Five days in, seeking insight!

[Hive Head]

Hello again everyone. I've been keeping busy as a bee and managed to set sufficient time aside to create my first meads. I'm fermenting three one-gallon batches in four-litre jugs. One of them is a by-the-book JAO, another is a cyser of my own concoction with a lager yeast and a hint of banana, and an herb-spice mix with a touch of cocoa and k1-111v yeast.

The yeast was pitched almost five days ago to the hour and so far all batches appear to be coming along healthily, and the airlocks are still bubbling away busily. What's more there are a lot of visible co2 bubbles yet to rise in each batch, and I'm even beginning to catch a faint scent of alcohol (I think!). I have not "punched the cap" on any of them once yet, however on the two batches with fruit, the solids sitting atop does not appear to be all gelled together or anything, and the must is having no trouble getting its carbon dioxide out. I haven't moved or disturbed the must since pitching because it's been so active, I'm afraid to shake up the gases and get a fountain scenario.

The foamy head has come down quite a bit now, so I'm thinking I should now top off with a bit of honeywater (plus a tea blend for the metheglin). is this so? When should I draw samples to take my second gravity readings, so I can decide when to rack'em?

Thanks, all. Everything seems to be coming smoothly and I'm fairly optimistic, but I wish those fruit flies would stop buzzing around my airlocks!

[akueck]

If major activity has subsided, you can probably top up now. If you wait another day or two, nothing bad will happen, so don't feel rushed into it.

If you're looking to know when to rack, you can definitely wait until things have visually slowed down to basically a stop. Very few bubbles, possibly some clearing, lees dropping, etc. It might still be going, thus the gravity check, but you know for sure it's still going when it's churning along. Fermentation is usually done in the span of 1-3 weeks, though deviations outside that range are also common.

[Hive Head]

Thanks for the advice, prompt and helpful

Since you put it that way I'll hold off for a couple days as the airlocks are still belching one out every 5-8 seconds. I've seen a few mentions on the board of purposely exciting the must to help eject some of the co2, should I be doing this (and is this what's meant by "degassing"?)

[Valhalla Mead]

Yup. Do a search for some help on degassing. There are a lot of good topics on it. You want to try to get that c02 out early and before the secondary if possible.

Make sure you go by your SG readings and not sight on activity, that way you get an accurate reading and know precisely where the range of the mead is.

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[Chevette Girl]

And you can distract the fruit flies with a bowl of vinegar, just add a drop of dish soap to break the surface tension and the little suckers will drown when they come sniffing around...