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  • should I be worried

    ok i've mixed up my mead and as it's my first bash at it i've used asda own brand honey and spring water, used a champagne yeast (it was either that or desert high alcohol wine) now it's been bixed and bubbleing away for a week when today it looks to have stopped bubbleing..... through the opaque-ness of the fermenting tub it looks to have changed colour to the mead golden yellow look, but i dont want to unscrew the lid incase it messes it up... it is only a small batch of about 3 gallons so would that obviously cut down the time it takes to ferment?

    i've read that I should transfere it to a demijohn with an airlock to let the stuff settle and clear? just thought i'd ask these torrent of questions to the people who know..


    so to summerise
    1: should I be worried that my airlock has stopped bubbleing on my 3 gallons of mead?
    2: if I should be worried what should I do now tip it and start again? or add anything to it?

    3: is it fine for me to leave in there to settle and the syphen out at a given time into bottles for the finished product

    many thanks guys and sorry for my first post to be a bombardment of questions
    Ben

  • #2
    I will try to help, but start with a question, what was the starting gravity?, and what is it now?. This will give you an idea if the ferment is slowing.

    I have had batches that have fermented vigourously for a few days then slowed down, and the only give away it was still fermenting was a SG reading falling by about 1 or 2 per month. This continued for nearly 14 months before it finally settled at 995 [from a start of 1140!].

    the other thing is that you are fermenting in a 5 gallon fermenter? if so there is a lot of headspace above the liquid and if it is just ticking over it may not be enough CO2 produced to create the pressure to make the airlock bubble.

    I certainly wouldn't tip it, my choice now would be to siphon into DJs, fit airlocks with a touch of sodium met or 1/2 a campden in the airlock, bung them in a cupboard and forget about them save to check the SG every month or so, and to keep the airlocks topped up.

    If and when you are certain the ferment has totally ceased, then you can stabilise and fine to clear it, or you can leave it to time and nature, but that could easily be 18 months or so. Once bottled, it should be left 2-3 years ideally to mature [if you can resist it that long!]
    Brewing full mash in 'sunny' Lincoln

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    • #3
      oops

      deleted the post accidentally


      I agree, rack to one gallon DJ's
      N.G.W.B.J.
      Member of 5 Towns Wine and Beer Makers Society (Yorkshire's newest)
      Wine, mead and beer maker

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      • #4
        I certainly wouldn't tip it, my choice now would be to siphon into DJs, fit airlocks with a touch of sodium met or 1/2 a campden in the airlock, bung them in a cupboard and forget about them save to check the SG every month or so, and to keep the airlocks topped up.


        Sorry re-reading it that may not be as clear as it should be, the sodium met/campden goes in the airlock NOT the brew, I have found it helps keep the nasties at bay over long standing times
        Brewing full mash in 'sunny' Lincoln

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        • #5
          Well as Beerhound points out, it's helpful to know the starting gravity.....
          Because that's the way of working out what the approximate strength is likely to be.... Champagne yeast isn't a problem per se, but I don't like using it because it does tend to strip out a fair bit of flavour/aroma with meads....


          So, for "guesstimates", how much honey did you use per gallon ?
          A dry to medium mead would be mixed with between 3 and 3 1/2 lb's of honey per gallon........


          What size container is it in ?
          As already pointed out, it's possible that if there's a lot of head space in the fermenter, then it might not generate enough CO2 to make the airlock bubble very often...


          What's the current gravity reading ?
          With knowledge of the amount of honey per gallon and the current gravity reading, it would give us an idea as to whether it's possible that the yeast might have reached it's maximum alcohol tolerance and "pooped out"........

          Most champagne yeasts will get to about 18% ABV easily, with careful management they can often be encouraged to go higher....

          There's also the possibility that it might have "run out" of nutrient, depending on how much and what it was that was used...... honey is notoriously deficient in nutrients, and the "take forever to ferment" that Beerhound mentioned earlier is what often happens if meads don't have enough.....

          Oh and perhaps you might post the exact recipe, as that's often handy for diagnosis when things aren't going to plan......

          regards

          jtfb

          p.s. Oh and it's fair to point out that with meads, the quality of the honey is often the most important element. Heavily processed supermarket honeys do have their uses, but unremarkable honey will often make unremarkable mead.......... that's not to say that it should be binned....... that's the very last thing to do as we can probably offer enough ideas/suggestions/advice to make something of it......
          Last edited by fatbloke; 14-08-2009, 04:10 PM.
          Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

          Some blog ramblings

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          • #6
            I never thanked you guys, so thank you :-) mead has been racked into jugs and back into the mixing tub, (keeping 1 ltr out though in a dj so I can watch it work it's magic) now Idont have any fancy gear to check the gravity or the ph, just brute force and ignorence, bit the bullet today and tased a thimblefull and wow, it's not made me go blind, but made me ramble on, oh dear, what i was going to ask was it tasted quite watery and not overly sweet, so would you guys say to make it sweeter that it shuold be ok to tip some more honey in or some caster sugar just to bring the sweetness out (it's been brewing for just under a year so should be nearly time to let it settle into bottles soon)
            again sorry for the ramble
            Ben :-)

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            • #7
              Originally posted by melley View Post
              .... I dont have any fancy gear to check the gravity or the ph ....
              I strongly urge you to buy a Hydrometer. It's not fancy, just a glass tube. Trust me, it makes life much easier
              Pete the Instructor

              It looks like Phil Donahue throwing up into a tuba

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              • #8
                whatever you do.....dont sweeten with Honey, it will cloud up and be difficult to clear, if you need to sweeten, you need to stabilise first, and then use either sugar or perhaps grape concentrate or grape juice
                N.G.W.B.J.
                Member of 5 Towns Wine and Beer Makers Society (Yorkshire's newest)
                Wine, mead and beer maker

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                • #9
                  I can vouch for the fact that honey will make it cloudy, even if the honey you use looks clear in the jar
                  Pete the Instructor

                  It looks like Phil Donahue throwing up into a tuba

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by lockwood1956 View Post
                    whatever you do.....dont sweeten with Honey, it will cloud up and be difficult to clear, if you need to sweeten, you need to stabilise first, and then use either sugar or perhaps grape concentrate or grape juice
                    Originally posted by goldseal View Post
                    I can vouch for the fact that honey will make it cloudy, even if the honey you use looks clear in the jar
                    Now as ever, I'll question these bits of wisdom......

                    It's my understanding (rightly or wrongly), that cloudiness from back sweetening with honey, is often a "protein" haze (as opposed to starch and pectin hazes).

                    I'd really like to understand this, because using sugar, grape concentrates/juices isn't what I'd call "keeping the faith".

                    Of course, there's a lot of different styles of meads, each with their own name/nonclamenture/terminology. So using an alternative sweetener might drop it into those "other" categories.

                    Now if I can find out what the score is, in regard to honey based hazes in meads etc, I'll post back.

                    So if anyone does have more precise info, then I'd certainly be happy to hear it as I've previously used honey to back sweeten and had no problem..... hence my ??????

                    regards

                    jtfb

                    p.s. and no, I haven't posted this Q just to be contrary.......
                    Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

                    Some blog ramblings

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      The last time I did a mead I felt I needed to sweeten after ferment. I used the same honey that I used for the mead. It did cloud when I add it I put it in my cooler for a month and it dropped out clear and has stayed that way very yummy indeed.
                      http://www.winensuds.com/ Gotta love this hobby

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