick start it?

you may need to add some yeast nutrient. honey has sugar and some proteins, but lacks the other basic 'goodies' that beer wort would normally have.

boil a little water, like a cup, cool it, add a dose of yeast nutrient and mix it up, then add it to the fermentor, and see what happens.

the room you're fermenting in didn't cool down several degrees did it?

I believe the general rule of thumb with meads is 100 points in 30 days so you're three weeks away from a 1.000.

A little yeast nutrient goes a long way with mead, use it. Your temp is also important, mead seems to like a slightly higher ferment temp (low to mid 70s). Also just because your airlock isn't going doesn't mean there isn't fermentation going on. I have a blueberry mead that only just stopped fermenting at about 2 months, lots of bubbles up the sides of the jug, but not a lot of airlock activity.

meads usually take forever with primary fermentation, a month is average. And then you need to age it mead tests patience. Thats why I brew beer now too

mike

ok, so it has been about another week and I am only down to about 1.057, and at this rate I have a lot more than 2 weeks remaining. I don't see any bubbles anymore, thought there seems to always be a slow build up of pressure from inside the carboy (it is just too slow to sit and watch it bubble). I added an ounce of DAP to give the yeast a little food as per your suggestions but this didn't really yield much fruit.

Thoughts? Should I think about pitching another pack of yeast?

My last batch took 6 or 7 weeks to ferment, that's with plenty of yeast nutrient and oxygenation. I used Wyeast dry mead yeast. I don't think I'd re-pitch just yet, I'd let it finish and if the FG is still too high, then I'd go ahead. What type of yeast did you use? Hopefully it has a high alcohol tolerence, if not, it may be too drunk to keep working.

I used Danstar Champagne and it is only at about 4% now so it should be fine for a while. Now, when you say oxygenation, you mean at the very beginning right? I have aerated the stuff since my first day because fermentation started in ernest within about 6-12 hours.

Also, there has been a temperature drop here, though it is still over 75 degrees all the time so that should be ok, right?

That sounds fine. Keep an eyeball on it, but otherwise just leave her alone and make another mead or beer Also no more oxygenation, the yeast are done with o2 at this point. If you add anything add a little nutrient, like we said before, but as long as you're seeing little bubbles and your mead isn't clearing, then your ferment is still going. If your mead is starting to get clear and all the stuff is falling to the bottom, then we can talk about racking and re-pitching.

mike

Danstar Champagne is a slow yeast. I've seen meads go 8-12 months. http://www.oregonbrewcrew.com/ has an interesting read comparing yeasts in mead.

How clear will clearing be? Sorry, I am a noob, I am not sure how pronounced a clearing to look for.

Mine clear profoundly, but I've seen some peoples meads online that are still kind of opaque. You should be able to read through your carboy, and even then i've had more stuff drop out of solution. I don't use any clearing agents or filtering either, just time and temp. If you stick a cloudy mead in the fridge for a while, it'll clear quicker.

mike