Questions about mead.

[Vacirca's Organics]

Hey everyone. So, I decided for the first time attempt at making wine I was going to make homemade mead. I wanted the alcohol level a little higher then the 12% that is standard, so I added in 15% more honey then what was standard. Now, here's my question. I was reading other people's notes on the fermentation and aging process of mead. Most people suggested 5 to 6 weeks of fermentation followed by 3 to 5 months of aging depending on the desired taste. Now, I started this on the 11th of August. It is now the 21st of August and the bubbling from the release of carbon from the jug is starting to stop. Is this normal? And if it is normal for the bubbling to stop after just over a week and a half (by the time the bubbles stop completely based on predictions) should I siphon the liquid out into a new jug to remove the solid stuff, such as raisins and yeast that has fallen to the bottom? This is my first time making homemade wine myself. So I'm very new and green to this hobby. So any information would be greatly appreciated, and most certainly accepted. I'm here to learn and get better. So any info would be awesome.
And, if it's not normal, what could have gone wrong, and what can I do to rectify it before it is ruined, if I did something wrong. I'll post below the way I made it.

4 pounds of honey (recipe called for 3.2 pounds to get 12% or round about there). Melted down the honey and 1/2 gallon of clean water in a pot until the honey was completely mixed in.
Let it cool to 88 degrees (research I did on lalvin D47 yeast said to make sure the liquid was under 90 but over 70 to ensure the yeast would activate and not die)
Tested the liquid to measure brix to ensure we were at the desired brix % rate.
Added in the yeast, mixed it up, and put it in a 1 gallon jug And put the bung and double airlock on.

It is now 1 week and 3 days after I did this, and the bubbles are VERY slow compared to the first 4 to 5 days. So, I do not know if this is normal or if it is supposed to ferment for the full 5 to 6 weeks.
Thank you in advance for any info.

 

[Ohio Bob]

I’m not mead maker but I believe the process is the same. When the ferment is about 1.020 I would put the mead under an airlock. In 2 weeks rack off of the gross lees, keeping the container topped off and sulphited.

What you described sounds perfectly normal.

 

[winemaker81]

Activity in the airlock tells you nothing useful. The wine is fermenting OR the wine it outgassing OR something else is happening.

A lot of older recipes (and some new ones) tend to be what worked, but the the people recording them did not understand what was happening.

Your hydrometer is your friend. What is your current SG?

It's likely that your wine is proceeding fine. Once we know the SG, useful advice will follow.

 

[Vacirca's Organics]

Activity in the airlock tells you nothing useful. The wine is fermenting OR the wine it outgassing OR something else is happening.

A lot of older recipes (and some new ones) tend to be what worked, but the the people recording them did not understand what was happening.

Your hydrometer is your friend. What is your current SG?

It's likely that your wine is proceeding fine. Once we know the SG, useful advice will follow.

So when I first made the must it was sitting at about 1.110. Now it's at 1.010.

 

[winemaker81]

So when I first made the must it was sitting at about 1.110. Now it's at 1.010.

Your wine is proceeding fine. Seriously -- take a deep breath and relax. While this is new to you, from my POV you're in a perfectly normal situation.

In your situation, I'd rack now and put the wine under airlock. Let it rest 3 weeks, then check the SG. It will probably be between 0.990 and 0.996. Rack again, add K-meta, and leave it for 3 months.

Winemaking is a patience game. The "P" word is your friend.

 

[Vacirca's Organics]

Your wine is proceeding fine. Seriously -- take a deep breath and relax. While this is new to you, from my POV you're in a perfectly normal situation.

In your situation, I'd rack now and put the wine under airlock. Let it rest 3 weeks, then check the SG. It will probably be between 0.990 and 0.996. Rack again, add K-meta, and leave it for 3 months.

Winemaking is a patience game. The "P" word is your friend.

Thank you. The information was really helpful. I'll rack tomorrow. And then I'll test again in 3 weeks. Thank you so much.

 

[winemaker81]

Thank you. The information was really helpful. I'll rack tomorrow. And then I'll test again in 3 weeks. Thank you so much.

Happy to be of service!

 

[Huba Huba]

My meads never go below 1.000 and usually stop at 1.002 - 1.004. Honey can have more non-fermentable sugars than typical corn/cane/beet sugar. This probably varies with different honeys, but I keep bees and this is typical for my honey.
I agree with everyone else, all's good!

 

[Rice_Guy]

Reading your first post I don’t see adding yeast nutrient. I am using organic and trying to do a staggered addition. Mead is like a desert with low nutrition. I didn’t see mixing to bring air in. Oxygen is required for reproduction. ,,, A mead will be better in two years. I would try to stretch the batch out.

 

[winemaker81]

I started a small batch of mead Thursday and link is for my notes. This is actually a metheglin, mead with spices -- cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. The kicker is that I intend to backsweeten with frozen apple juice concentrate, to make something of an apple pie mead. This is inspired by a mead at Starrlight Meadery in Pittsboro NC.

While I hadn't intended to write another, mead is different enough that I'm also writing an In Detail post. The In Detail posts document the winemaking process in more detail than my normal notes, and this one differs from the other In Detail posts as I'm focusing mostly on the decisions that affect mead in ways that are not common for other types of wine. This is not a "how to" on mead; rather, I'm hitting on issues as I think of them.

Keep in mind this is my process. There are other valid options and folks may do different things to achieve a similar result.