New to mead

[Ben145]

Hello, I am new to mead, and i just started my first must today. I put it in a 64 oz container and it had, 1.5lbs of honey, some chopped raisins, 1/2 tsp of fleischmanns bread yeast, and the rest with water (with head room of course) It seems to be going good because after only about 7ish hours its starting to bubble and has a smell that leads me to believe its working. Im not super worried about making the most excellent mead in the world just yet, i mainly would just like to finish up this batch quickly so i can get some experience of just doing the steps. My question is by what point is it safe to rack? And after racking at what point is it safe to bottle? I also dont have a hydrometer so im not able to measure my gravity. Im hoping to get one shortly but its too late to measure my OG is it still useful to take a FG if i have nothing to compare it to? Again im not too worried about it being perfect.

 

[SeanC138]

Hard to say really without a SG. If you can get your hands on a hydrometer you can test the mead after a few weeks and see if it hits 1.000. It will be very dry and if you like that, I'd let it sit a couple more weeks and test the gravity again and see if it's still 1.000. If it is, rack it off and let it sit another month or two and then bottle. If you want to sweeten it up a bit, add more honey to taste after racking, take a reading, and then check it every couple weeks just to make sure it's not fermenting anymore. If you bottle too soon, you'll have a bottle explosion. There's no harm in letting it sit for a while and letting it clear out. If you're new, the main thing to remember is patience. I usually let mine sit around 4 months after I'm done doing all my additions just to be safe. There are ways to put additions in to stop fermentation, but for the first one, I would just let it sit.