Ancient orange mead

[gareth90]

I started an orange mead off on sunday afternoon using safale 04 and it hasnt started bubbling yet although the yeast does seem to me moving about a bit inside the demijohn.
Does the thickness of the liquid affect the yeast in any way?


Cheers!

[gareth90]

Right folks i need some advice on this one .
When making the mead up i just followed the recipe in the opening post added safale 04 yeast and sat back and waited for the fireworks.
I left a 2-3'' gap at top of demijohn to allow for what i expected to be a good foamy head.
It has been on since sunday and has only just strted forcing air through the airlock at the rate of about once every 3 mins.
I didnt bother taking a starting OG so decided to tonight in the top up jar of honey solution id kept back to top up the demijohn.
It doesnt even register on the scale of the hydrometer
If it had the room it would have popped back up and lay on its side.
Now this is gonna be a strong mother if left as is and it manages to ferment which it looks like it is struggling to do.
My questions are do i

A-leave it as is

B-add more yeast

C- split it into another demijohn and dilute it down



Or any other suggestions and no Curious brew im not gonna top it up with 20 odd litres of apple juice to see what happens


Thanks

[Crossbow]

Or any other suggestions and no Curious brew im not gonna top it up with 20 odd litres of apple juice to see what happens

Sounds like a good idea to me

[gareth90]

It did to me as i typed it too!!!

[Curious Brew]

no Curious brew im not gonna top it up with 20 odd litres of apple juice to see what happens

Why-I-oughta!!

*shakes fist*

[gareth90]

Right folks i need some advice on this one .
When making the mead up i just followed the recipe in the opening post added safale 04 yeast and sat back and waited for the fireworks.
I left a 2-3'' gap at top of demijohn to allow for what i expected to be a good foamy head.
It has been on since sunday and has only just strted forcing air through the airlock at the rate of about once every 3 mins.
I didnt bother taking a starting OG so decided to tonight in the top up jar of honey solution id kept back to top up the demijohn.
It doesnt even register on the scale of the hydrometer
If it had the room it would have popped back up and lay on its side.
Now this is gonna be a strong mother if left as is and it manages to ferment which it looks like it is struggling to do.
My questions are do i

A-leave it as is

B-add more yeast

C- split it into another demijohn and dilute it down



Or any other suggestions and no Curious brew im not gonna top it up with 20 odd litres of apple juice to see what happens

Anybody

Thanks

[Crossbow]

I'd vote for C - at least until its a low enough OG to measure

[MickyD]

To be fair my mead never achieved a big foaming head that I had expected with the og I had. It has however been constantly blipping now since I made it 2 weeks ago. It had a few days at the beginning where it was quite lively but has since settled to a blip every 30 - 45 seconds.

Some of the fruit has started to sink, as has the cinnamon stick. I think its starting to clear a little as well. Might be ready to bottle beginning of Jan.

Personally I would leave it for a while, and make sure the temperature is where it needs to be.

[MickyD]

Just racked the mead off into a clean DJ and checked the gravity and it settled out at 0.992 which by my calculations is around 14%.

It is very very orangey and very very tastey. Its very whiskey like or perhaps more Southern Comforty. Hopefully after some months ageing it will be a great drink.

I'll give it a few weeks to clear and then see about bottling it.

If anyone makes this you MUST as least taste the orange segments as they are fantastic, and would make a great addition to a fruit salad.

[CyberPaddy66]

Make sure you put a few bottles down for a couple of years, if it tastes good now it'll blow your mind in a few years

[Duffbeer]

Right folks i need some advice on this one .
When making the mead up i just followed the recipe in the opening post added safale 04 yeast and sat back and waited for the fireworks.
I left a 2-3'' gap at top of demijohn to allow for what i expected to be a good foamy head.
It has been on since sunday and has only just strted forcing air through the airlock at the rate of about once every 3 mins.
I didnt bother taking a starting OG so decided to tonight in the top up jar of honey solution id kept back to top up the demijohn.
It doesnt even register on the scale of the hydrometer
If it had the room it would have popped back up and lay on its side.
Now this is gonna be a strong mother if left as is and it manages to ferment which it looks like it is struggling to do.
My questions are do i

A-leave it as is

B-add more yeast

C- split it into another demijohn and dilute it down



Or any other suggestions and no Curious brew im not gonna top it up with 20 odd litres of apple juice to see what happens


Thanks

Split to two d/js and dilute, the yeast is going to struggle to get started with such a high sg. and if it does get going will stall leaving you with a sickly sweet mead.

[MickyD]

Should this stuff be primed?

Or bottle as is?

[CyberPaddy66]

Should this stuff be primed?

Or bottle as is?

Depends if you want fizzy or still, I don't prime myself as I like my mead still but it's your choice

[gareth90]

Hi Folks, Here we are a good month on since i started the mead and ive just left it in the DJ.I did add some more yeast and it started up again but seems to have stopped again. It hasnt been touched over the xmas period as i've been too busy( and happily drinking all the other stuff id previously brewed).
Afetr finding this post was still up the near the top and reading it again ive decided im going to split into 2 DJ's and dilute and add some more yeast(prob split a safale 04 between the 2 DJ's)

Any thoughts or advice?

[Davi]

I'm sitting with 2 bottles of harvest gold and 1 bottle of Lindisfarne beside me and now I want to drink it, I blame you all lol.