First mead, no foam. Not fermenting?

[Chevette Girl]

Well, it seems from what you say that the others who have tried this aren't getting consistent results with this recipe. If it's sweet and low alcohol, that suggests to me that their fermentation didn't finish, and if it's strong and not sweet, it tells me that their fermentation completed, whether it was supposed to have stopped or not... Possible reasons for this? Well, for starts, operator error... I know enough French to kind of muddle through Spanish, and I'm pretty sure the written recipe on that link calls for 1.5 litres of water to 500g honey (which is something close to JAO's honey ratio) and you reported having used 1 litre to 500 g honey (which is a good bit stronger than JAO), although that might well have been what they said in the video, I'm useless with spoken Spanish Other reasons could be variations in the yeast, if it's live yeast cake, well, I've heard of bakers who've had inconsistent results with it and prefer the dried stuff...

Most of us who have done any wine or meadmaking in any formal sense will tend towards an initial mistrust of recipes based on a few things that catch our eyes, like using time increments to determine whether your fermentation's complete instead of making sure the specific gravity has stopped changing, "quick" recipes that don't use any kind of nutrients at all, or anything that's supposed to be fizzy and sweet and doesn't involve chemicals, even with permanent refrigeration, fermentation can still continue (although at a greatly reduced pace than at room temperature) enough to cause even champagne or beer bottles to explode (and I could be wrong on that last bit where your particular recipe is concerned, French is NOT Spanish). Just like any of us on this forum who've been making meads for a while and reading the forums will point at a recipe's request for acid blend or lemon juice and say, "Ah-hah, this recipe was developed by a winemaker, not a meadmaker!" because we now know that honey has its own acidity and doesn't need more.

The JAO recipe, which also sets off our alarm bells initially, has been tried many many times with pretty consistent results AND was formulated by someone who knows how to make mead using the modern tools and methods, and not just someone who once tried adding a certain amount of water to a certain amount of honey and didn't blow anything up and so shared the recipe with others (not that I'm slighting the people who made your website, I have no idea how much experience they have with wines or meads or how many times they've gotten consistent results )... And there are a few things built into the JAO recipe that are indicators of the state of your fermentation... if it's bubbling, it's fermenting actively. When it starts to clear, it's mostly stopped fermenting so the inactive yeast starts dropping to the bottom... when the fruit sinks, it's degassed and should be safe to bottle. But even then, some of us have experienced the odd continued fermentation with this recipe or its many variations, I've done it about 40 times and had two or three that got a little fizzy in the bottle. Usually it follows the time guidelines within a week or two, but every now and then it doesn't, something simple like temperature, which you may not notice the differences and you may not have all that much control over, may be responsible for a lot of the different results others were reporting with that recipe.

And if you're going to use a bent tube for an airlock, just make sure it's wide enough to permit bubbles getting through without pushing the liquid out first! (damn good idea, by the way, if you can't get a proper airlock for $2 like most of us can... I just use a few layers of plastic wrap and an elastic band when I run out of airlocks).

And snuesen, for the record, I have two (admittedly older) published books that recommend the mouth siphon start as an accepted method (although they do suggest swishing with vodka first and they do present other options, like filling your siphon hose with water before attaching it to your racking cane and letting the water start it). And I'm such a klutz I can't work my pump-style auto-siphon without either kicking up sediment in the carboy I'm siphoning from, or the other end of the racking hose popping out of the carboy I'm siphoning to... they're apparently not for everyone...

[eddie_1987]

Hello again everybody! I'm back with some new questions.

First of all, let me tell you that my first batch of mead was a "not-so-bad-failure", because I bottled it after only 3 weeks (I didn't know that it takes at least 6 weeks to bottle) and the result was a sort of REALLY alcoholic "cider-like" wine. It was pretty tasty (I like sweet booze) but it wasn't what I expected.

Anyway, I decided to go with the JAO recipe, which I followed to the letter, but I'm getting the same problem I had with the previous mead: NO FOAM.

I know that it doesn't necessarily mean it's not working/fermenting, but nearly every photo of JAO I found on the web has that signature foam on top of it, and even the JAO recipe (from the very gotmead recipe's home page) calls for "major foaming", "first few days frenzy" and so on.
In my case, it's not making any foam, although it's bubbling from the bottom of the carboy and there's lots of airlock activity -by the way, I invested a few $ on the purchase of a proper airlock =D.

Here's the (original) recipe I followed:

* 1,6 kg (3 1/2 lbs) honey (I managed to get pure honey for this one)
* 3.8 lts (1 gal) water
* 1 large orange
* 25 raisins
* 1 stick of cinammon
* 1 clove
* 1 teaspoon of bread yeast (here in Argentina we don't have Fleismann's, so I used the best bread dry yeast I could buy)


I dissolved the honey in warm water, put it into the carboy, added the orange, cinammon, raisins and clove, and then shook the heck out of the jug (with top on, as Joe recommended lol). Waited until it was at room temperature and added the yeast. Installed the airlock and put in a dark place. 30 minutes later, it was bubbling like seltzer; after 4 hours there was no foam, and still there isn't any foam as I'm writing this. There's bubbling and airlock activity, but again NO FOAM.

Thanks for your time! And sorry for the inconveniences.


PS: I don't know if I have to post it as a reply to my original post or as a new one, so I'll post it in both places. If it doesn't go here, please re-locate it to its proper place.

eddie

[Chevette Girl]

In general you don't want to ask the same question in two places on the same forum. I'd have probably started a new thread and then put a link back to this one, since the question is about a different batch but similar question. So I'm gonna go answer your brewing question on the other thread