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Mead query

Started by Dr Brown Ale, December 13, 2018, 12:32:38 PM

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Dr Brown Ale

Just wondering of anyone can answer some queries for me.

I made a Mead on 21st October, about 1.8kg of honey made up to 5 litres with some soft water, I used Mangrove Jacks M05 Mead yeast, and a packet of Servomyces yeast nutrient .

The OG was 1.112

I have it in a demijohn and there is still obvious activity going on, getting a bubble in the airlock about once every 2 mins or thereabouts, in the last week or so it has begun to clear significantly.

My plan with this is to leave it for a month once I'm sure the fermentation is finished (no obvious activity, and no CO2 bubbling in the airlock) and then rack it into another demi with maybe more water to round it up to 5 litres again (I have what looks to be about 250-500ml of trub matter at the bottom of the demi) and then leave it in the attic for 9 months or so.

My query is whether or not this length of primary fermentation is "normal" - I've never attempted anything with such a high OG before, so I was expecting it to take longer than the usual 3 weeks or so for a beer, but I'm surprised that it's still going almost 2 months later, I'm not worried about it, I was ultra-careful with sanitisation and there hasn't been any strange looking formations on the top of the fermentation or anything, it looks fine.

Does anyone have anything to advise me of with this?

Thanks!

Bzfeale80

All you mentioned sounds good so far although I'm no expert on mead! I would rack it off the trub (try not to disturb the trub if possible) as soon as possible to another demijohn and take a sg reading to see if its near ready. Top up with water to bottom of demijohn neck and place airlock again. Check again in about 3 and 6 months and you should have near crystal clear mead, you can also rack off again to another demijohn if a big trub forms in the meantime if necessary. I bottled about a year after starting the batch of mead but I was using champagne yeast.