First batch of mead

[Tygarr24]

Ok so I have a few questions that hopefully I can get answered! I started my first batch of mead on 5/16 which composed of:
1 gallon spring water
3lb wildflower honey
25 raisins
1 orange, and
1 pack of red star pasteur blanc yeast.
OG: 1.090

My questions is, should I rack to secondary even though it's just been a week? (5/24) It hasn't cleared at all! The airlock is still bubbling, but very slowly (~1 bubble/30-40sec). Should I just be patient? I checked the gravity and temperature today:
Temp: 74F
Gravity: 0.998

I think I'm just wanting to get it to a secondary to get it off the fruit and lees?

My goal is for a bone dry sparkling mead. I'm also going to add some medium toast oak cubes for about a week or so before bottling.

Question two!
Bottling is a ways off, but to make it sparkling without exploding! Should I add potassium sorbate before bottling with priming sugar or skip it?

All help is appreciated!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Tygarr24 - and welcome. Just my opinion but at .0998 there is virtually no sugar left in the mead so if you are fermenting in a bucket you should be transferring to a carboy with bung and airlock. Bubbles per minute really tell you nothing about fermentation. All it tells you is that CO2 is bubbling but that could be because the temperature has changed forcing gas to escape from the the liquid or it could be because of changes in air pressure causing the gas to be expelled or it could be that the CO2 is nucleating around particles - enabling the gas to be expelled with less energy. The one valid tool you have that can give you good data about fermentation and gas production (not the expulsion but the production of CO2) is your hydrometer.
If you want to prime your mead then you should not add K-sorbate. K-sorbate will act to inhibit yeast cells from reproducing so the addition of both priming sugar AND K-sorbate means that you are trying to get to the north pole by walking towards the south. You add K-sorbate AND K-meta to INHIBIT any further fermentation. You add priming sugar because you WANT more fermentation. Knowing that the ONLY sugar being fermented is the sugar you are adding to prime the bottles and knowing that there is NO carbon dioxide dissolved in the mead (because you have worked to remove it all) means that you know precisely how much CO2 the sugar will produce and knowing that you can know how much pressure that gas can exert and knowing that you can know whether the bottles - and or the caps will withstand that pressure or explode or pop the caps.

 

[Tygarr24]

I have it in a small one gallon batch big mouth bubbler right now because I wasn't sure how hard it'd be to get the chunks of orange out of my gallon Carboy jug! But I guess I'll rack it over to that jug tonight! Thanks for the info!

 

[Maylar]

You're on track. Rack it off the fruit and lees and let it clear in secondary. That could take a while. At .998 it's already pretty much done, the bubbles you're seeing are probably just outgassing of the trapped CO2. Once it clears you can prime and bottle, no sorbate.

I need to get one of those mini big mouth bottles too - cleaning out a gallon jug of orange stuff is no fun.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Sounds like you have a great start on some good mead - looking forward to seeing how it finishes!

Have you considered tossing a cinnamon stick in there? My son made a mead last year and added one. It seemed to come out very well. The cinnamon stayed in the background but really added a nice undertone to the rest of the flavor. With your orange, raisins and toasted oak, it might be a good addition.


Keep us informed, and good luck!

 

[Tygarr24]

Ok so I went ahead and transferred to secondary, and hopefully it clears well! It is still completely hazy/opaque!

There was quite a bit left in the primary after filling my secondary well past the 1 gallon mark?! I thought the orange and raisins would have soaked up a lot of the liquid? Anyway, tasted it and it tastes like a nice mimosa! ~12%abv from the gravity readings I got!

So my next question is about the oak cubes! So my plan was to transfer to tertiary after it clears and put on the medium toast oak cubes for a week or two before bottling. I was thinking about soaking the cubes in a nice bourbon for a day or two before that, any thoughts? Do I even need to soak them before? I've read some people boil them, some people soak them in vodka... They are packaged, food grade, made for Brewers so I'm not worried about sanitizing them really, I just want my final mead to simulate that it was aged in old bourbon barrels.

 

[FrodeM]

Clearing can take a while, depending on the honey and yeast used!

I would guess degassing will speed up the clearing process a bit. chilling the brew to below the yeast's preffered temperature range is a known way to make it clear faster as well. If you let it sit without doing anything, I would say it can take two-three months before it clears completely (still; depends on the yeast, and I am not familiar with the Red-Star yeast strains). That's usually no problem since mead is often aged at least half a year anyways.

 

[Maylar]

When I use oak I just rinse the cubes under hot water to wash the dust off. About 1/2 oz per gallon. If you put them in a cheesecloth bag with a sanitized marble or stainless bolt as a weight you can suspend them in the mead, otherwise they float.