For my Marine friend returning home: Viking Blood Mead!!!

[Teufel Hunden]

I am intrigued by the process.

so....you add the previously mentioned ingredients to a large jug and then what? Just let it sit for four months?

Basically yes. With mead you add some extra nutrients throughout the process, but regardless you're just waiting for the yeast to do its stuff.

What is the primary and secondary you mention?

Primary fermentation is where the yeast does all or most of its work. How long it stays here depends on a number of factors, but generally speaking, you'd leave it until the yeast had run out of sugar to consume and stopped.

The secondary is just the second vessel, and you can rack (syphon from one to the next) the mead into a vessel with some fruit or other flavors as I did here, or you just transfer it to let it naturally clear. Mead can be here for months and months... some guys even let it sit for a year or more before doing anything with it. Here's an example of a spiced pumpkin mead that has been in the secondary for a couple of months:



It's clearing up very well. All that on the bottom is just dormant yeast. Eventually I'll rack the mead off of that and just let it sit for a while longer before bottling.

How do you know when it is done?

You know when fermentation is done by taking hydrometer readings. If readings go unchanged for a few days, the yeast is finished. When you go to secondary or things beyond, when it's finished depends on the individual mead and the taster. After a few months, you can give it a taste, and if it's not quite right, give it another month, etc.

How do you stop the fermentation pricess?

Fermentation stops on its own either when the yeast runs out of available sugar, or when the particular strain of yeast reaches its alcohol tolerance. The yeast I used for the Viking Blood has a limit of about 16% alcohol. Or, if you have a particular goal in mind in regards to sugar or alcohol content, you can stop fermentation by adding a stabilizer like Potassium Sorbate.