I pitched my yeast about two days ago, but my air lock seems to be moving the wrong way towards the mead instead of away. Any idea why?
Temperature probably. Someone else will have to give you a technical answer but a sudden drop in temperature can pull the airlock liquid into the fermenter.
thats what i thought at first. but there isn’t much temperature change in my basement. the only other thing i can think of is atmospheric pressure change. I’m a little more worried that its not fermenting. i have tried yeast activator and nutrients.
What is the gravity on it?
I’m not entirely sure. I will check once I get home. Unfortunately I’m stuck at work. Now how do you use the gravity to tell? I haven’t read much about te specifics of it but I would like to know. Or maybe you could refer me to a site where I could read about it.
Work. Bummer. Same here.
Well I wonder about the gravity because you said you worried it wasnt fermenting. Airlock activity isnt a great indicator of fermentation. Gravity is the only way to be sure your beer is fermenting or done fermenting.
That’s what I have been reading. So what’s a normal starting gravity? A little over one?
Starting Gravity can be anywhere you want depending on how high you want your alcohol content to be. My beers range from 1.050-1.110.
I believe you are really talking about Final Gravity? which varies depending on the yeast used, fermentability of the wort, fermentation temp, etc…
So an average beer will start with an Original Gravity of 1.050 ish and finish with an Final Gravity of 1.010 ish.
Does that make sense? The more sugar in your wort the higher your starting Gravity will be. The more sugars the yeast eat, the lower your gravity will become. So the only way to determine for sure if fermentation is going on is to know your starting gravity and take a reading a few days to a week in. If the number is lower, you have fermentation. Once you have the same reading over several days, fermentation is done.
So give every beer two weeks, then check gravity. Give it another two days. Check gravity again. if the number is the same youre ready to bottle or move to secondary
Okay. Thank you I appreciate it.
You bet. Keep searching this forum and things will make sense. Lots of good people with solid information here for you.
it started to ferment fairly well after about 5-6 days. i added nutrients and it looked like i added mentos to coke. i lost about 3/4 of an inch of my mead 
Oh bummer. At least you didnt lose all of it! I dropped a carboy full of mead once.
So I switched to a new Carboy and took my specific gravity and it was about 1.06 ish. Is that about normal?
I think so yes.
Did you pitch on 3-17 and take your reading on 4-3 ?
