Secondary Fermentation Question

[Tim Flynn]

Hello. I'm a new mead brewer from Washington State. I'm looking for advice on my current batch, which is a citrus mead (10 oranges/5 lemons). I had it in primary for a month, racked it to secondary for another month and it finally "seemed" to stop fermenting, although it is still pretty cloudy. I moved it to where I planned to rack it to the bottler yesterday, and this morning it starting fermentation again. I'm assuming the motion caused this action. Should I go ahead and bottle it, or wait? If so, how long?

Thanks for your advice.

Tim

 

[Tim Flynn]

Update: I've ordered peptic enzyme to deal with the cloudiness.

 

[ncbrewer]

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about mead, but welcome to HBT.

 

[Rish]

Hey, @Tim Flynn , welcome to HBT!

Good luck with your mead making!

 

[MightyMosin]

If it started fermenting, do not bottle it.
If you have a hydrometer, you want to ensure that it has completed fermentation before you bottle.

If you decide to sweeten it, you will want to stabilize it before sweetening to prevent the mead from startup up fermentation again.

 

[keystonehb]

Hello. I'm a new mead brewer from Washington State. I'm looking for advice on my current batch, which is a citrus mead (10 oranges/5 lemons). I had it in primary for a month, racked it to secondary for another month and it finally "seemed" to stop fermenting, although it is still pretty cloudy. I moved it to where I planned to rack it to the bottler yesterday, and this morning it starting fermentation again. I'm assuming the motion caused this action. Should I go ahead and bottle it, or wait? If so, how long?

Thanks for your advice.

Tim

A little more information is needed
Have you taken gravity readings? When you sample it does it taste kind of spritzy? How does it taste? Are you using sufites and/or sorbates? Will you be bottling carbonated or still?

More than likely it did not "start fermenting" again. My guess is racking it just cause more co2 to come out of suspension when it was moved. That or malo could have naturally started if you're not using sufites.