Newbie general questions

Open fermentation is fine for the initial stages. I usually keep mine open (i.e. not plugged up with an airlock) for the first 1/3 to 1/2 of fermentation. Depending on specifics, that is usually between 3 and 5 days. A few days longer probably doesn't hurt much. In fact if you're not particularly agitating it, keeping it open through the entire primary should be fine. Even some beers are produced this way.

Aeration can be helpful while the yeast population is rapidly increasing. The oxygen is a vital nutrient for making cell walls, which are good things to have. This rapid division stage usually lasts about 1/3 of the way through fermentation, after which the population tends to stabilize. So that's why folks will aerate at first. After that, however, oxygen is not taken up as rapidly by the yeast and can stick around in your mead, creating oxidized flavors. Not so tasty. At this point (a month in), you probably don't want to add any air.

A gravity reading might be helpful. Definitely take one before you rack, so you know if you're done fermenting or not. Generally I don't think about racking until fermentation seems to be over, and a gravity check can confirm that.

First mead

Ok, I'm really excited about trying a mead... I read a bunch of the recipes and came up with this:

3.5 lbs of raw honey
.5 lb of raisins (soaked, pulverized in food processor, twice boiled in water for max extraction - i little trick my dad taught me when making wine)
1 cinnamon stick and 1 whole clove
top off with water in a one gallon jug
1/2 teaspoon of yeast energizer

now I didn't boil the honey or any thing except the raisins. I mixed everything together and about half of the water. closed the jug and shook it for about 5 min... I pitched my yeast starter topped it off with more water and put the air lock in place. Now about 4 hours later it looks like the honey has sunk back to the bottom of the jug... and there is a significantly lighter layer of must on top. Should I be worried about this? or just let my yeast go to work and add some more energizer in a few days.

It's already starting to bubble but nothing crazy yet. This is so different than beer and wine, the must had so many air bubbles in it that I could barely read my gravity. I'm guessing that it was in the 1.124 -1.13 range.

For future batches definite;y try to take your first reading before adding the yeast, that way you can read it more clearly and be sure of exactly what your starting gravty was.

You should have no trouble with the honey layer on the bottom of your fermenter. I had a similar concern/question about whether adding more honey required it to be mixed in for the yeast to eat it. The simple answer is no. But if you want more info on the subject, try searching "Bottom Dwelling Continuous Diffusion Yeast Feeding" or "BDC DYF" with the quotes using the search tool along the top bar of the webpage.

Basically, the only problem you could have would be inaccurate SG readings due to the fact that some of your honey is not in solution. There are ways of measuring by weight how much of that honey has been eaten by the yeast, but as long as it's not more than the recommended amount of honey for a 1 gallon batch (which it seems like your recipe is right around the limit), that honey should be gone with proper aeration and nutrients in a few days.

YogiBearMead726 said:

You should have no trouble with the honey layer on the bottom of your fermenter. I had a similar concern/question about whether adding more honey required it to be mixed in for the yeast to eat it. The simple answer is no. But if you want more info on the subject, try searching "Bottom Dwelling Continuous Diffusion Yeast Feeding" or "BDC DYF" with the quotes using the search tool along the top bar of the webpage.

Basically, the only problem you could have would be inaccurate SG readings due to the fact that some of your honey is not in solution. There are ways of measuring by weight how much of that honey has been eaten by the yeast, but as long as it's not more than the recommended amount of honey for a 1 gallon batch (which it seems like your recipe is right around the limit), that honey should be gone with proper aeration and nutrients in a few days.

Click to expand...

Ok sweet so now that it's going I'll just let it go... it'll be cool to see that volume shrink. at first it was almost half the jar, it now seems like the must on top is growing so that should be a good thing. Thanks for the help, and I'll do more reading!

AToE said:

For future batches definite;y try to take your first reading before adding the yeast, that way you can read it more clearly and be sure of exactly what your starting gravty was.

Click to expand...

I had poured the must off into a test tube to try and get a reading before pitching my yeast. I was surprised at how many bubbles stayed in solution even after pouring off into the test tube.

Also, aerating once or, even better, twice per day will help mix that honey up into solution and help your yeast get plenty of O2 up until the 1/3 sugar break. I'd also aerate before adding nutrients, just in case your mead decides to go gyser on you.