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I ran this question through the mead forum but am wondering if I might find any different perspectives in the wine forum. I currently stir my wines/meads, vigorously, throughout primary fermentation, which for me is all the way down to the 2/3 sugar break. They have been turning out pretty...

Yeah, I'm seriously considering changing my stirring regimen. I currently stir vigorously throughout primary fermentation, which for me is all the way down to the 2/3 sugar break. My concern with this method is that I might actually be introducing too much oxygen.

Has anyone done any side by side bench tests to compare the effects of oxygen during primary fermentation of meads? It's my understanding that yeast need oxygen during the first few days (at least) of fermentation, though beyond that it seems to be very much a matter of opinion. There is the...

I like the vacuum method of degassing. Then I don't have to worry about oxidation and whether or not I'm agitating too much. Of course the disadvantage is you cannot do it in plastic containers which, as a rule, tend to implode under vacuum pressure. In reference to my original question, I...

Having read that degassing helps to facilitate clearing, I've been toying around with degassing my mead, metheglin, and loganberry melomel. However, I have heard many people state that there can be no end to the c02, no matter how much degassing is done. 5-10 minutes solid, repeated 2,3,4...

Thanks for the great insights. At this point I'm steering away from using kegs for aging. Though I could probably figure it out eventually, I'm just not up for the requisite R&D right now. So thanks for shedding light on the logistics of keg technology. Some day soon, I will definitely have...

To the best of my limited knowledge, a certain amount of co2 gets trapped in fermented beverages regardless of how they are fermented. It's not enough to be considered "carbonated" or "effervescent," but it's still perceptible, and often referred to as "gassy" wine. This trapped co2 can take...

I know plastic in general doesn't work for vacuum transfers. Any chance a stouter model, such as this one - http://store.homebrewheaven.com/11-gallon-plastic-carboy-p54.aspx - might hold up?

I'm already set up with lots of 20 gallon primaries and 11 gallon secondaries, and am only interested in kegs for tertiary, bulk aging, and perhaps bottling from. The issue that fatbloke brought to my attention was degassing, which I had overlooked. I really need to degas my still meads...

Do you know of any advantages to using co2 as opposed to argon or nitrogen? Cost? Availability? Other? I wonder if there's a way to create a vacuum in a keg? Doesn't seem like they would implode. Or perhaps using the wand/drill method to degas in the keg? Then bottling could be done...

I'm considering springing for 2 brand new,10 gallon corny kegs for aging my meads. If I understand this process correctly, aging under pressure seems like an easy way to avoid having to worry about topping up, or having a bladder deflate on a floating lid, not to mention a convenient way to...

Thanks guys - I tend to agree. In fact, I usually don't use pectic enzyme either, and the melomels tend to turn out just fine. It's just that I had a batch of blackberry last year that developed a gelatinous mass (bottom 3-4 inches in a 5 gallon carboy - infuriating!) in tertiary bulk aging...

I sulfited a marionberry melomel yesterday, pitched today, but forgot pectic enzyme in between. Should I still do it before alcohol levels begin to rise? Any chance this might anger the little yeasties, prolong lag, etc ...?

Yeah, well said. I did end up sulfiting yesterday and will pitch 71b or cote des blanc this evening. I've never used 1116 before, even in emergency situations. But I've read a few interesting things about it lately that make me think it could also be the ticket in non-emergency situations...

I just accumulated enough marionberries in the freezer to start a 7 gallon batch of melomel. After thawing, I began mashing them up and noticed more fizziness than other times I have made this in the past. (Maybe they got warmer during thaw time?) So an hour later, after blending in the...

Thanks for the replies. I have never degassed anything before, but it sounds like it's time to learn. I certainly have nothing to lose on this batch. But I think I will start making a habit of it in the future as well. It will be nice to have some meads that are truly still meads. I did...

I just finished 30 gallons of mead. 5 of the 6 carboys came out great, but #6 has a noticeable sulfuric flavor and smell. It's not real strong but it's definitely there. Whatever it is, it happened in the tertiary, where it sat for one month to settle out and clear. I added no sulfites, so...

Thanks guys for the thoughts. Another idea that just crossed my mind is nutrients. I'm not sure this makes sense, but it seems plausible. The (roughly) 100 pounds of fruit needed to press 5 gallons has a lot more nutrition than the 25 pounds of fruit needed for the same size batch when not...

Fermenting the fruit when making crabapple wine/cyser seems to be pretty widely accepted. But this doesn't seem to be the case with regular apples. Why is it that cyser/apple wine is made by fermenting (pressed) apple juice, while the opposite seems to be true for crab apples, ie; we ferment...

I tend to agree with the use of pectic enzyme. There seem to be no drawbacks and several advantages. My guess is that I got lucky in the past without enzymes, for reasons that I didn't even understand. Perhaps the ripeness of the fruit played in, which undoubtedly varies year to year. Or...