New Brew

[navy_brew]

Hey everyone, first-time brewer here.

I started a raspberry mead on August 4th.
Ingredients:
2 3/4c Orange blossom honey (local)
1gal spring water
1 packet of KV-1116 yeast
3c raspberries
1tsp yeast nutrients
Shook very well, installed seal and airlock

Fed 1 tsp nutrients on the 5th.
shook lightly to introduce new oxygen and release CO2

Fed 1/2 tsp yeast on the 10th.
Did not shake or stir.

As of today, I have no bubbling action in the airlock that I've seen upon inspection. My raspberries have turned white, though the liquid/must have turned a really nice pink/red color, and about a 1/2 inch of sediment has collected on the bottom.
Is this normal?
The brew is in my laundry room with the rest of my food stores. The approximate temp is 68 degrees F. Pics attached.
Any tips for an extremely new "brewer" would be great. Thanks!

 

[hotbeer]

I don't do meads. But if they have any similarities to beer, then likely it's finished fermenting. And bubbles mean nothing. So don't rely on them to tell you when to do anything or whether anything is happing. They are fun entertainment and that's all you can count on them for.

If you really want to know whether your mead is finished fermenting, then you really need to get a hydrometer and take specific gravity readings. If you have the same reading 3 days or more apart then it's likely finished fermenting. But IMO, for beers at least, finished fermenting doesn't mean ready to bottle/keg. Other stuff happens if you give it time. Flavors will get cleaned up by the yeast as they enter their next phase and solids that are suspended in your beer/mead will fall to the bottom leaving you a more clean product to put in your bottles or keg.

If you have or had a hydrometer reading of it before yeast was pitched and then compare the specific gravity of your OG (original gravity) and FG (final gravity), then you can get a very good estimate of it's ABV (alcohol by volume).

If you don't wish to measure the SG, then just wait till it begins to clean up. When it does that it's very likely long past the day it finished fermentation.

 

[Rish]

Looks normal. I'd rack it to another container to get it off the fruit and lees and leave it there until it clears. Ditto @hotbeer on the hydrometer.

 

[navy_brew]

I've got new jugs, a hydrometer, an easy-siphon, and finishing bottles on the way. should be here by the end of the week. I looked this morning and noticed that it looks like it's starting to clarify a bit. Maybe it IS done fermenting... After only 7-9 days? I just took these pictures. What do yall think? Rack in a new jug as soon as I get them, let clarify further without fruit for a month or so, then once fully cleared, bottle?

 

[hotbeer]

You should do one or the other. Then next time try the way you didn't this time. Then after you get to taste each and gauge it's appearance in the glass, you'll get some idea if it matters to you or not.

 

[Rish]

Rack then bottle when fully clear is my recommendation. Good luck!

 

[navy_brew]

So I just got my hydrometer. This is its level.
According to other posts, looks like it's done fermenting.
I don't know the original gravity, but I siphoned it and tasted it. Very berry flavored. Lol

 

[hotbeer]

OG has no direct bearing on FG. You can't tell if it's made it's final gravity from just one reading. You have to get at least two readings several days apart to be sure. Usually three days. Though it's likely you reached FG 4 day after pitch. Even despite the bubbling. Unless you added fermentable stuff after the pitch.

Notice how every time you take a pic for us the stuff is looking cleaner and cleaner. That's one of the benefits of not bottling it as soon as fermentation is over.

 

[Kickass]

OG has no direct bearing on FG.

This is oversimplified and in some cases not accurate.

If your mead reaches the alcohol tolerance of the yeast used (not necessarily the stated alcohol tolerance but the actual biological tolerance based on many factors), it’ll stop. That’s a direct relationship with your OG. Additionally, if you used a beer yeast you may not get 100% attenuation. Again, a direct relationship with OG.

You have to get at least two readings several days apart to be sure.

This is good advice and is good practice to follow.

@navy_brew, I read your SG from the picture at 1.000. You’re probably pretty close to done, if not there already. Another reading in a couple days should either support or not support that.

 

[cmac62]

It can get there in secondary, so I'd rack it to the next vessel when it gets in.

 

[VikeMan]

If your mead reaches the alcohol tolerance of the yeast used (not necessarily the stated alcohol tolerance but the actual biological tolerance based on many factors), it’ll stop. That’s a direct relationship with your OG. Additionally, if you used a beer yeast you may not get 100% attenuation. Again, a direct relationship with OG.

In a mead, a beer yeast should attenuate just as much as a mead/wine/whatever yeast. (That's assuming ABV tolerance hasn't been reached, but that applies to any yeast.) The reason beers don't attenuate as much as meads is because beer wort contains maltotriose and unfermentable dextrins, which mead must doesn't (in significant amounts).