slooooow fermenting mead

[blakelock]

hi all, i have to admit that i'm a beer brewer and this is my first attempt and the sweet honey elixer. so i mixed up a meed kit from "more beer" and sweetened it up a bit.

- 4 gal batch (set aside 5th gal for funky experimentation)
- 12 lbs honey
- bit of yeast nutrient (GO-ferm and fermaid K included in kit)
- did not use any of the acid blend included in kit
- white labs sweet mead yeast (actually used 1.5 tubes of yeast to get things going quickly)

it was a bit slow to start bubbling (couple of days??? maybe). over a month later, it's still bubbling! (~3 bubbles/min). here's my gravities:

OG ~1.099 (actually forgot to write it down but according to http://beercalculus.com/recipe, this is what it should be)
gravity after 1 month ~1.072
temp is 64-68 F.

obviously i've got a long way to go. why is it so slow? should i do something? (other than wait)
incidentally, my 5th gal experimental batch (vanilla mead) is also still bubbling although i haven't checked the gravity.

cheers!
blakelock

[ApresSkiBrewer]

Forget about it, check it in 6-8 months. I'm not a mead brewer at all... but I just listened to an archive of the rabbits foot meadery from sometime in July 08, and he said... just let it do its thing.

Oh, and brew some flippen beer while you wait!

[Pseudolus.]

I've only done one mead, but dropping less than 30 points in a month seems like something isn't quite right. Sounds like it might be nutrient-poor?

I used the FAQs here: http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/

See specifically the one on Staggered Nutrient Addition, which talks about adding nutrient at various times during fermentation to keep the yeast-beasties happy.

[Guido]

Patience, grasshopper. Meads are great because they teach you how to wait on barley wines and Russian imperial stouts. One of my best meads was agonizingly slow, over a year to ferment completely. Now I'm upset that I only made three gallons. Some yeast nutrients and DAP wouldn't hurt, though.

[yabodie]

Check the pH of the mead.

When did you add the Go-ferm and Fermaid-K?

You might want to add 1.25g/gal Fermaid-K to your batch to help it along. Keep the DAP out of it at this point. DAP is best used after the lag phase is done, or about 12 hours after pitching when the yeast are just starting to take off.

[tavish2]

heh, this reminds me that i need to check on two batches of mead i made in october that i forgot about.... i havent checked it since november and it was only about 1/2 way done. maybe its done now.

[slowhead]

Never made a mead...From what I hear you need to add nutrients and oxygen for the first few days...That might help with attenuation........

[tavish2]

i hit mine a few times with O2 until i saw signs of fermentation.