Finishing up a Mead, still fermenting?

[MimersMead]

Hey all!

I'm just finishing up a Barkshack Gingermead, and I have to say it looks fantastic. It's cleared beautifully, and has been in my secondary for 6 weeks now. I'm getting ready to bottle.

However.. When I shine a light through the carboy I can see that it's still bubbling! It's a very minute amount of bubbles, similar to maybe a coke that's been sitting in its glass for a while.

I was planning on bottling on Sunday because it's been in the carboy for the length of time recommended by Charlie Papazian. But the bubbles have me really worried. I'll be carbonating the mead as recommended and bottling in wine bottles.

Go ahead and bottle anyways?

 

[ChessRockwell]

You might do better posting this in the mead forum, but to answer your question - no! You can't really go by time, especially with mead, as it can take quite a while to ferment completely. The bubbles should have you worried, at least worried enough not to bottle until you've taken hydrometer readings over a few days and determined whether the gravity is stable or not. If you're seeing bubbles it is probably still fermenting, and if you bottle now it could end up a lot more carbonated than you want, if the bottles don't explode. Have you taken any hydrometer readings yet?

 

[MimersMead]

Didn't even realize there was a mead thread, I thought I'd checked!

I haven't done a hydrometer reading yet, I generally wait until I don't see bubbling left. I have a feeling it's still fermenting out, but having never done a mead before I wasn't really sure.

Looks like I have to sterilize my syphon tonight then

 

[zeg]

For the mead forum, look down below all the beer and general forums, between "Wine" and "Cider."

I think you've got to do a hydrometer test. The bubbles might be fermentation, but they could also simply be outgassing of dissolved CO2. This would be especially likely if, say, the temperature had increased a few degrees recently, since that would tend to drive the gas out of solution.

I think checking the SG now and again in a few days would be prudent. Otherwise, another couple weeks in the fermenter is unlikely to be harmful. People seem to have widely varying fermentation times for meads, and it seems that the typical times I find described online are quite a bit longer than Papazian's estimates.