I'm brand new to mead-making and chose JAOM for my very first batch (1 gal.). Leave it to me to screw up something foolproof. I followed the recipe to the letter, using clover honey from Costco and Fleischmann's Active Dry Original Yeast with an expiration date of 2019. The only change I made was to use tap water filtered through a Brita pitcher instead of spring water. My problem is that fermentation seems to be taking a long time to ramp up - the recipe makes it sound like I should have a veritable geyser within 3 hours of pitching, but it has been almost 6 hours now and I'm getting a bubble only every 20 seconds. Not having done this before, I don't know whether that's acceptable or if I have problems. What do you think? How do I determine whether or not to pour it out and start over? Or is there something I can do to jumpstart it?
Thanks for your input - I really want to be a success at this.
Thanks for your input - I really want to be a success at this.