Secondary pitching
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MarshmallowBlue
Well-Known Member
No, here's the scoop. You don't want to move your mead to a secondary container until the ferment is at least finished. Racking is a method used to remove the mead form the sediment so it cant be kicked back up, so your mead stays consistently clear. (as well as preventing autolysis)
The trade-off is that you lose a bit of mead every racking so you want ot keep it down to a couple if you can. (sometimes those big fruit mels require more racking.
The trade-off is that you lose a bit of mead every racking so you want ot keep it down to a couple if you can. (sometimes those big fruit mels require more racking.
MarshmallowBlue
Well-Known Member
You need a hydrometer. When the level sits for a week or two, you're done or stalled (if it seems too high). They are liek 5-7 bucks and will allow to you calculate abv, if its still fermenting and other fun stuff.
I made a few batches without one, but airlock activity isn't an indicator of finished fermentation. It just shows a bell curve unique to that current batch of if its started to fire up or wind down. If you can't go buy one (you definitely should), I've waited as long as three months to rack once, so you're probably fine waiting a long period of time to rack. But seriously, go get yourself a hydrometer.
I made a few batches without one, but airlock activity isn't an indicator of finished fermentation. It just shows a bell curve unique to that current batch of if its started to fire up or wind down. If you can't go buy one (you definitely should), I've waited as long as three months to rack once, so you're probably fine waiting a long period of time to rack. But seriously, go get yourself a hydrometer.
