jdektattoo13
Member
New batch bubbled violently for 36 hours and now has pretty much stopped, is it stuck or just past that stage?
Is this normal?
- Thread starter jdektattoo13
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
Take a gravity reading. Remember, meads prefer to be nursed along with the use of oxygen and yeast energizer & nutrient feedings a few times in the first 36 hours or so.
Since most of your honey should be completely fermentable, you're looking at fermenting out the mead to .998 to .995 or so. The only way you'll be able to tell if it's done fermenting is to sanitize a turkey baster or a wine thief, suck out some mead, measure the gravity with a hydrometer and check if it's done. Remember, airlock activity isn't a good indicator on whether the mead is finished fermenting.
If the fermentation is stuck, I would try adding more yeast energizer & nutrient to the mead and roust the yeast a little bit by rocking your bucket/carboy to stir the yeast back into suspension. Be careful when you do it though as your mead will be full of CO2 gas, and it can and will froth up on you. Once the mead ferments out completely, you'll need to de-gas it.
Since most of your honey should be completely fermentable, you're looking at fermenting out the mead to .998 to .995 or so. The only way you'll be able to tell if it's done fermenting is to sanitize a turkey baster or a wine thief, suck out some mead, measure the gravity with a hydrometer and check if it's done. Remember, airlock activity isn't a good indicator on whether the mead is finished fermenting.
If the fermentation is stuck, I would try adding more yeast energizer & nutrient to the mead and roust the yeast a little bit by rocking your bucket/carboy to stir the yeast back into suspension. Be careful when you do it though as your mead will be full of CO2 gas, and it can and will froth up on you. Once the mead ferments out completely, you'll need to de-gas it.
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
If its a traditional recipe batch the other thing that can cause issues is pH swing.
if it gets too close to 3.0 pH it can slow almost to a stop.
then you need some potassium carbonate to raise the numbers to 3.2 to 3.4 pH as that's about the sweet spot for yeast in honey musts......
if it gets too close to 3.0 pH it can slow almost to a stop.
then you need some potassium carbonate to raise the numbers to 3.2 to 3.4 pH as that's about the sweet spot for yeast in honey musts......
