Primary ferment

[chrmanotb]

OK first time brewing mead. How long should I leave the pirmary ferment?
and also its been brewing for about 3 days now and the airlock bubbles only about once every 10-20 seconds. in a 3.5 gallon carboy. Is this normal? temp is 70 F.

Thanks

 

[homebrewer_99]

Sounds like all is normal.

What was your starting gravity (SG or Original Gravity (OG))?

What kind of mead did you make?

I still have 3 bottles of different meads I made back in 1996. I used to have 4, but I drank one at Thanksgiving time. The remaing ones are a Wild Black Raspberry, Ginger, and Fruit Tea flavored.

Just make sure the Final Gravity is within the range of the recipe you are trying to replicate before yo bottle.

I know it will be difficult, but let the mead sit for at least 6 months before trying if you are making still mead. If carbonated, then I would wait about a week or so to see if the level is to your liking. If not, then wait another week or so. After it reaches your desired carbonation level then refrigerate to retard the process any further and let age. You'll be glad you resisted.

 

[Janx]

Hmm...I don't think 3 days sounds like long enough for a mead at all. Meads usually take weeks to complete fermentation. I wouldn't even think about bottling until you go to a secondary for a few weeks and see zero activity.

Did you use yeast nutrient? And did you add acidity?

 

[chrmanotb]

No no I wasnt going to take it out i just wanted to make sure that the ferment was on track for three days of brewing. I added 2 lemons to the must along with 4 cups of orangespice tea. whole cloves and cinnimon sticks
were added in the boil and strained out. Should I leave the primary frement for a month or will autolysis start to occur?

 

[Janx]

I always racked to the secondary after a week or so just like with beer and then I left it in the secondary for quite a while. Then, like homebrewer_99 said, the longer the better in the bottle.

 

[chrmanotb]

Ok sounds great. thanks all for the good advice

 

[rightwingnut]

Yes, very helpful. My blueberry mead has been in primary about a week, with a blow-off tube. Still bubbling strong, about once a second...

 

[chrmanotb]

Yea I think my ferment never really took off. If you get one per second. I have really tiny bubbles and the airlock fires about every 15-20 seconds. Oh well no worries may just have to wait a bit longer and from what I understand about meads it should make it that much better

 

[rightwingnut]

The bubbles in mine are tiny, too. A slow ferment isn't neccesarily a bad one...I guess.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Except for the Ginger Mead all of mine were sweet.

I knew going into it that mead would take a long time, so whenever I thought it was going too slow I would .... what's the word... not, spin, as much as swirl ... my carboy on its bottom edge and reagitate the yeast.

 

[thorgrimnr]

No no I wasnt going to take it out i just wanted to make sure that the ferment was on track for three days of brewing. I added 2 lemons to the must along with 4 cups of orangespice tea. whole cloves and cinnimon sticks
were added in the boil and strained out. Should I leave the primary frement for a month or will autolysis start to occur?

It usually takes my mead about 5 weeks sitting at a steady temperature of 76 F or 22 C. I've had no problems with autolysis.

My basic recipe:

Rind and juice of 1 lemon
1.5 kgs of honey
1/2 teaspoon of yeast energizer
1/2 teaspoon of ground grape skins
1 packet of champagne yeast.