Mead ??

[Elmo Peach]

I am new to making mead. I have it in the primary but I do not see the air lock moveing at all after a week. Should I risk taking a sample to check gravity? If the mead is not working should I try to pitch more yeast?

I added yeast nutrient and energizer a little at a time over 3 days.

10 pounds of honey (6 lbs. wildflower, local farm. 4 lbs. clover.from apiary supply the honey was 4 years old)
5 gallons water
4 campden tablets
2TBS nutrient 1TBS energizer (over 4 days)
Mangrove Jack mead yeast m-05(rehydrated 30 min,)
stired must for 15 min. to get O2 into must.

The OG was 1.110 was that too high?

Not as easy as making beer.

 

[DuncB]

Not sure, what is the gravity now and what temp are you at?

 

[Elmo Peach]

Sorry for the panic I did not knowif I should open the primary to check
I just did and all is ok I guess. Gravity 1.035 must is bubbley and sweet I tased it (9:15am Mead! not just for breakfast anymore) Temp 60f
Do I check the mead often or now just leave it alone. I don't like opening the fermentor.

 

[Dan O]

I am new to making mead. I have it in the primary but I do not see the air lock moveing at all after a week. Should I risk taking a sample to check gravity? If the mead is not working should I try to pitch more yeast?

I added yeast nutrient and energizer a little at a time over 3 days.

10 pounds of honey (6 lbs. wildflower, local farm. 4 lbs. clover.from apiary supply the honey was 4 years old)
5 gallons water
4 campden tablets
2TBS nutrient 1TBS energizer (over 4 days)
Mangrove Jack mead yeast m-05(rehydrated 30 min,)
stired must for 15 min. to get O2 into must.

The OG was 1.110 was that too high?

Not as easy as making beer.

Welcome to the club.
I check my meads on a pretty regular basis. As long as your sanitizing habits are sound, you shouldn't have a problem. Unless you're making a hyrdromel (low ABV mead), mead is pretty resilient to infection, at least the ABV over 10% will be. Beer is MUCH more susceptible to infection than mead. Make sure you wash & sanitize your hands along with anything that touches the must & you should be fine.

 

[Elmo Peach]

I was going ot let the mead sit in the primary for a month. I just so happens that is the day we are out of lock down here in Ontario. Thanks for the encouragement

 

[Dan O]

You're welcome

 

[DuncB]

I'm just about to dip my toe into a first mead, honey harvest in process at the moment and will probably just start with a one gallon session mead so that my patience isn't too tested and use some kveik. Glad to hear it's fermenting well.

 

[Elmo Peach]

Bon Chance!

I hope it goes well. Is the honey yours?

 

[DuncB]

Yes we have 2 hives in the garden and it's mostly Pohutakawa honey. I've used it before in a Manuka smoked malt honey beer that was pretty good if you like a mild Rausch type beer.

 

[bushpilot]

4 campden tablets

What did you do with the campden tablets? They may have caused a slow start.

 

[Elmo Peach]

I just added campden tab;ets to the must as per instructions. For sulfite in the mead. I think that is what they were for.

How long do you age the mead? It is a wine so it must have to age for a while.

 

[T Murph]

What did you do with the campden tablets? They may have caused a slow start.

The camden tablets most likely killed off a large portion if not all the yeast. Camden tablets are to stop fermentation in order to retain sweetness and should only be used to do just that, stop fermentation.

 

[Elmo Peach]

I did check the SG and it had gone from 1.110 to 1.035 I tasted the must and it was sparkling and sweet so it is fermenting. So the must is working

I forget whereI got the recipe.

 

[bernardsmith]

Elmo Peach, although wine (and mead) making have analogs in brewing beer the problems that brewers have are really not issues for wine makers. We tend to ferment in buckets loosely covered with cloth because for a wine maker stirring fruit into the wine is necessary and fruit tends not to be subject to the souring bacteria that affect grains. Wines and meads are likely to have a pH of around 3% and a TA of about 6 g of acid per gallon. There is no hot side or cold side in wine making: beer needs heat- jams need heat but typically, most wines do not. In other words, as a brewer you may want to ensure that the moment you cool your wort below boiling it is hermetically sealed from the air. As a wine maker you bless O2 during active fermentation and only when you rack to the secondary are you concerned about air both because of oxidation (which like rust really does not take place in an instant) and about vinegar (fruit flies + alcohol in the presence of air = vinegar). Just relax.

 

[DuncB]

I was wondering how to make vinegar. Seen plenty of fruit flies of late and they are really irritating. They can find my IPA quicker than I can.

 

[Maylar]

Camden tablets are to stop fermentation in order to retain sweetness and should only be used to do just that, stop fermentation.

No, they don't.

 

[bernardsmith]

The camden tablets most likely killed off a large portion if not all the yeast. Camden tablets are to stop fermentation in order to retain sweetness and should only be used to do just that, stop fermentation.

Actually, Campden tabs have two purposes. 1. is to kill indigenous yeast and bacteria in your fruit and /or must. Wine yeast that is lab cultured tend to be fairly immune to the effects of K-meta at the concentration it is in the tablets. And 2, the K-meta in these tablets will inhibit oxidation when you rack and when you bottle. Free SO2 in solution inhibits the O2 in the air from binding with the fruit in the wine.
What prevents refermentation is when you add both k-meta AND K-sorbate. And this works really only when there are few yeast cells in solution (you have been racking as needed and so have been removing cells and racking means that while the yeast HAS been reproducing (budding) many cells will have died and now form much of the fine lees after helping form some of the gross lees)