Thanks so much for clarifying some of by hose concerns for me. To follow up: With aeration and pH, can you go into a little detail on proper aeration techniques and frequency for a mead? Would it be different for a melomel? And for pH, is that just a matter of adding acid if need be?
There's no "proper" or "best" really. Aeration i.e. the agitation with a view to getting some oxygen into the mix to assist with yeast health/development, can be done with whatever kit you have available - as long as you use a sensible hygiene technique (no-rinse, maybe just crushed campden tablets/acid mix etc - anything will do to sanitise the kit as long as it's not gonna leave any residual taste - like bleach! that's a no-no), so that all the kit has been sanitised before use. A lees stirrer maybe if you're using a carboy type fermenter, or an "air stone" either with pumped air or even pure O2.
Buckets are a bit easier, as you can get away with balloon whisks, electric or manual, stick blenders, or the airstones above etc.
There's no strict regime either. Most will try and aerate at least once a day until the batch hits the 1/3 sugar break (where the yeast has consumed 1/3rd of avaialb sugars).
pH ? not a case of adding acid. Ferments are usually acidic enough (don't believe me ? just mix some honey and water to a normal ferment sort of level, say to 1.100 or thereabouts and bung a pH meter in - you'll likely get between the mid 3.X and mid 4.X). It's usually a case of having the correct carbonate available so if it drops below 3.0 pH during the ferment, you can bring the level back up a bit (potassium carbonate is considered the best to have available).
I think I'll hold off of adding nutrients and just give it some time. And as for calculating the gravity, is there a big scientific equation where you plug in all the factors to which you might get an approx gravity? I only ask because my nutrient additions have been based off the mead finishing at a 1.000 gravity, and if that's not the case, how would a somewhat amateur mead-maker like myself know when to add nutrient/energizer? Thanks again!
Calculating gravity is just a case of hydrometer readings. Most easily (obviously) is to measure the honey and water mix. The gravity would need to be considered higher if you used a fruit ingredient i.e. the honey/water gives 1.XXX, then you add fruit and that can become 1.YYY
Generally speaking, you would get a more accurate reading if you pulped/puree'd/juiced the fruit, but it's much easier to use fruit that hasn't been processed, or processing is to a minimum (removal of stone/pip/pit where possible etc) as whole or larger pieces of fruit are easier to handle/manage, and that out weighs the hassle of pulping/puree/juice in most cases - given how much of a nuisance it can be to rack off of pulp etc....
As for nutrient addition being based from gravity ? Yes, that's fine. You should be OK just using the gravity of honey/water element to work that out. Just measure it with your hydrometer. Adding fruit will increase gravity but generally fruit will provide some nutrient value as well as sugars etc.
For actually adding the nutrients, if you know what the tolerance of the yeast is, how much sugar is in the must (at least from the honey/water as a guide), then you'd say use something like as much honey as is needed to produce a dry mead, ferment to that, then stabilise and back sweeten. YOu know the starting gravity, so it's normal/routine to add up to 85% of the total amount needed for the batch once fermentation has started, the rest being added by the 1/3rd sugar break, but its up to you if you wanted to add say half, then maybe 1/4 in 2 additions or 1/8 in 4, just that yeast don't metabolise non-organic nitrogen after about the 1/3 break. If you think you might need something to push it along later on, then organic nitrogen is the thing. Either FermaidO (as different from the K stuff), or yeast hulls or even just boiled bread yeast.
