The mead is ready. The bubbles stopped rising, the liquid is clear, and at the bottom of each 1 gallon jug is this:
Graveyard of a gazillion dead yeasts
DH likes the taste of it and had a whole glass while racking. I like it sweeter, so I racked one jar into a new jar with about a quart of freshly picked (local) raspberries and four tablespoons of honey. This officially makes it a melomel.
That should send it through one more round of fermentation and then I’ll bottle it.
The other jar I’ll bottle as is, to let it finish fermenting in the bottle, which will give it some extra fizz.
The biotech engineer in me is very happy.
My mead is 17 days in and the bottom looks like yours. Did I do something wrong? The recipe said it should take 4 months, after 3 I should rack it. Please any info would be helpful it’s my first mead.