mead advice needed somewhat urgently, i think!

[theflavorzone]

hello everyone! i’ve been brewing beer for a few months, and impulsively decided to put together a batch of mead. i had 10 pounds of raw wildflower honey, which i mixed into ~4.6 gallons of boiled+cooled water.

however, upon getting ready to deal with the pitching, i noticed that our last two packets of yeast had accidentally been moved/thrown away! my solution, which i personally thought was elegant but might be wildly stupid, was to take some fresh yeast (WLP002) harvested from a porter i’m brewing and to just pitch it all straight out of my conical collection ball. this happened on sunday.

i’m out of town, so i’ve been receiving updates over text from friends: it looks like the fermentation got off to a very vigorous start within hours of pitching, and maintained a nice “krausen” (no idea what the mead terminology equivalent is haha) for at least a couple days. however, it’s starting to slow down already, and i’m concerned about its progress. for context, the airlock has almost entirely stopped bubbling and there is now only a thin layer of foam sitting on the surface of the liquid (not even covering all of it, just a bit of foam on roughly half of it).

is everything gonna be okay? it feels like there should’ve been a longer primary, especially for something i’m hoping to hit >9% abv on. i have yeast nutrient (wyeast brand i think), which i originally added to the porter starter - should i try throwing some in and shaking the carboy? i’m afraid that it’s too late, and that trying to reinvigorate the yeast will only oxygenate/contaminate the mead.

any advice is appreciated! attached pic is of the mead a few hours after i pitched. it’s sitting at ~69 degrees F right now, i think.

 

[S-Met]

What's the current gravity? Only way to really know.

I'm not very experienced with mead, but know it does like nutrients. If gravity is 1.010 or higher, I'd consider adding nutes. If less than 1.010, leave it for another week then rack.

 

[Kent88]

You used yeast nutrient, which is good. How did you aerate?

Did you leave instruction for your friends who are keeping an eye on it? Can you get a gravity reading?

 

[Maylar]

Need a hydrometer reading to know where it's at. Bubbles mean nothing.

 

[Seamonkey84]

All the sugars in mead/wine is easily fermented by the yeast compared to beer. A batch is usually “done” primary within 7-10 days. Yours prob finished a bit faster since you basically pitched a starter instead of a pack of dry yeast. After that it’s just a waiting game for clearing and natural degassing/aging.

 

[theflavorzone]

wow! this community is awesome - thanks for the speedy response.

You used yeast nutrient, which is good. How did you aerate?

Did you leave instruction for your friends who are keeping an eye on it? Can you get a gravity reading?

i aerated pretty poorly, in retrospect - i basically just shook the carboy for as long as my arms could stand it. would a swirl/shake be counterproductive at this point?

i’m currently walking my friend through the process of taking a gravity reading - it’s all in his hands now, haha. hopefully i’ll hear back from him shortly

 

[theflavorzone]

ooooh, yep, looks like it’s almost 1.050 with barely any yeast activity. how much of this yeast nutrient should i throw in / should i aerate further?

i suppose i could also add more settled yeast from the beer - would that help?

 

[madscientist451]

Get your brewing buddy to "de-gas" the mead by stirring it up with a long (sanitized) spoon or you can swirl the carboy around. You DON'T want to shake the carboy and introduce oxygen into the mead. The de-gassing will get the yeast active again. Note that if the carboy or bucket is almost full, de-gassing can cause the mead to overflow the fermenter and make a big mess.
I think that the re-pitch of your beer yeast probably had enough dead yeast cells present to serve as yeast nutrient, but next time check out staggered nutrient additions and the TONSA nutrient addition protocol.
You can look up degassing wine and mead, but here's a quick explanation:
https://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/2114/why-do-you-degas-wine-but-not-beer

 

[Seamonkey84]

Just Don’t add any more nutrients once it’s 10%abv or above.

 

[theflavorzone]

y’all are heroes, thank you! had my friend put in a half teaspoon of nutes and give it a good, non-oxygenating swirl hahaha

 

[dwhite60]

So, how has this been going?

Inquiring minds.......

All the Best,
D. White