Help please first time making mead

[nickwhit9911]

3 days ago I made my first batch of mead it had taken me a while to get everything together but I finally did. That night it was bubbling through the airlock very fast but the morning after nothing happened no bubbles at all and today nothing has happened, did I do something wrong? I used bread yeast cause it was the only thing I can get during this pandemic. I had it setting in a basement under a kitchen sink in a cabinet.

 

[lump42]

Some basic questions that will help figure out if there's a problem and if there's anything to do.

What's the recipe?

How large of a batch?
How much honey?
How much yeast?
Any nutrients added?​

What temp is the basement?
Do you have a hydrometer or refractometer?

 

[nickwhit9911]

2 to 1.5 lb of honey
1 gal
Packet of felchmens bread yeast
Raisens for nutrients
Temp between 65 to 70
Yes to the hydrometer the starting gravity was 1.078

 

[CKuhns]

Bubble rate through the airlock is at best a questionable way to evaluate how your ferment is going. Bread yeast should be able to chew through the sugars you have there but might take a little time.

You could:
- Take another hydrometer reading and if less than 1.078 then you are moving along. Check again a day later and if still dropping then your OK.
- If it looks kind of "muddy" or really cloudy then you are likely still fermenting.
- Gently stir it with a sanitized long handled spoon or something that allows you to get through the neck of the carboy. Do this each day until about 1.035 gravity to get the yeast and sediment off the bottom.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Nickwhit9911 - and welcome. It's always possible that the CO2 being released by the yeast exerted enough pressure on your bung or airlock to move them in such a way that the gas is being pushed through spaces offering less resistance than the bubbler. Which is another reason that CKuhns' point that counting bubbles may be amusing but it really tells you very little about what the yeast is doing (bubbles could mean that the air pressure in the room or outside is now forcing more of the CO2 out of the liquid or it could mean that the ambient temperature has risen high enough to prevent as much CO2 saturating the liquid. The most effective and simplest method we have for monitoring fermentation is with an hydrometer. Changes in gravity tells you a great deal. counting bubbles doesn't.