Hi. First time making mead - have a question for you. I pitched the yeast into my apple malamel after starting it up on monday evening and today, 2 days later, I can hear it fizzing away, but there's no real kruasen. Is fizzing enough? It's in a fermentation pail with a blowoff tube into some water to hear the bubbling (works fine for beer) and there are no bubbles coming out of the airlock/tube that I've yet to hear except when I put the cap back in after having a peek and pushed the lid back down. I know pails aren't air tight, but I'm used to making fruit beer where the krausen goes crazy, so I just wanted to see if this is a possibility. If not I'll add more yeast, but if it's OK I'll leave it be. I have a starting specific gravity so I'll check it in a few days and see if it's going down - I just wanted to know if this is normal or if it's slow going. I work in a research lab so this seems like way too little sanitation for the work I'm used to! I figure the faster if ferments the less chance I have of something else taking hold in there...
If it is slow going, no biggie, just wondering when I should rack it into a carbuoy with an airlock, then. I don't want to disturb the yeast any more than I need to to let it do it's thing, but I don't know if leaving it in the pail for too long will invite wierd tastes form air exposure. I'd welcome any ideas or advice. I figure at least 2 weeks - is there a specific gravity I should be waiting for?
If it is slow going, no biggie, just wondering when I should rack it into a carbuoy with an airlock, then. I don't want to disturb the yeast any more than I need to to let it do it's thing, but I don't know if leaving it in the pail for too long will invite wierd tastes form air exposure. I'd welcome any ideas or advice. I figure at least 2 weeks - is there a specific gravity I should be waiting for?
