First Mead Questions

Other Fermentables
1

Started my first mead on Sunday.  15 lbs of wildflower honey, water, and 1/4 of the nutrients.  I rehydrated the yeast (71B-1122) according to package and I’m fermenting at 65 F.  I open and stir it twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.  I also add a 1/4 of the nutrients when I stir at night.  I currently have 1/4 left and from an interview with Curt Stock that I saw, he said the last 1/4 should be added when 2/3 fermentation was done.

My question now is how many more days should I be stirring the mead to off gas the CO2?  Is there some unwritten rule or it is based on percentage of fermentation completed?  Should I be stirring it everyday still but maybe not as vigorously as I have been?

I have some madagascar vanilla beans soaking in vodka right now to dose the mead at bottling time.

Thanks!

2

Not sure what my source is for this (NHC, podcast, mead induced dream?), but I of late degassing every day until about 50% fermentable consumed.  At that point you begin to worry about O2 doing harm.

3

I basically follow the steps in the link nateo posted in another topic. Here is the link…
http://www.ahaconference.org/wp-content/uploads/presentations/2008/KrisEngland_NHC.pdf