Foam Explosion!

Okay, that didn't go as planned. I actually remembered to de-gas mead No. 13's must today -- twice! -- but things went completely awry on the second attempt.

This morning I went and de-gassed without incident, using my mixer with a cordless drill I stirred the must for about 5 minutes, and did so rather vigorously. However, this evening when I went to do the same thing before I added the second SNA addition, I had barely put the mixer into the must and turned it on when the foam rapidly rose and spilled over the side of the bucket. And kept spilling and spilling and spilling! What a mess! Fortunately, I did get it all on camera.

I'm not sure how much of the must I actually lost and though it was a lot of foam, comparatively speaking the amount of liquid it turned into on the counter (and cabinets and floor) didn't seem so much. Oh, sure, it was still a whole bunch, but certainly I'd say less than a quart, and probably closer to a pint.

After cleaning everything up, I stirred up the must again and there was hardly any foam left. After 5 minutes I added a 1/4 tsp. of energizer and 1/2 tsp. of DAP. I didn't mix it with any water, but added it right to the bucket and then mixed up the must again. Hopefully that was okay, but I was admittedly flustered by the foam explosion and wasn't quite thinking properly about procedure.

Tomorrow morning I'll de-gas the must again, but using much more care. As they say, the burned hand learns best.