My first batch of mead.

[bighooligan]

It is a 5 gallon batch

12 pounds of clover honey
2 oranges
50 raisins
2 gallons of welches white 100% grape juice
redstar dry wine yeast
staggered nutrient
It went together great and took off to fermenting in just a couple hours.
It went for about 2 weeks and then I racked it into the secondary I added some bentonite clay to help it clear. It is crystal clear now but really dark. It is still bubbling in the air lock very slowly but its going a little bit. It seems like everything is going good. I want to rack it again to get the yeast and the nutrient and the bentonite clay out of it and get it to aging in a dark part of the closet.

Any advice?

 

[loveofrose]

What is the gravity?


Better brewing through science!

 

[Matrix4b]

If you do rack it again, I would put in some potassium sorbate in too. This will halt the fermentation. Potassium Sorbat stops yeast from reproducing, so put some in, wait a few days and then see if it is still fermenting. But all told, it sounds like you will have a dry mead and you are ready to bulk age.

Matrix

 

[Descender]

Toss 5 campden tabs in there. Just dump em in and let it sit for at least a month then rerack and let it sit for six months.

 

[palantier]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out when I should add my juniper berries to a similar recipe, not sure if they should go in when I'm boiling the water, during ferment or during conditioning?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out when I should add my juniper berries to a similar recipe, not sure if they should go in when I'm boiling the water, during ferment or during conditioning?

Hi Plantier, At the risk of hijacking this thread I would add any fruit during the secondary fermentation - that is after the really active fermentation has slowed and you rack to a secondary vessel. There will still be enough active yeast to work on the sugars in the fruit and at the same time the level of activity will be such that the volatility of the fermentation will not destroy the flavor and aroma molecules which presumably you want to capture rather than lose.

 

[bighooligan]

It stopped bubbling when I re racked it.

 

[bighooligan]

This is what my mead looks like. Its not perfectly clear but it is nice.

 

[IJesusChrist]

It stopped bubbling when I re racked it.

While its bubbling, the mead is saturated with CO2 - the greatest amount of CO2 possible is dissolved, and therefore any additional CO2 must be expelled as a gas.

When you rerack, you are degassing, letting out a lot of CO2, and thus the solution is no longer saturated, and any CO2 that is released by the yeast can be immediately dissolved in the solution, and thus no gas escapes! Give it a day, or more, and you'll see it saturate again, and a slow trickle of CO2 start to come out (unless by then you've reached the FG and the yeast are asleep).

 

[bighooligan]

Ok. Ya I just wanted to keep it from oxidizing so i gave it a quick charge to keep it fresh. It started its aging now.