Hand holding mead help needed.

[CHopgood]

Hi All,

I’ve been reading various post on this forum as well internet searches and you tube vids, all with the aim to start brewing my own mead, it is my favourite drink. Found some great info, quite a lot of different opinions and ways about doing things but I choose what seemed the simplest to start. So:

I put all the stuff together in a glass demijohn, pitched the yeast and poured it in. After 24hrs the fermentation bung was bubbling about once per second, by the 3rd or 4th day it had got up to 3 bubbles per second and now after 10 days it has slowed right down to 1 bubble every 5 seconds.

Does that sound right to you? It’s just with some of the stuff I’ve read I was expecting a more ferocious fermentation, maybe I’ve just brewed a more calm mead. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Stevieboy]

Sounds about right to me - you're in the long slow secondary fermentation now. No worries.

 

[CHopgood]

Excellent, thank you. So is it time to syphon into a 2nd Demi John and check gravity or should I wait until bubbling has completely stopped?

 

[Stevieboy]

I'd leave it unless you have a massive amount of trub at the bottom of the DJ.

 

[CHopgood]

Does this count as a lot?

 

[Stevieboy]

No that's fine. Just leave it to ferment out. You should see my Raisin Sherry !!

 

[DocAnna]

Your picture looks about right, but mead can stall without extra nutrient additions as it's very nutrient poor. You can still add nutrient now if you want to, either using 'official' yeast nutrient or a handful of raisins in a liquidiser with a splash of boiled water. Making sure you sanitise everything first, and it's worth rinsing the raisins in water as well. You won't have space in your current demijohn but it's also worth racking off your current mead off the sediment if you have a spare demijohn.
Anna

 

[CHopgood]

Thanks for the help.