First Attempt at Staggered Nutrient Additions

I've never done staggered nutrient additions (SNA) before, having always just put in DAP and yeast energizer in at the original yeast pitching. But as I've read up on the subject more, it looks like it can help improve the taste of the mead so I'm willing to give it a shot.

Now the method I'm using looks like a basic formula for adding nutrients, and I know there are more advanced strategies for it, but just as my very first mead had no nutrients added -- following the Storm the Castle recipe, it was just a basic, dead-simple mead-making technique -- and my first nutrient additions were an all-at-once method, my first SNA attempt is basic too.

According to Bray Denard, this first introduction to SNA is simple: take your starting gravity reading, divide it into thirds, and as the gravity readings hit each one of these "breaks," you add more nutrients.

For example, if you SG is 1.099, you divide it into thirds and as the sugars break at each interval -- at 1.066 and 1.033 -- you add the nutrients in equal amounts. He recommends the original nutrient additions as 1/4 tsp. DAP and 1/2 tsp. Fermaid-K, and each supplemental feeding is done in the same amounts.

For meads No. 11 and No. 12, my SG readings were 1.084 and 1.094, respectively, meaning the first "sugar breaks" would occur at 1.056 and 1.063, respectively. When I took my gravity readings today, two days after having pitched the yeast, No. 11 was right on the money; No. 12 had already dropped to 1.040. I'm not sure why that is, but could it be that No. 11 is my pumpkin spice mead and the spices and cinnamon stick slowed it down? No. 12 just had 25 raisins in it (No. 11 had 1 oz. of raisins, which was appreciably more).

So I added the DAP and energizer to both musts, having swirled both beforehand in an effort to churn up some yeast that may have settled while also degassing a bit. I'll continue swirling and taking gravity readings this week as recommended and see what happens. The goal is to get the gravity down to 1.000 as quickly but efficiently as possible so that no off tastes occur from the yeast producing "fusels." Should be an interesting experiment.