wanting opinions of recipe (its fermenting)

5 1/2 gal batch.
13 lbs orange blossom honey
3 lbs Dole canned pineapple+ it's juice (no sugar added)
1 tbsp gypsum
1/2 oz energizer
1/2 oz Nutrient
2 packets yeast (12 grams Lavlin Champaign yeast).
-
Honey + 2 gallons of water was boiled for 15 minutes and the foam was skimmed.
Then the fruit was steeped in a hop bag at 160' for 20 minutes at the end
Topped up to 6 gallons and yeast was re hydrated and pitched at 90'

It is on day 16 and is bubbling about 3 times a minute.

When should I rack to secondary? Should I add more nutrient or energizer when I rack?
How long total before I bottle?
How long Aging?
Thanks in Advance!

wow, sounds interesting. Don't know if I can offer a lot of help, as I've not brewed much mead. How vigorous was the initial fermentation?

You may consider some pectic enzyme.

For the first 7days it was more active than any beer I've made. and is now slowing a little. Its definately working!

What was your beginning gravity on this concoction? I always end up scolded for boiling the honey, but I think that with the Pineapple, you won't have a lot of Honey character left.
That being Said, The Big Kahuna LOVES Anything with Pineapple.
I will look forward to hearing how this turns out.
According to the "Complete Mead Maker", if you are going for a still mead, bottle when your mead is clear, and have seen NO air lock activity for 2 weeks. This is to ensure that fermentation doesn't re-start and blow the corks out of your bottles.
I have stunted fermentation by racking too early, and gotten some funky flavors from leaving the lees for too long, so I am reluctant to advise on this issue.

BigKahuna said:

According to the "Complete Mead Maker", if you are going for a still mead, bottle when your mead is clear, and have seen NO air lock activity for 2 weeks. This is to ensure that fermentation doesn't re-start and blow the corks out of your bottles.
I have stunted fermentation by racking too early, and gotten some funky flavors from leaving the lees for too long, so I am reluctant to advise on this issue.

Click to expand...

It would be much better to rely on hydrometer readings. While no airlock activity would certainly indicate or imply a complete fermentation, it could also be stuck or just simply bubbling when you are not looking. On the opposite side, airlock activity doesn't mean that fermentation is continuing. Differences in atmospheric pressure, ambient temperatures, etc etc, could lead to gas release in the carboy.

You must have hydrometer readings on a mead. You can't just guess when its done. the airlock WILL lie to you.

I would expect this to be a really dry mead, that will probably take 12 months of bottle aging to mellow.
Dry meads with champagne yeast are like that.

Ok sounds pretty good so far. My O.G. was almost 1.125, I dont know what it is now. I don't want to F with it yet

It probably has at least another 7-10 days. don't rack to secondary until its stopped dropping in gravity.

How often do you measure the gravity? I thought removing the stopper to much would cause problems?

Don "Ho"

Well we bottled this batch of mead on the July 3rd. It is now a perfect translucent honey color. It fermented to a F.G. of .98. I racked a total of 3 times in 6 months. The last time I racked was 1 week prior to bottling and added Sodium Metabisulfite and Potassium Sorbate. I ended up with 4.25 gallons total.
Today I am tasting ( admittedly It is before Noon.)
It tastes very good, strong but very drinkable.
It starts perfectly sweet followed by a fairly strong push of alcohol. But like I said very drinkable.
The pineapple added NOTHING to the final taste that i can tell.
I can't believe my first batch turned out well. I'm not sure how much of this will make past a year old!!

Measure the gravity every three days. That's with beer though. With mead you could get away with measuring it once a month. My last batch of mead I started on 6/2 and I haven't even checked the SG on it since I started the batch because it's still fermenting.