New Mead Maker

[MoMead23]

Greetings everyone,

I have been researching making mead for a while, always putting it off because I thought I was not ready yet due to there being so many different options and techniques. I have been wondering about the campden tablets. Some places say to just use them in the beginning, while others have mentioned using them in the beginning, after racking, and before bottling. The part that confused me is that when you put a tablet in in the beginning, you let it sit for 24 hours and let gasses release. Do you wait the same amount of time before bottling or are people literally putting the tablet in and then bottling. Thanks for any help. I have looked everywhere for the answer and cannot find it. I just want my first batch to be good so I will want to keep making more in the future.

Also, how many days into your primary fermentation did you start to see vigorous bubbling? I am on my 3rd day now and it is still bubbling once every 10-13 seconds. Thanks!

 

[ShadesManna]

I don't use Campden tablets. Here's a website that might be helpful in that area. Other posters are sure to share their knowledge, too, about using them.

As for when the bubbling starts, it really varies. If your airlock is bubbling every 10-13 seconds, that's very active! That means your must is fermenting, and gasses are being released. Sometimes, the yeast takes a day or two to catch up. As they ramp up alcohol production, the bubbling can get more vigorous, making more bubbles. It is also possible for fermentation to be more of a gentle simmer, rather than a rolling boil.

The most important thing to do, is to do it! Keep experimenting, doing research, and making mead. Every single batch is a learning experience. The pleasant fringe benefit, is that with each try, we get some kind of booze, too!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi MoMead23 - and welcome.
Campden tablets are essentially Potassium Metabisulfite and K -Meta (as the jargon goes) has three functions in wine (or mead) making,
1. It kills bacteria and wild yeast so that when you add (pitch) the yeast you have selected your yeast is not competing with other organisms. With honey (or even with fruit) there are those who argue that allowing indigenous yeast a toe hold for a few days simply adds complexity to the flavors and lab cultured yeast in the billions of cells will quickly swamp the local yeast and will create an environment that bast favors their needs. If you do choose to add K-meta while lab cultured yeasts have been selected and cultured to be largely unfazed by K-meta, K-meta is essentially sulfur dioxide and that gas can kill bacteria and yeast. You want to allow the K-meta to blow off over about 24 hours before you pitch your yeast. You don't want to hobble your yeast
2. K-meta also binds with oxygen and so inhibits oxidation. Oxidation of wine is the equivalent of rust and so anything that inhibits oxidation increases the shelf life of your wine (or mead). Many wine makers rack their wines onto K-meta each time they rack and just before bottling. Yeast, like many organisms in our planet love oxygen but oxygen (in any significant amount) is not something that improves wine. When racking or bottling you WANT the sulfur dioxide - and as you rack after active fermentation is ending and you bottle after you have removed just about every last yeast cell you are disinterested in whether the SO2 will harm the yeast.
3. In higher concentrations K-meta is a great chemical for sanitation of your equipment. Brewers tend to use other chemicals to sanitize but then they have no concern about wild yeasts in their wort and the shelf life of their beer is extended by the addition of hops which are a bactericide. Generally speaking, beer is not aged for months or years as some wines might be so oxidation is less of an issue too.
Hope that this helps explain why we use K-meta (Campden tabs are pre-measured but apart from filler their active ingredient is K-meta) and when we use it and how we use it.