First attempt

[Bloodeagle]

So my first attempt at mead has failed, pretty annoyed at it tbh! But I'll try again in a couple of days! Any tips would be useful.

Cheers

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[viking1984]

Why do you say it has failed? It just looks like you have a very active ferment and it got into your air lock. Clean it out, put it back in and let it do its thing. It might do it again, but should calm down in a few more days.

 

[Bloodeagle]

Won't removing it affect the fermentation?

 

[RedlegEd]

Won't removing it affect the fermentation?

Not at all! Like viking1984 said, take it off, clean it out (I'd recommend spray it and the mouth of the jug down with Starsan or some other sanitizer,) put it back on and watch the magic! BTW, at what temp are you keeping it?

 

[viking1984]

I have had this happen several times with both mead and beer. If you have any sanitizer then like RedlegEd says, clean it up with it. If not, just wipe around the rim of the carboy carefully (not inside) to clean up any mess, wash off/out the airlock with water and call it good. I just hope you didn't dump it already. Welcome to the adventures of making mead.

 

[Bloodeagle]

Luckily I hadn't dumped it, thanks for the advice!🤘

 

[Pick]

Just finished my first mead ferment. 3 quarts honey water, 1 quart apple cider, 1/3 packet of Premier Cuvee. Did not get a violent fermentation, steady and slow.

Just racked it to secondary, smelled and tasted wonderful. Going to be hard to let it age!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Bloodeagle, Not everyone agrees with this but a far better way to ferment mead is in a bucket covered with a cloth to keep out dirt and flies. Mead ain't beer and the risk of bacterial infection is close to zero as you are not working with grains covered in lactobacteria.

When you seal your primary with a bung and airlock during the most active period of fermentation (the first few days, or until the gravity drops close to 1.005) you are less likely to aerate the mead and remove CO2 but degassing and aerating at this stage reduces the stress on the yeast - and if you are also fermenting fruit then this action ensures that the fruit is continually exposed to the yeast inoculated liquid and is not capping the surface, drying out and plugging your bung and so increasing the pressure in the carboy as the yeast produces CO2.

 

[bmwr75]

I used to always ferment mead on glass carboys.....but started using plastic buckets that were two times the size of the mead batch and never looked back. No more mead in the airlock and no more explosions when degassing.