Not sure what is happening with my Meade

[Dylan22]

Hello everyone,
I'm relatively new to mead making, I have made 3 successful batches so far, but i am having a little trouble with my fourth which is why I am here. I will begin by saying that I have looked through the forums for an answer to my question but none quite explain my situation.

So i started this blackberry mead at the beginning of January, and it is on it's second racking. This was part of my first batch so don't get too mad at me if I have done something wrong I was kind of winging it at first. I have already bottled all the others but decided I was going to kind of let this one clear up a little longer and see what happens.

Because it has been so long and i have taken several hydrometer readings I know that the yeast is no longer active. However, this mead keeps attempting to suck water up the airlock. I know this can happen with temperature changes but the temperature will remain the same and it will be a fairly warm room and still it will suck in air.

Its been doing it a while but recently i've got some small particles forming around the edges (see attached picture) when before it was pretty clear on top and around. I'm not sure if this is the beginning of some sort of infection like flower of wine and if it is I want to nip it in the bud before anything can start.

Finally I have smelled it, it smells good, I tasted it about a month ago and it tasted great, a little different than the other blackberry but better? Also strange enough it almost seemed sparkling, that was the part that through me for the loop. I read in these forums that this sucking in thing can come from the yeast bringing back in CO2 which is what i thought made it seem kind of sparkling but then why is it still doing it? PS its not right now so I don't know. Just want to get people's opinion and I want to know what is causing this backsucking thing.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I hate suck back, it doesn't seem to happen with the S shaped air lock. The mead is holing carbonatio totally normal. The color is beautiful. How do you bottle your mead? I'd think about bottling with Camden and k- meta and let it age that way, instead of bulk aging more.

 

[Dylan22]

OK I will do that thanks. And I don't really know much about bottling I really just through it into a wine bottle and put a cork on it.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Dylan22. I think changes in air pressure can cause changes in the height of the liquid and such changes can result in movement in the air lock. Evidence that there is carbon dioxide in the mead is not surprising. Think about it: yeast produce half the weight of the sugar as CO2. You have an airlock on the carboy and that airlock is designed as a device to inhibit the movement of gasses into (and out of ) the fermenter. Unless you have degassed the mead there will be a great deal of CO2 dissolved in solution. Again, changes in air pressure can allow the gas in suspension to bubble up as can a phenomenon known as nucleation and in this case nucleation can occur if fruit or other particulates drop out of suspension. The particles allow the gas in suspension to collect around those particles and in collecting the gas has enough energy to drop out of suspension and so bubble to the surface.

Last point, You stated that the yeast in your mead is no longer active. Well, if there is no sugar left in the mead the yeast have nothing to eat but whether the yeast might still be "active" is a slightly different question. Add another batch of honey and you will see how active the yeast are. The only yeast that are no longer active will be the yeast in solution at near freezing in a fridge or if you had added K-meta and K-sorbate to this batch of mead. Absent either condition your yeast are still for all intents and purposes, "active"