lethargy
Junior
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2009
- Messages
- 22
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greetings earthlings!
so last saturday- 6 days ago- i bought me 3x 19l carboys and decided to use one to brew up some strawberry mead (strawberry melomel). now, six days later, the fermentation is starting to slow dow, which seems waaaaay premature to me, considering how much sugar is in it. here is the recepy i followed:
3gal of spring water (as in strait from the spring, not from a store. i did not sterilize because the lady at the wine kitz store told me not to)
15lb store bought honey
5lbs store bought strawberries
2 packs of brewing yeast (dont remember which exactly, but the wine kitz lady said it was the standard brewing yeast)
~5ml yeast nutrient/energiser
i sterilized all of my hardware with sodium sulphite previous to brewing, and rinsed it out. im using a proper setup- carboy with air lock on top, jammed into a bung- its air tight. i have been swireling the brew every day to make sure the strawberry gunk ontop of the must gets mixed in.
at 6 days, my fermentation is slowing perceptibly ,though not majorly- i'd say its decreased by about ~10%.
the thing is, at 6 days, i would expect the fermentation to still be going hard and not slowing at all. is this normal? should i be concerned? how do i tell if i have some sort of contam? am i just over-reacting to something thats normal?
im a bit anxious about this as this is supposed to be for xmas (yeah i know mead takes 2 years minimum to properly blend, but i chose strawberry mean because i've read several people saying that i tastes great, even imediatly after primary fermentation- and i dont inted to drink all 19L at xmas- just one bottle or so). this batch has cost me about $100, so i am also anxious about it going wrong for that reason too ($40 for the 3 carboys, 10 airlocks, and 3 racking wands (great deal for me i think, considering around here, 1 new carboy sells for $50-$60))
so last saturday- 6 days ago- i bought me 3x 19l carboys and decided to use one to brew up some strawberry mead (strawberry melomel). now, six days later, the fermentation is starting to slow dow, which seems waaaaay premature to me, considering how much sugar is in it. here is the recepy i followed:
3gal of spring water (as in strait from the spring, not from a store. i did not sterilize because the lady at the wine kitz store told me not to)
15lb store bought honey
5lbs store bought strawberries
2 packs of brewing yeast (dont remember which exactly, but the wine kitz lady said it was the standard brewing yeast)
~5ml yeast nutrient/energiser
i sterilized all of my hardware with sodium sulphite previous to brewing, and rinsed it out. im using a proper setup- carboy with air lock on top, jammed into a bung- its air tight. i have been swireling the brew every day to make sure the strawberry gunk ontop of the must gets mixed in.
at 6 days, my fermentation is slowing perceptibly ,though not majorly- i'd say its decreased by about ~10%.
the thing is, at 6 days, i would expect the fermentation to still be going hard and not slowing at all. is this normal? should i be concerned? how do i tell if i have some sort of contam? am i just over-reacting to something thats normal?
im a bit anxious about this as this is supposed to be for xmas (yeah i know mead takes 2 years minimum to properly blend, but i chose strawberry mean because i've read several people saying that i tastes great, even imediatly after primary fermentation- and i dont inted to drink all 19L at xmas- just one bottle or so). this batch has cost me about $100, so i am also anxious about it going wrong for that reason too ($40 for the 3 carboys, 10 airlocks, and 3 racking wands (great deal for me i think, considering around here, 1 new carboy sells for $50-$60))