How active is a mead fermentation?

[yabodie]

I disagree about the darker honey. Best stuff I ever had was MD wildflower, a dark amber color. AWESOME stuff. Also Buckwheat honey is almost black and it is a very strong honey so it can stand up to almost anything you throw at it. If you want delicate flavors go with lighter honey. All depends on what you want as your final mead. Same principle applies to dark grains. If you want a stout you best use roasted barley.

Regarding head space, for primary leave some room for the active fermentation as there is some foam generated from mead fermentation. Use a bucket, carboy what ever, just leave some room.

I secondary, after your fermentation has finished, fill it up to the base of the carboy neck. Use glass for long term aging as O2 is NOT good for mead after fermentation is complete.

Use nutrients, if you have them otherwise go with about a pound of pureed raisins, the yeast love them!

Cheers!

[bklynbrewer]

That all sounds like great advice, I'll talk to the honey guy and see if he has any info/suggestions. I would love to do a bunch of test batches, but I am moving to Thailand in July, my wife got a job teaching there for at least the next 2 years. About 2 weeks ago I was listening to one of the brewcasts on lambics and I thought to myself hey, now that's a good idea. Then about a week ago i thought hey, mead, that's a good idea too. I want to get the primary done asap and then put it in a secondary and drop it in my dad's basement. I'm going to make a Flanders Red, a Lambic and this.

Does mead yeast permanently stay in plastic like the bret, pedio, etc or can I clean that out?

edit: Can I use the same yeast nutrient that I have for Beer, I think it is fermax?

[yabodie]

Mead yeast is wine yeast, so no worries there. Your regular nutrients should be fine.