First attempt and I'm not sure if it's going better than expected, or something wierd is happening.

[Rageisalotofwork]

So I'm sure like most of you, I went to a renaissance fair, got very drunk on mead and then decided to try making it. I spent around 50 hours researching, but I'm still not completely sure how its going.

I decided to make 2 gallons of blueberry mead, I'm using Fermaid K as the nutrition, premier cuvee yeast, and I've been journaling my progress daily.
The OG was around 1.092, so potentially around 11% abv. I added 2 packets of yeast(probably too much) and about 4g fermaid k.
The next morning I eagerly checked the progress like a child on Christmas morning and noticed the airlock was bubbling once every two seconds, which seemed like a lot to me. I checked at the 24 hours mark and it was down to 1.071. I thought I made a mistake but I spoke to a couple people and they all said it was doing great and its normal to ferment a lot at the beginning, so I waited another 24 hours and it was at 1.041, I planned to do staggered feeding and the last was going to be at the 1/3 sugar break(or day 7) but I passed that in 48 hours.

In less than 5 days, it was already at 1.000. That was this morning, I decided to go and buy more honey to do a secondary fermentation to get the gravity to 1.060, which would get to the yeasts abv cap and my final gravity at around 1.011-1.014 before I backsweetened and racked it, but I would like to know if any one has any advice or if it sounds like I did anything wrong.

of everything I've seen and read, I've yet to hear of mead fermenting this fast though I do confess I just found this forum about 30 minutes ago and the answer could be here somewhere and I just haven't seen it yet.


Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[SimPilot]

What temp was your bucket with brew during fermentation?

I suggest continue...

 

[Rageisalotofwork]

It's been sitting consistently at 70 degrees, I bought that yeast specifically because it's the medium temp range.

Will do!

 

[Rageisalotofwork]

So I'm sure like most of you, I went to a renaissance fair, got very drunk on mead and then decided to try making it. I spent around 50 hours researching, but I'm still not completely sure how its going.

I decided to make 2 gallons of blueberry mead, I'm using Fermaid K as the nutrition, premier cuvee yeast, and I've been journaling my progress daily.
The OG was around 1.092, so potentially around 11% abv. I added 2 packets of yeast(probably too much) and about 4g fermaid k.
The next morning I eagerly checked the progress like a child on Christmas morning and noticed the airlock was bubbling once every two seconds, which seemed like a lot to me. I checked at the 24 hours mark and it was down to 1.071. I thought I made a mistake but I spoke to a couple people and they all said it was doing great and its normal to ferment a lot at the beginning, so I waited another 24 hours and it was at 1.041, I planned to do staggered feeding and the last was going to be at the 1/3 sugar break(or day 7) but I passed that in 48 hours.

In less than 5 days, it was already at 1.000. That was this morning, I decided to go and buy more honey to do a secondary fermentation to get the gravity to 1.060, which would get to the yeasts abv cap and my final gravity at around 1.011-1.014 before I backsweetened and racked it, but I would like to know if any one has any advice or if it sounds like I did anything wrong.

of everything I've seen and read, I've yet to hear of mead fermenting this fast though I do confess I just found this forum about 30 minutes ago and the answer could be here somewhere and I just haven't seen it yet.


Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

So an update, I'm sure I've made a lot of rookie mistakes along the way but it is what it is, I've learned a lot so far and I'm ready to make more. My 40lb pale of honey and my extra 4 carboys will be here this week, so I'm excited to try some new things.

Since the last post I waited 24 hours and still had a heavy fermentation, my gravity was sitting at 10.42, which(at the current rate) was about 2 days from the 1.013ish goal, but the blueberries that were in the primary I added for color(the gravity was taken into account) had discoloration and I wasn't sure if that would affect the flavor so I ended up racking into two carboys from the original pale.

After 24 hours it seems that the fermentation was still active, just significantly reduced but the gravity reading was still the same at 1.042 as 24 hours prior.

My thoughts are to wait another 48 and check again, if it has stalled, I will create a yeast starter to see if I can Kickstart them again.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[CKuhns]

They look like they mau be still working. Give it a week, if still no change then adjust.

 

[Rageisalotofwork]

They look like they mau be still working. Give it a week, if still no change then adjust.

I had just moved them to a place the cat wouldn't try to get them so I assumed it was sediment that had moved in the bottle, but after a few hours I did notice more of a fermentation, though its still light.

I'll do that, I was hoping to have some bottled for aging that I could send off with my family after Christmas, but I think it will have to wait.


I wish I didn't feel so impatient with this first batch, It feels like I drank a few pots of coffee and tried to sleep!

 

[Rageisalotofwork]

I guess my calculations were a little off, fermentation stopped at 1.018, so only about 0.004 higher than I expected. I waited 3 days to make sure fermentation was done then decided to start back sweetening yesterday.

Gallon one is going to be a blueberry muffin so I added 1 madagascar vanilla bean, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 tsp of wood tannin, 1/2 tsp of acid blend, some brewers best blueberry(about 2 oz), and 8oz of previously frozen blueberries that I put some pectic enzyme on.

Gallon two I wanted a chocolate blueberry cream, so I added 1 madagascar vanilla bean, 3/8 cup toasted cocoa nips, one packet of abuelita mexican chocolate mix, 3 tbsp brewers best blueberry, 4 oz of the frozen blueberries I had left and 50g of lactose I had heated and mixed with the brewers best and blueberries before adding.

I'm actually pretty happy with where both are at and I'll let them both sit for a month before clarifying and bottling. I don't know if doing anything wrong, but I also found a local homebrew shop about 30 minutes away that does tastings on thursdays, so I'll probably bring these in at some point and get some tips.

I'm not sure how this is going to pan out, but I'm still experimenting and I have 5 gallons of traditional fermenting at the moment that I want to break down at some point.