still going

[MountainBrew78]

Hey all!

So I've been making wine for about 3yrs, however this is my first mead/melomel so please forgive the newb question.
so most of my wines go like clock work, 2 weeks in primary 2 weeks in secondary and they're pretty much done, this mead however 2 weeks primary 3 weeks in secondary and still pretty active?!
my questions are do meads take alittle longer if so why?
and my secondary has accumulated alot of lees in 3 weeks should i rack or just let it go? I'm guessing it will be done by next weekend but that's what i said last weekend.
Thanks, Cheers!

 

[fatbloke]

Hey all!

So I've been making wine for about 3yrs, however this is my first mead/melomel so please forgive the newb question.
so most of my wines go like clock work, 2 weeks in primary 2 weeks in secondary and they're pretty much done, this mead however 2 weeks primary 3 weeks in secondary and still pretty active?!
my questions are do meads take alittle longer if so why?
and my secondary has accumulated alot of lees in 3 weeks should i rack or just let it go? I'm guessing it will be done by next weekend but that's what i said last weekend.
Thanks, Cheers!

Meads are related to wines, but still have many differences.

Like why did you rack it from primary if it wasn't finished ? As you'd have left behind a lot of the active yeast colony, plus any dead cells that also help toward becoming nutrient as the gravity drop and any nutrient/energiser is used up.

Mead, particularly traditional recipes, is almost devoid of nutrient/energiser type substances, so it often needs to be worked out quite carefully, plus the gluconic acid/delta glucono-lactone thing swinging the pH down during the ferment can also cause it to be slower.

Yeast temp, depending on the strain/type used can also have some baring on the speed of ferment......