The first jug that the basic mead was in was an amber one, which meant that I couldn't really tell what was going on with it. How much it was still fermenting or how much lees (sediment) had build up. The latter of the two made me really paranoid. I could sorta see what I had thought was a large build up of lees and after reading in several places that leaving the mead on the lees too long it could ruin it I decided to risk racking it early just to get it out of the amber jug. Then I learned after racking it that some people leave their musts on the lees for extended period of times without any negative effect and that racking tends to be more personal preference/opinion then anything else.
During the first week or so of fermentation the airlock was giving off this sweet delicious scent that I hoped the mead would retain. But I was rather disappointed when I popped off the airlock and smelled a rather brutal medicine like scent. I had head about this before and it should be (I hope) something that can be aged out. I racked it into the jug that was shown last post. And as I got to the bottom there was hardly any lees at all! I guess that I over reacted for nothing and should have stuck with the home brewing expression DWRAHAHB (Don't Worry, Relax and Have a Home Brew).
I took a gravity reading as I racked it and got a 1.030, the yeast I used should bring it all the way down to 1.000. So I'm going to take another reading this weekend to see if it's finished or not. One thing I learned after I racked it was not rack until fermentation had finished completely... because if you rack it too early you end up leaving behind a lot of the healthy yeast that would be fermenting away. I also tossed in some more nutrient in order to help the yeasties out, to only learn today that you shouldn't put any in after the mead has gone more then half way >_<
Oh well, it's the first batch and I can't expect everything to smoothly. I just hope that it doesn't take forever to age the suck out.
Next post will be about the ginger beer plant I made.
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