hello... new here and looking for opinons

ok.. so this is my first mead sortof. tried making one before but it got tossed out before it was done. so this time im making a more traditional mead with a twist and wont have to worry about it being tossed out. this is what i have first..... its a twisted verson of jaom but only in 1/2 gal. it has 2lbs of honey,1 granny smith apple, snack size box of raisins, hand full of white grapes, and a hand full of red cherries for color, 2 oranges, and fleischmanns yeast, plus 1 3/4 qts of water to make the 1/2 gal. and..... then.... theres my second 1/2 gal its easy i had a 5 month old unopend can of 100% pure grapefruit juice in the refer and i seen it was expired and i thought hmm? why not... so i opened the can and put in a spare 2 liter and put some raisins in it and a pound of honey and a cup of water with fleischmanns yeast. they have been highly active for the last 4 days and was wondeing when the best time would be to rack them both together in a 1 gal car boy. how long should i let them sit before i do that would be the question..... 2 primaries to make a secondary whats your thoughts on this ? thank you. oh and when is it good to use a airlock? some say yeast needs oxygen and some say yeast doesnt need oxygen.

1. If a package is expired I would be less likely to use it in a fermented product. If I could not trust a product for immediate consumption I would not plan on adding it to a nutrient rich medium unless it had been boiled... perhaps you boil your ingredients, that would kill any unwanted organisms in the juice. Otherwise you could get 'off flavors' from other molds and spoilage organisms if they are present in the juice.

2. I think you should always use an airlock. In general yeast only need oxygen in their early stages of growth and reproduction, using a sanitized tube with a dispersion stone connected to an oxygen tank would pretty much ensure plenty of oxygen and no contamination. I settle for a thorough shake of the carboy when full for about 20-30 seconds and then it remains protected by an airlock after that.

3. Why did you do two primaries? The best time to combine ingredients is generally before fermentation. If you are trying to preserve certain flavors because you think the yeast will pull them out then you should wait until the yeast is settled in a tight cake in the bottom of the fermenter.

Hope some of this helps.

Thanks for the info ...... but would it be wise to mix the 2 now while the yeast is still active and then rack just the liquid later after its not active and how many days is each step roughly before it gets put up for months. Or should I keep them separated the whole time and experiment with the 2 flavors later ? Thanks again

This is your first go, do what you want to do. If it is mildly drinkable in the end that's a win. If you want to combine to two fully fermented flavors I think that is fine. Nothing inherently wrong with what you are doing, just extra steps that are not really needed. Joam type recipies are left in primary for 3 months and then the clear liquid is racked off from there. I think this is partly cause of the yeast. Bread yeast does not settle out of the liquid well and needs a long long time to drop out. Just air lock them, let them sit for 3 months, taste each one, combine in new Carboy and age for another 3 months. Try it again and keep us informed.

Just a suggestion, if you have the two seperate now, why not keep them that way? If you want to combine them, just mix 1/3 from each batch you'd have 2/6 gallon of three types of meads.

ok so i like all the ideas and info. .. Thanks. so im at day 5 and all action is gone in both airlocks. Yeast is settling
but all fruit is still floating. I like the idea of making 3 flavors from the 2 so ill do that. Like I said in the first post tried this once before but it got tossed out before it was done. .... I was on a state paid vacation (wink wink) and then we only had bread for the yeast and jolly ranchers for the sugar and sometimes honey and we would give it heat and it was usually done in a week to two so any info or comments are appreciated

ok so i like all the ideas and info. .. Thanks. so im at day 5 and all action is gone in both airlocks. Yeast is settling
but all fruit is still floating. I like the idea of making 3 flavors from the 2 so ill do that. Like I said in the first post tried this once before but it got tossed out before it was done. .... I was on a state paid vacation (wink wink) and then we only had bread for the yeast and jolly ranchers for the sugar and sometimes honey and we would give it heat and it was usually done in a week to two so any info or comments are appreciated

Well I racked the two in to three different bottles but when I put the two together in one bottle it got active again so I put the airlock back on and its been active for two days ....... why is that?

Some times when things slow to a crawl & is still fermenting but not really noticable. Extra oxygen added along with stirring up yeast back into suspension will kick start the fermentation a little bit.

No more activity now what? What's the next step. I started this about a month ago. how do I make it sparkling or carbonated and when should I do that ?

Mead should generally get better and better with age. I would think that in general 3-4 months would be as early as most would think about drinking it. I don't see any reason to carbonate until you are close to the end. I think some people like to age the mead for years.

I'm having the same newbie problem. My peach strawberry melomel is way slowed down after 5 days. A bubble every 5 sec. I feel like I mist do something about this. But I'm guessing I should just let it sit for amonth then rack? The general consensus on here seems to be: be patient, bubbling slowing down doesn't mean ferment is, be patient, wait a month check gravity. Wait two weeks check again to see if the sugar is all eaten. BE PATIENT. From what I'm seeing mead will usually end up alright in the end.

You say the bubbles have slowed down....are you taking S.G. readings? That is the one and only true indication of fermentation.
It is very common for 75% of the S.G. to have decreased within 3-5 days, which at that time if you have not yet done so you would apply the airlock. Check S.G. at the month mark, from pitching of yeast, and rack, apply airlock. Rack every 60 days as long as sediment keeps dropping. Bottle around 9mos to a year, ensure it is degassed. A year after you pitched yeast, it may be drinkable...but should improve with age from there on out.