First time alcohol fermenter - mead issues

[michilius]

All,
I've been lacto fermenting for a year or so now, and I just got Sandor Katz's new Art of Fermentation book. He recommends mead as a good recipe to try out for making alcoholic beverages the first time, so I decided to give it a try.

I went to my local natural food store and got this brand of honey

http://www.reallyrawhoney.com/

It has bits of pollen and honeycomb at the top, but I just mixed it all in our tap water which comes out of a reverse osmosis filter system in a ratio of 4 to 1. It's in an open air glass container that is covered with a cloth and is in my kitchen which we keep at about 73 degrees.

I've been mixing it about three times a day to oxygenate it as Sandor recommends, and have been doing so for 5 days and I have yet to see a bubble indicating fermentation, and it still smells the same, no alcohol smell.

I'm wondering what I might be doing wrong? Is it the pollen bits? Should I use filtered water from the store instead? Should I put it in the carbon with the airlock? What do you all suggest?

Thanks in advance for your help...

[Christopher Weeks]

Tim will come by and give you better advice than I could, but for clarification, is that four parts honey and one part water or the reverse?

[michilius]

4 parts water, 1 part honey :)

[Tim Hall]

Yeah, honey can actually be tough sometimes. I almost always go ahead and pitch a yeast in my meads.

A little bit of pollen won't hurt anything - I've even used it as a yeast nutrient. What might be causing the problem is a substance called 'propolis.' That's what the dark colored junk in the honey is. (BTW this would have been considered peasant honey back in the day. Crazy what they charge for the stuff.)

Propolis (plant resins the bees gather) is actually good for you, but it's bad for microbes. If you don't have fermentation, there's no point putting it in the carboy yet. Safest bet would be to add yeast. Otherwise you could try adding some no-pesticide/un-sulfured fruit for a wild yeast. But it sounds like you're going to have to add something to get it going.

Honey actually doesn't want to ferment on it's own, it resists microbial action. Drunk bees are not very productive pollinators.

[michilius]

I'll try adding some fruit first. What would you recommend? Does organic fruit at whole foods make the cut?

[Tim Hall]

Yeah, that'll work. Fruits that have a natural bloom on them (powdery coating) likes grapes, plums are good. But any fruit that sounds good in wine or mead will have some yeasts on it. Herbs will also carry yeasts.

If it comes down to it, you can even use plain old bread yeast. Not an ideal choice, but it'll work.

Have you tasted it just to see what's happening?

[Christopher Weeks]

I'd use organic raisins and apple peels but I always have those in the house.

[michilius]

Lo and behold!

We have bubbles and fizz this morning. Really picks up when I mix it around.

I added some organic plum and apple peels last night and now we have some actual fermentation going on. It smells great, and tastes like honey water with a slight bite.

Thanks for the advice!

[michilius]

So I've been stirring the mead for about two weeks in an open mouthed jar that is about 8 inches in diameter, usually 2-3 times per day. Every time I mix it it bubbles up about a half inch to an inch of bubbles in thickness, however, it doesn't really bubble much at all when It is sitting there by itself. Of late, it is getting a little less vigorous in terms of bubbling.

I bought a hydrometer yesterday and the specific gravity was 1.093. Then, I racked it into a one gallon carboy, and put the stopper and airlock on top. Left on its own, a bubble came through the airlock every couple minutes, but would become briefly vigorous if I shook the carboy around.

Just wanted to know what people think about the situation. The contents of the liquid is 2 pounds of honey, 2 plums worth of peels, 2 apples worth of peels and water that takes up the entire volume to about .8 gallons.

Should I leave it in primary fermentation for longer? Should I add some more yeasty fruit to kick the fermentation up? Should I add more honey? More water? Should I keep it in secondary?

Any thoughts are appreciated, and I'm particularly interested in hearing more about what you think is going on...

[Christopher Weeks]

How's it taste?