Mead questions

OK, I’m not at all experienced at mead making, so tell me if I’ve royally botched this mead. I made it 8 days ago, aerated with pure O2, added the requisite yeast energizer and yeast nutrient and left it alone until today. Then I suddenly recalled reading something about degassing it, so I ran down into the basement and swirled it around a lot and it foamed like crazy. I did this twice with the airlock removed since it was really blowing off gas. Anyway, I’ve read that I should have added yeast nutrient at some other points in time that I think have already passed, and degassing should have been done twice a day every day since I made it. My current concern is should I just keep degassing every day, add more yeast nutrient now, or just let it be? The S.G. was 1.107 and it’s at 1.062, which bothered me, thinking it should have been lower, but what do I know? I used Red Star champagne yeast, BTW. Can anyone offer some thoughts on this procedure and recommend what I should do from here out? I could read a book, but if someone can make some quick suggestions for the near term, I’d appreciate it.

Even with nutrients, a big mead takes a lot longer to ferment than beer. I wouldn’t sweat it. If you added the full amount of nutrient, I probably wouldn’t worry about adding more. Just degas everyday. If it’s still putting off CO2, it is still fermenting.

You can make perfectly good mead w/o nutrient at all. It just takes a lot longer.

Yeah, what Frank said. The happier you keep your yeast during fermentation, the less off-flavors will be generated by them. Staggered nutrient addition keeps them growing at a consistent, slower rate compared to giving them all the nutrients right up front. Degassing to remove CO2 helps keep the pH from getting acidic, which can make the yeast unhappy. Degassing and staggered nutrient addition typically leads to a mead that is drinkable more quickly then not doing these things. Sounds like the fermentation is still going if you are only at 1062.

I used a champ[agne yeast for this mead and after 12 days the gravity has only dropped form 1.107 to 1.052 and the air lock is really not moving much. Should I throw in some other type of yeast to help it out?