Primary Fermentation Questions

Hello,

I have some questions about the primary fermentation stage since there seems to be lots of different ways to do it.

1. Is the air lock needed or is putting some cheese cloth on the top acceptable? (I have read that the initial stages of fermentation should be exposed to the air but not everybody calls to do that)

2. How do you tell when the primary fermentation is complete? Is it length of days? Is it an SG of ~1.000? Is it when the SG bottoms out and doesn't change for 3 days? Is it the FG listed in the Mead Calculator Spreadsheet when using it?

Thanks for reading my questions.

1. Cheese cloth, loose lid on a bucket, airlock with daily aeration. No wrong way to do it, just make sure the yeast get oxygen early on in the fermentation process.

2. Use your hydrometer to tell you when fermentation is done. Generally, when it hits 1.000 or close by. But sometimes yeast will hit their alcohol tolerance at a much higher S.G., like at 1.020 and stop fermenting. When gravity stops dropping over the course of a week or two, you can assume fermentation is complete. Then it is a matter if you want it to stop fermenting - if you backsweeten by adding more honey the yeasties will likely act up again.

Thanks for the reply.

Actually, per the last NHC, I think its far more beneficial to drive off the excess CO2 in primary, than aerate. If you aerate once at pitching, and pitch enough healthy yeast, it'll grow to a good colony size.

Feeding nutrients, energizer, watching pH, and driving off the toxic CO2 (toxic to yeast health) is going to benefit you more.
I just tried this method and had the most vigorous, quickest primary ever.

There are an awful lot of studies in wine that say without aeration (or sterol supplementation) you have less sugar fermented and a higher risk of stuck fermentations. That may not matter if you're using a recipe with 71B that ends with a gravity of 1.030 or higher, but if you are trying to get dry batches to ferment to completion, the aeration makes a big difference. Even large biomass yeast pitches can sometimes fail to go completely dry.

CO2 elimination, on the other hand, has not been shown to make much difference as far as I am aware, in any studies. The folks making the NHC presentation believe it to be so, and it seems to have made its way into common acceptance, but I've not seen any studies (or reference texts) that show this to be a fact. While I acknowledge the folks presenting there are some excellent mead makers, and at the risk of being branded a heretic, I think that actively trying to reduce CO2 below it's saturation threshold at one atmosphere in a must during active fermentation is probably a waste of good effort. Certainly the mixing ensures good aeration, and there have been studies that show that actions that promote keeping the yeast up in suspension (like adding Bentonite) may help fermentation finish faster, but I believe the CO2 effect is negligible at best.

If you want to make a mead that tastes good without long aging, using 71B, a lot of fruit, and keeping it sweet will work even if you don't de-gas.

Medsen

I like to work with one gallon sizes so maybe I should just try all these different techniques. There is so many ways to do things that its daunting to even try. Some guys say do this or it won't work and other guys say do it, it will work.

How much of a difference do these extras make? Do you get 95% there with standard methods and only gain another 4% in quality driving the CO2 off? I am not a guy that can taste that difference.

When it comes to making mead, there is always more than one way to skin the cat. Do not let that become daunting. Great meads have been made using all sorts of different approaches, and mead is very forgiving if you give it time.

So pick a recipe, make it, and taste it. Decide what you like about it and what you don't and you'll be able to modify things to make the next batch better.

There are a few consistent things though:

1. Use good honey. Better honey = better mead. For folks starting, I recommend light colored honey. Really dark honey can often have some flavor elements that can be phenolic once you take the sugar away. I'm not saying dark honey is bad (quite the contrary), but for your first batch, you'll probably be happy with a nice light fresh clover, orange blossom, tupelo, etc.

2. Provide nutrients for the yeast. Staggering them generally is a good idea.

3. Keep the fermentation cool (usually below 70F in most cases).

4. Stir it around for the first few day to aerate (or de-gas if you prefer).

5. Don't add acid blend until the yeast are done. Be prepared to manage pH. Have strips or a meter, and have potassium bicarbonate or calcium carbonate on hand.

6. Don't boil the honey and lose precious aromatic elements.

Now you can find recipes that will say, boil the honey, don't add nutrients, and acid blend at the beginning. Some of these recipes are old. Some just find they work and like them, however, not doing the things outlined above can often result in very long, slow fermentations that drag on for months and may take a long time to come around.

The famous Brother Adam made meads after boiling the honey, and didn't believe in nutrients. His sack strength meads would continue fermenting for up to 2 years. He felt they needed to be barrel aged for at least 5 years. His meads have been described as excellent. So whatever set of direction you choose to follow, you can end up with something great, but if you choose to manage the fermentation and support the yeast, you can be enjoying great mead in 6-18 months rather than 5 years.

Medsen

Thanks for the reply. That helped put it in perspective.