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Fermentation Rises from the Dead

Barrel Char Wood Products
A

Alkane

Guest
Guest
I have a ~3 gal batch of a traditional mead. I have racked and watched the airlock activity go from nearly constant bubbles to no activity at all over a period of 2 months.

About a month ago I decided to remove the airlock and place a rubber stopper in the carboy for bulk aging. Everything was going fine, my sg was measured at 0.999. The rubber stopper stayed in place for about 2 weeks. Until, I was sitting in the kitchen last week and heard "POP!". I looked around to find my rubber stopper rolling across the floor. Now the stopper will only stay on for about 1 day then it will shoot itself across the room.

Is this normal???

The mead is a little hazy with a 1/2" bed of bright white lees on the bottom and a small amount of lees on the sides of the carboy.
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
Administrator
Dec 26, 2004
7,874
8
0
34
The OC
Hey Alkane,

Put an airlock back onto the carboy. It is still too soon to solid stopper it. The yeast have spoken.

Next, what was the exact recipe? We'll need to see that in order to help you out a bit more. Also, at this point it's a good idea to start recording your gravity, and note whether or not the gravity is still dropping. When the gravity doesn't move for about three or four months. Then I'd say to rack it and consider kegging or bottling at that point.

The important thing is to let the yeast run their course. There are certain yeasts out there that will continue to ferment very slowly for a long time. So you can't really put a solid bung in the vessel on a timeline unless you have used that yeast over and over, and know when you can and cannot do certain things during the lifecycle of the batch.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
A

Alkane

Guest
Guest
As always, Thanks Oskaar!

I'll fill the airlock back up and stick it on there.

The yeast I used was D-47 with about 3 tbsp of nutrient (from what I remember). I posted the exact recipe here

I was hoping this was due to normal fermentation and not due to some sort of infection causeing the off-gassing. Since the stopper has been off of the carboy for an unknown amount of time.
 
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns