Another 'First Mead Attempt' Thread

[CAlexander]

Hello all!

Made my first batch of mead yesterday and I'm incredibly stoked. I had a few questions, but first, here's what I used:

I based the recipe on Malkore's Not So Ancient Mead, but I adjusted it a bit for batch size and to mellow out the spices & orange flavor. I used the following:

6 Gallon Batch
Started with 1-1/2 Gallons of Store Bought Spring Water at about 160 Degrees
Added 15 pounds of Orange Blossom Honey
Added 6 tsps of Yeast Nutrient (Per Label Instructions, Fermax)
Added 3 tsps of Yeast Energizer (Per Label, 'Crosby & Baker Yeast Energizer')
Added juice from 3 oranges (through a strainer)
Steeped 4 tsps orange zest, 4 cinnamon sticks and 3 cloves in cheesecloth for about 15 minutes.

Cooled the wort, added to carboy with enough spring water to bring it to 6 gallons. Stirred wort violently to mix it together and aerate, then added White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast. (1 vial)

A couple of questions. First, like a few others I've seen, I've got the majority of the honey collecting at the bottom of the carboy. This started to happen almost immediately, so despite all of my agitating attempts I could not get a good OG reading. I figured I could use the calculator that is floating around to get a rough OG, so that should be fine. That being said, this morning the honey was very clearly all gathering at the bottom. Should I be regularly stirring this, or should I leave it?

I've heard I should be frequently aerating the wort. Should I do this once a day? More? Should I stop when it begins fermenting?

Finally, from what I've read I've gathered that I should be adding nutrient and energizer when the wort begins to ferment, and again when 1/3 of the sugar is fermented. Is this correct? Should I add the full amount, or less?

Any other comments or suggestions? Thanks!

 

[CAlexander]

Aaand sometime in the last 3 hours it's started bubbling away! Less than 17 hours after the yeast was pitched we already have really solid airlock activity. Should I be adding more nutrient/energizer now even though there was a full batch added initially? If not, when would you recommend I add more?

Still the same 4" or so of honey on the bottom, but as it's fermenting, should I just leave it alone or try to stir it back in?

 

[mcaple1]

I had the same worries as you with my mead. Apparently, according to several members on here, the honey collecting at the bottom is not an issue. I had roughly 3-4 inched in my carboy 3 days ago, and now I have 1/4 inch, so the yeasties are definitely doing their work. I put 48 oz of frozen raspberries into my must, so I swirled the carboy once per day thus far to keep the raspberries from developing any nasties. However, in your case, I still think it would neither hurt or help the fermenting of the must if you aerate it...although, I guess it couldn't hurt. Sorry for the vague answer.

 

[mccann51]

You'll want to aerate the must everyday until you reach the 1/3 sugar break. This is a pretty important step in meadmaking, and makes for a much better product that ages a lot faster.

Staggered nutrient addition (SNA) is exactly as you said, adding nutrients just after lag and at the 1/3 break, and is pretty common practice in meadmaking/ But with generic nutrient and energizer products, the amount of YAN (yeast assimilable N) is not listed, so you can only really guess how much to put in (the recommended dosages are often for wine musts, which have very different characteristics than mead musts; the former will have a lot more YAN and nutrients to begin with that the latter). I don't know about the recipe you used, so I hesitate to advise you add more nutrient. That said, if you added half the amount of nutrient and energizer, that you used initially, now and again at the 1/3 break, I'd be surprised if it was detrimental to your mead (and it could help the ferment quite a bit). But not adding it isn't gonna ruin your mead, either.

 

[CAlexander]

Wow.

So, I added Yeast Nutrient again as directed, and BAM, it was like Mentos in a Diet Coke bottle. Literally erupted. It was a mess, but rather than risk contaminating I just popped the airlock back on and watched the show for about a minute. Then cleaned up the room.

After, much more carefully, I added the Yeast Energizer and it seemed fine. Then I aerated, carefully at first, then a little more heavily. It fizzed and foamed, but nothing nearly as bad.

Is that normal? Anything I should be worried about? I'm guessing I just added too much too fast and should have added it slowly.

Either way things are ok now, bubbling away happily. As there is a lot of honey still gathered on the bottom I won't be able to take a gravity reading, so I'm going to have to wing it for the 1/3 sugar break and just add a bit more nutrient in a couple of days.

That being said, has this happened to anyone else?

 

[CAlexander]

Update on the mead:

Alright, we've been fermenting for about 9 days. Fermentation was very active, with about 1 bubble per second the entire time. After fermentation started I added more energizer and nutrient, and a couple of days after that (estimating the 1/3 sugar break) I added even more energizer and nutrient.

Now it has finally slowed down, and slowed down quite a bit. Last night it was down to 1 bubble per 4 seconds, this morning every 8 seconds, and only a few hours later every 10 seconds. Still cloudy. Should I aerate and/or add more nutrient, or has it reached a natural slowing down point?

 

[commonsenseman]

Well, it's tough to know for sure without a gravity reading, but i'd say it's pretty likely you're past the point where you'd want to add any oxygen. Same goes for nutrients, no need if it's done fermenting.

 

[CAlexander]

I'll go ahead and take a gravity reading tonight and see where I'm at. Thanks!

 

[malkore]

always mix your nutrient and energizer in a little water (2 oz.) then pour into the primary. the dry stuff does make CO2 shoot outta solution.

and rather than 'aerate' during primary, you want to degas the CO2, as CO2 is unhealthy to yeast in high amounts, and also makes the mead acidic which hinders the yeast.