3 gallon mead in 5 gallon primary

[timcook]

Title says it all. Forgive me for the Noob question. This is my first mead. As a homebrewer, the CO2 in a fermenter protects the beer from oxidation. Is it safe to assume the same happens with mead?

It's been fermenting since December. In February, the gravity was 1.020 (way too sweet). I spoke with someone who said my basement is too cold at 62*. I have since put a fish tank heater in a tub of water to raise the temp. Still sign of fermentation. How long do people generally leave a mead in the primary? Tim

 

[AkTom]

I sometimes make mead in a bucket and don't snap the lid down till fermentation is done. For now yes are good.

 

[fossilcat]

Title says it all. Forgive me for the Noob question. This is my first mead. As a homebrewer, the CO2 in a fermenter protects the beer from oxidation. Is it safe to assume the same happens with mead?

Yes, this is true. Your brew should be safe for now.

It's been fermenting since December. In February, the gravity was 1.020 (way too sweet). I spoke with someone who said my basement is too cold at 62*. I have since put a fish tank heater in a tub of water to raise the temp. Still sign of fermentation. How long do people generally leave a mead in the primary? Tim

62* is actually an excellent temp to brew, at least with a lot of the more popular yeasts used for mead. Without knowing what yeast you used, it's kind of hard to tell. It's also hard to comment further without also knowing what your OG was. Maybe your yeast has reached its alcohol tolerance at 1.020.

 

[bernardsmith]

I agree with fossilcat. Not enough information. What was your staring temperature? What yeast did you use? What nutrients did you add? But that said, if the gravity has not budged since February then the yeast is not producing more CO2 and although my background is in the social sciences and not the physical sciences I do believe that the air and the CO2 will tend to blend so the blanket of CO2 that you would have while the yeast is actively fermenting will now be rather thread-bare. And while honey tends to resist oxidation better than most fruits (and grains), it resists but does not prevent oxidation. I think you want to rack your mead into a smaller carboy until you know precisely why the fermentation has stopped.

 

[timcook]

Long story: I made a gallon of JOAM & a gallon of Apricot Vanilla mead. Neither fermentation took off (like I said, basement probably too cold). Posted on this forum about it & deservedly took some flack about messing up a no brainer recipe.
After these meads finished too sweet, I put them both into a 5 gallon carboy together. I added 2.25# of honey, 1 gallon of water & 5 grams of EC1118. That's when I started using the fish tank heater. They've been like that since December.
Never used any nutrients.

 

[fossilcat]

Ok... so it's a Frankenstein batch. And without any more info, I'll take a shot and then I'm out. It's real hard to say which direction to go without a gravity reading. How much sugar is left? How much alcohol is present? So we'll try to cover all the bases.

EC1118 is a very hardy yeast but dumping them into the middle of a ferment without any preparation is like an episode of "Naked and Afraid". Eventually they'll be carried out on a stretcher or crying for extraction.

Re-hydrate your yeast (1118 is good, I think K1 V1116 is better) with GoFerm and then make a starter using your must, follow Bray's starter protocol: https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Sfno/ . Start with a viable population. The more your use, the shorter your lag phase. Use one 5 gm pack per gal. Introduce the environment of your must to the starter gradually.

After fermentation starts follow an SNA schedule: http://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/

Aerate thoroughly before pitch right through the lag phase, then degas a couple-three times a day to about the 1/2 sugar mark and then decrease frequency and aggressiveness.

Yeast is a living organism. If you don't introduce it responsibly to a radically different environment, it will go dormant or die.

Edited to say take the fruit out if you haven't done so already. You can always add it back in during secondary.

 

[timcook]

Thank you for the advice. My expectations are very low with this batch. I should just stick to making beer. I will follow your recommendations. Take Care.