I'm now 4 days into the fermentation of my first mead and I thought I'd share the recipe I used and maybe ask a question
First off:
15 pounds local wildflower Honey
2 Gallons unfiltered apple juice
about 3 gallons filtered and boiled tap water
3 cinnamon sticks (1")
5 cloves (3 cloves removed after letting the must cool overnight before pitching yeast)
6 fuji apples, diced
1 packet Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast
2 tsp yeast nutrient
I sanitized everything with a bleach solution and rinsed with boiling water, and pitched the yeast with the must having cooled overnight to 88F
I forgot to take an initial gravity, since I was kind of in a rush to leave for work, and just pitched the yeast and nutrient, stirred, and sealed the bucket.
I've aerated the mead via stirring it twice, and once before the 1/3 sugar break by racking it through a sieve to get a lot of oxygen into it.
I did take one when I got home that night, and got a gravity of around 1.120
further measurements are as follows:
1.095 Gravity at 6:20pm 10/14
1.080-85 at 6AM on 10/15
1.070 at 10PM on 10/15
It seems like the gravity is dropping pretty quickly. Is this ok?
I also took a smell out of the bucket and it burned my nose a bit, but I didn't smell any sulfur, just a very "stinging" feel. I figure it just might be from the rush of CO2, since the smell went away after leaving the lid open for a moment.
First off:
15 pounds local wildflower Honey
2 Gallons unfiltered apple juice
about 3 gallons filtered and boiled tap water
3 cinnamon sticks (1")
5 cloves (3 cloves removed after letting the must cool overnight before pitching yeast)
6 fuji apples, diced
1 packet Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast
2 tsp yeast nutrient
I sanitized everything with a bleach solution and rinsed with boiling water, and pitched the yeast with the must having cooled overnight to 88F
I forgot to take an initial gravity, since I was kind of in a rush to leave for work, and just pitched the yeast and nutrient, stirred, and sealed the bucket.
I've aerated the mead via stirring it twice, and once before the 1/3 sugar break by racking it through a sieve to get a lot of oxygen into it.
I did take one when I got home that night, and got a gravity of around 1.120
further measurements are as follows:
1.095 Gravity at 6:20pm 10/14
1.080-85 at 6AM on 10/15
1.070 at 10PM on 10/15
It seems like the gravity is dropping pretty quickly. Is this ok?
I also took a smell out of the bucket and it burned my nose a bit, but I didn't smell any sulfur, just a very "stinging" feel. I figure it just might be from the rush of CO2, since the smell went away after leaving the lid open for a moment.