Is my mead properly fermenting?

[Aebrius]

I'm using a must mix of 14 pounds of honey topped with water up to 20l. The must was pasteurized at 160 for 45 minutes and I've added in DAP on a staggered addition schedule. The SG when the yeast (EC-1118) were pitched was 1.096, on the 25th. It's foamed a very small amount thus far, only small patches of occasional foam and a light foaming when I stir it.

Meanwhile, the other mead I have going on (a grape-apple one) has a consistent thin layering of foam going on (Also 1118, but only pitched yesterday morning).

On seeing the difference between the two I tested the SG of the original batch I made just now, and the SG has gone from 1.096 down to 1.044. I'm completely new at this (The original batch being my first ever, even), so does this sound about right to those of you used to making mead? I'm just a little paranoid that maybe I didn't sanitize enough, or some such thing.

 

[bob1852]

Sounds about right. You're more than half-way fermented in ~4-5 days.

Grapes/apples added to honey tend to foam up a bit more than just honey.

Looks like you're right on schedule. Good luck!

 

[jonmohno]

I didnt have much of any foamy cap on mine, but I could see it vigorously fermenting on the sides of the glass fermenter. In fact it was just clear on top. 1.09 gravity-no fruit though. Used 05 ale yeast. Fermented all the way out pretty much,checked it at one month and was .999

 

[saramc]

Sounds like things are just fine for both batches but why did you decide to cook the must for 45 minutes?

 

[Aebrius]

Sounds like things are just fine for both batches but why did you decide to cook the must for 45 minutes?

I've done quite a bit of reading around the internet, and a lot of what I came across said that while boiling will drive off some of the aromas it will also lead to more body. The honey was also very local and recently done, and had visible bits in it which I wanted to clear out. 160 is less than a boil (And less than a simmer, even), so I figured it would help add to the body of the final product as well as give me a chance to clean the honey before fermenting to lead to a quicker clear product.

For the second one the juice I used was unpasteurized, and I was worried about bacteria/yeast on the fruit I was adding in.

 

[Curtis2010]

I've done quite a bit of reading around the internet, and a lot of what I came across said that while boiling will drive off some of the aromas it will also lead to more body. The honey was also very local and recently done, and had visible bits in it which I wanted to clear out. 160 is less than a boil (And less than a simmer, even), so I figured it would help add to the body of the final product as well as give me a chance to clean the honey before fermenting to lead to a quicker clear product.

For the second one the juice I used was unpasteurized, and I was worried about bacteria/yeast on the fruit I was adding in.

No need to pateurize, and certianly not to boil honey, but 160F should not have done any serious harm. 45 min seems like a long time though...depending upon the viscosity of your must...thin liquids can be pasteurized in much shorter times.

Never heard of this adding body (not sure you would really want to do that w a mead any way -- do you have a reference for this?

 

[Aebrius]

Unfortunately I no longer have the sites in my history. Two that I remember were cases where they had done side by side testing of otherwise identical meads and then tasted after aging for quite some time, and the others were mostly forum based posts and discussions.