Nurse Nan Vanilla Mead Recipe

[gerrmcn]

Hello, I'm new here and to Mead making. I have made a five gallon batch of this recipe using 12 pounds of regular unprocessed honey, spring water and the rest of the recommended ingredients in the recipe, except for the nutrient. I had a 1.082 specific gravity at start up. The bubbling started within hours and was quite busy. Its on the 9th day of the first fermentation and is still bubbling at 20 times a minute, you can see many bubbles traveling from the liquid bottom to the top of the liquid. Should I rack it as recommended..? I would like this to be drier and higher alcohol and not as sweet, I want my wife to enjoy this, she not much for sweet wines or beverages. I plan on racking this into two, 2.5 gallon carboys from the first fermentation single 5 gallon carboy it's in. I don't have a problem with being patient with this process....what would anyone recommend.... I hope I'm staying within the guide lines of posting...I placed this post at the last post for Redhawke's recipe for this Vanilla Mead recipe and wasn't getting any replies, just hoping for some help..correct me if I cross the line....

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi gerrmcn - and welcome. I tend not to follow recipes but processes. Recipes assume that fermentation is more like an engineering process rather than a living process. Looks like your recipe assumes that yeast follow a clock or calendar. Not sure that you want to mix and match between recipes and protocols. A protocol would force you to assess where in the process the yeast were and how much sugar was still left to ferment. But if you are using a recipe and the recipe suggests that you rack according to the number of days that have passed then you need to decide whether your batch is ready to rack... but counting bubbles seems to me to be a little irrelevant - a better measure might be a gravity reading. Me? I don't rack before my fermentation is close to 1.005. Racking too soon can mean that your fermentation simply stalls because you will have left most of the yeast behind... But it's your call, of course.

 

[gerrmcn]

Thanks for the reply and the advice bernardsmith. I'm going to take your advice, I understand what your saying and your reasoning. I checked the current gravity and it's now reading 1.024. I replaced the airlock back into position and will let it go for another couple weeks and see what the numbers are then, if they're still high, I'll let it go some more, if they meet the 1.005 or close I'll rack it. Once again thank you for your help...one other thing...is there a way I can reply back to a person/yourself without worrying if you see the new post...?

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure what you mean. I like this forum and learn from those who can teach me and share my knowledge and experience with those who may have less experience than me so I tend to look at the wine making, the mead and cider making groups just about every day .. But if you want to be sure of someone reading your post you can send them a PM by clicking on their name and looking for the block that allows you to send them a private message (PM) . That is also a way of opening up a discussion with one of the people posting without hijacking the thread..