I’m currently fermenting my 1st mead ever. After one week my fermentation got stuck, so I racked to secondary and added more energizer and yeast nutrient. I’m using wyeast sweat mead yeast. Ever since racking it has been fermenting away. It has been 2 months now and is still showing signs of fermentation. What is the time table for a semi-sweet hydromel mead. I was thinking that it should have been done by now.
It will be done when it’s done as long as it’s not stuck. That said, the mead’s I have done have finished in 2-4 weeks with primary fermentation (though my temps may have been too high).
What was your OG, current FG, yeast pitched and nutrient schedule?
Check the attenuation percentages against the expected/desired and taste a sample. If you like the flavor, then its done. Add acid, preservatives (if desired) & bottle.
OG was 1.047 gravity when it was stuck was 1.034. I’m going to check the gravity again this weekend and see where it is at. Look at it a minute ago and it has really started to clear up nicely and fermentation has really slowed down so, I think I will give it another week or 2 and bottle. I’ve thought about making this a sparkling, but not sure about the amount of priming sugar to use for a mead. Think I might just play it safe and just leave it as a still since its my first one.
What was your recipe? That seems like a pretty low OG for a mead.
It was around 3.75 lbs honey to 3 gallons water, plus nutrients and energizer. It was just a table mead so the OG is supposed to be low from what i’ve read.
Checked gravity today it was down to .998. Guess its going to be a dry mead. Still fermenting, but super slow. Probably drop temp on it down to 60 to clarify in the next week or so.
After it’s done fermenting you can backsweeten it if you like.