7/19/2006

Metheglyn - the saga continues...

So, the metheglin stopped working a day or so ago. It went from a bubble in the airlock every 10 seconds to, well, none at all. Tonight, I racked it over into my glass fermenter. I imagine that'll kick start the SOB, and get fermentation going again. There was a moderate amount of carbonation in the thing, which I take to mean that fermentation is not completely dead. We'll have to wait and see if it kicks back up, or starts to settle.

I pulled off a glass as I transferred it (making a huge mess in the process), and the flavor was pretty good. Spice levels were about as I like (nice blend of cinnamon, ginger and clove, couldn't really taste much else), so I removed the spice sack (previously referred to as a haggis in the comments). The sweet/dry balance was in a nice range, too. If the fermentation is done, I won't complain. But if it has a way to go still, I could live with that, too.

Who knows? Maybe I'll be bottling around the time The Boy is born (but don't count on it!)

UPDATE: 4 1/2 days later, the mead is bubbling merrily away. I guess the fermentation had gotten stuck, and the oxygen added during racking kicked it back into gear. Either that, or I inadvertently added some strange bacteria which is merrily destroying my metheglin. Time will tell... but not soon. OTOH, there's already about an inch of sediment in the fermenter! I think I'll be racking this stuff back and forth for many a month.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Get me a sample and I'll tell you what's growing in there. :-) Typically if a fermentation is stuck introducing O2 isn't the best idea. What probably got it moving again was the agitation. A small increase in temp might help as well. Just don't go more than a few degrees or you end up with other issues.
BA

TheFishmonger said...

Thanks for the scientific view on this, BA! You may have overestimated the amount of forethought in any of my brew actions. I didn't intentioanlly add O2. About the only intentional thing I did was add yeast to watered down honey. And I had no idea if the fermentation was stuck, since I broke my hydrometer two batches ago. We'll let it go until it stops and hope for the best. Of course, this may result in spoiled mead, or mead bombs. Cest la vie! I plan to relax, don't worry, and have a brew (no homebrews being currently available).

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