first quick mead: advice?

Hi, I'm brewing my first couple batches of mead right now to experiment and see how they go. The first is a gallon of a recipe that should be ready to try in about a month.
The second is following this recipe (for 1/2 gallon):

Master Robyyan's recipe:

Add one. pound of honey to 5 quarts of water, bring the mixture to a simmer and skim the foam as it rises, until there is no more foam, approximately 30 minutes. Add approx. 2 tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh ginger, the juice of one lemon, and 8 cloves, stuck into the lemon peel for easy removal. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from the heat and cool to lukewarm. Place the wort in a jug, straining the ginger and lemon pieces out. Add 1/4 tsp. ale yeast, and fit a fermentation lock.

After 48 hours, bottle and store at room temperature. After 48 hours in the bottle, refrigerate.

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It will have been in it's first fermenter 48 hours tonight, but it looks like there still quite a bit of activity going on in there (I'm using a champagne yeast). I suppose it can't hurt to leave it in there a few more days, but are there any visible cues to when fermentation has slowed? I'm using bare bones equipment right now, so visual cues is about all I have to go by right now.

Thanks

nothing quick about mead. Time makes it. I used to always try to make a fast mead and was never impressed. I did however put a few bottles away after every brew. Kick myself in the ass after every sip for drinking the rest. I'd say quick is 9-12 months. Let it age at least 2 years...It's worth it.

I filtered out about a spoonful to see how it's going. I must say, I like the taste a lot. Spicy, a bit bubbly, and mildly sweet. I can't taste any alcohol, so I'm guessing it's 5% tops right now. It could use to ferment more, but it's coming out more like a cider than a wine, which is what I'd expect. I'm pretty optimistic about this recipe.

Zebra said:

I filtered out about a spoonful to see how it's going. I must say, I like the taste a lot. Spicy, a bit bubbly, and mildly sweet. I can't taste any alcohol, so I'm guessing it's 5% tops right now. It could use to ferment more, but it's coming out more like a cider than a wine, which is what I'd expect. I'm pretty optimistic about this recipe.

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The fermentation will take 1-2 months. Then you ought rack it to a secondary for about 10 more months and let it degass.

the only thing you can do. and it will help ALOT.
is to add lots of FAN and yeast nutrient

Don't boil honey. Don't do an extended simmer. I'd say steer clear of any temps over 160F.

+5 on not boiling the honey. It ruins the aeromatics and IO the flavor of the honey. If you like how it tastes now, you would love it if you didn't boil.

I decided to let it ferment a while longer, but I realized that I should have stuck to the recipe. The yeast seems to have fermented most of the honey and now it's no longer sweet. It obviously needs to age a little now. If I had siphoned it after a few days rather than 10, it would have been modestly alcoholic and drinkable.

I'm starting to think that the two paths for making a mead this fast are to produce something that is tasty and not very alcoholic, or something of conventional alcohol levels but not very tasty.

My other batch is coming along nicely, though.

Wine yeast will almost always ferment dry so if youre looking for sweeter the use a sweet mead yeast or add sulfites and sorbate when its done fermenting and sweeten it up with a simple syrup consisting of 2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part boiling water and let it cool and add it into the wine(mead) or you can even use honey in this case to sweeten it. Do not boil honey!

Wade E said:

Wine yeast will almost always ferment dry so if youre looking for sweeter the use a sweet mead yeast or add sulfites and sorbate when its done fermenting and sweeten it up with a simple syrup consisting of 2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part boiling water and let it cool and add it into the wine(mead) or you can even use honey in this case to sweeten it. Do not boil honey!

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Understood. I have a new batch that's following this recipe (essentially). I siphoned it into bottles after 5 days this time, while it's still sweet. Hopefully the champagne yeast won't eat all my sugar this time.

On the topic of siphoning, what ways do you guys filter out the stuff during the bottling process?

I'm a traditionalist, so I'll wait until all the cloudy stuff settles to the bottom of a carboy, and then I'll rack (siphon) the clear liquid off of the top into another carboy for further clearing, or then into bottles. Lots of folks like to speed up the process by adding a fining agent (like bentonite or sparkolloid), and still others with the $$ available to do it, will use a commercial wine filter when they bottle.

Zebra said:

Understood. I have a new batch that's following this recipe (essentially). I siphoned it into bottles after 5 days this time, while it's still sweet. Hopefully the champagne yeast won't eat all my sugar this time.

On the topic of siphoning, what ways do you guys filter out the stuff during the bottling process?

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putting it in bottles after only 5 days is not going to stop the yeast from eating the sugars, but it may (at best) give you VERY carbonated stuff that tastes just like your first batch did after the fermentation was complete, or (at worst) shower your storage location with glass and alcohol when the bottles explode

Ferrousity said:

putting it in bottles after only 5 days is not going to stop the yeast from eating the sugars, but it may (at best) give you VERY carbonated stuff that tastes just like your first batch did after the fermentation was complete, or (at worst) shower your storage location with glass and alcohol when the bottles explode

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I was thinking somebody would say that, but we'll see. I have the bottles in the fridge and I'm periodically relieving pressure. What I really need I suppose is some potassium sorbate.