Adventures in Mead, 2 weeks later

[Tinwhistler]

Racked to the secondary carboy today.

Still alive!

My wife was afraid to taste it, because it "Wasn't done." I told her it wasn't like raw meat. It was basically water, honey, and live yeast (good for vitamin B, and no worse for you than yogurt), but still, she wouldn't. Heh.

It's tasting pretty clean, and a touch yeasty. It's exactly where I expect it to be. Huge success!

 

[Shakey]

Did you steal enough to check the gravity again?

I think I'm going to be breaking out my brew setup tomorrow morning and making some beer. I've had the ingredients sitting around for too long. I need to get off my butt and get brewing.

 

[Tinwhistler]

Nah, there's no point. The mead is still fermenting well, and won't be ready to move into the 3rd fermenter (for clarifying) for 4-6 weeks. I'll take an OG then. I try not to touch the must too much otherwise, for risk of infection. Mead is a lonely brew, with only honey and yeast, with no hops or other additives to help hide any mild off-flavors caused by infection or impurities, so I'm really anal about sanitation.

 

[Shakey]

I pinch the line right at the end and use the last of it to check the gravity, I don't like dipping a thief into it either. I just like to check every time I rack to see how far it's gone. I tend to track as much as I can.

I've done a few meads, but never really got into it. I do have a hefty batch of rhubarb growing in my yard right now, so I may snatch that up and make a few gallons of wine with that.

 

[Just Me]

Thanks Tinwhistler, your first thread motivated me to clean up my old glass bottle and start my own mead once again!

I'll just go with water, honey, some apple juice and yeast. It's sitting behind me for a week now and alive as well. I just keep it there, gently pushing it every now and then and when the fermentation stops I'll get it out. The last batch, over 15 years ago, was sweet but very "heavy". Unfortunately I havent taken alcohol measurements but plan to do so on the new one.

 

[drawn_inward]

Nah, there's no point. The mead is still fermenting well, and won't be ready to move into the 3rd fermenter (for clarifying) for 4-6 weeks. I'll take an OG then. I try not to touch the must too much otherwise, for risk of infection. Mead is a lonely brew, with only honey and yeast, with no hops or other additives to help hide any mild off-flavors caused by infection or impurities, so I'm really anal about sanitation.

The chances of you contaminating mead after 24-48 hrs of fermenting is quite low. Yeast will easily outcompete the interlopers and fermenting conditions are not favorable for most bacteria/fungi that you might have on your hands or floating in the air.
/microbiology lecture

Do you start your yeast ahead of time (give it a head-start)? That should help keep contamination in check.

 

[Tinwhistler]

Better safe than sorry. I've had mead turn on me when I've allowed myself to get too sloppy.

WyYeast has a "smack pack" system for brewing that is quick-priming. You break open the inner packet (kind of like breaking open a glow stick), and when the yeast has inflated the outer packet, your yeast is ready to pitch.

Next time I brew, I'm going to go with a Verieka yeast that has good reviews, but is kind of finicky and requires a 2 day priming stage (as well as a tempering stage) before pitching.