My First Batch Of Mead! Pt 1

[spiffystump76]

This is my first batch of me!
I made three different recipes, one is a banana mead that started out with 3 lbs of honey, 8 ripe bananas that were frozen and thawed and mashed by hand, starting gravity was 1.150. Then a blackberry Mead with 6 oz of blackberries, 3 lbs of honey starting gravity was 1.123. last a blueberry Mead with 551 mL of blueberries, 3 lb of honey, starting gravity 1.115. All these fruits were frozen and mashed by hand after everything was sanitized including my hands. I added EC 1118 lalvin yeast to all three of these batches. I ordered the 1 gallon glass cowboys on eBay and they were supposed to come with drilled airlock caps and air locks but they forgot to send them to me and I did not realize until the Mead was already in the jugs, I contacted the seller and they sent me the airlock caps and air locks which I had just received today. Before all of that I activated the jugs and used condoms with holes poked by sewing needles to use as air locks because I did not have any type of bung to put in the air locks that I had currently owned.

The next day after everything was activated the banana jug Had expanded and overflowed to the top and filled one of the condoms, I removed the condom and used a clean sterilized butter knife to scrape out some of the expanded banana out of the top of the jug and shook it up and put a new condom on. Today I went to give them all a stir and a shake and the banana looked fine but after I shook it it started foaming so bad it began foaming out of the top and into the condom again but it wasn't chunks of banana this time it was just foam, I removed the condom and let some of the foam overflow out and have some concerns of contaminations with it being exposed to the air so many times but I also know that some people add nutrients once a day to their must so contamination must not be that much of a problem if you have to open the lid everyday to add nutrients which I have not done. After the foaming had stopped I shook it up again and the foam stirred back up again I let the foam keep overflowing and kept shaking until it stopped doing it and then put air locks on all three of the jugs since I finally had my caps for these jugs to put an airlock on.

I am mainly making this post if anyone can let me know if my meds will have a high risk of contamination from me opening them up and exposing them to air to put the air locks on, I sterilize the airlock caps and air locks just with hot water and Dawn I did not use starsan as I feel it would not be necessary, not sure why the banana mead got so foamy thought maybe too much pressure got built up and it carbonated a little bit, maybe I didn't poke holes big enough in the condom more enough holes but I really doubt it would hold that much pressure to build up carbonation, but maybe there is some kind of protein or enzyme that causes a lot of foam with bananas. I feel that if I ever do a banana Brew ever again I will use a bucket and a brewing bag next time to prevent this from happening again.

please criticize and correct, thanks!

 

[spiffystump76]

Forgot to add these.

First picture with all 3 had caps for shaking and mixing, they were just activated. The next 2 are after the banana foam overflow and airlocks were then put on

 

[Kyzaboy89]

The banana Mead had a higher gravity so the liquid had a higher viscosity, bubbles have thicker liquid so they don't pop and dissipate as quickly. It's normal early on in a ferment for foam to build fast and slowly break down. As it progresses and gravity drops the foam will settle down faster, just have to learn to agitate slowly until you have degassed and foam doesn't spill over.

Don't worry about the air contamination, it's actually healthy for the yeast to breathe early on in primary fermentation. Degas twice daily to release CO2 and that will help keep it healthy and happy, you can remove the cap and the CO2 inside will keep oxygen out while you stir or add nutrients. CO2 is heavier than air so if the headspace in a carboy is full of carbon dioxide then oxygen can't get in.

The only contamination I would be worried about is whatever was on the inside of the condoms, when the foam came into contact with the silicone any lubricant or other foreign material can get into your Mead. Same reason balloons aren't the best idea as the talcum powder inside can get into your Mead. Cheese cloth with a string or rubber band will work, tinfoil pressed around the top is also good in primary. All you need is some way to keep airborne dust or fruit flies out of you Mead while allowing CO2 to escape.

Hope this helps, you are learning alot with these first few.

 

[Maylar]

I am mainly making this post if anyone can let me know if my meds will have a high risk of contamination from me opening them up and exposing them to air to put the air locks on,

You're fine.