Christmas Pudding flavoured mead ? part 3

I nearly forgot to post this bit....

I followed the recipe as per how Duffbeer at WaH posted onto the day 2 part. I didn't take gravity reading for the day 1 part as I was just blindly following the recipe (which is always a mistake, you can never have too much info for recipe/fermentation management).

So, with the day 2 part, I just kept adding the honey, but as I was too lazy to try and melt some of the crystalised bit, instead of ending up at the 1.130 point as suggested, I ended up with 1.140 - though I'm not concerned with that as the yeast is supposed to be capable of 21% ABV which is 154/155 point gravity drop. So as long as I get more than 133, which is 18%, any residual sugars would just mean that I add less to back sweeten with it's finished.

Not last wednesday my curiosity got the better of me and I managed to remove a sample without any fruit or other debris to affect a hydrometer reading. I got a gravity of about 1.080 so it's on it's way down nicely.

I'll test again today and see where it's at. If it's not down to about the 1.030 area I'll probably put the brew belt round the bucket to warm it up a bit, as the dining room averages at about 18 to 19C - the brew belt would bring it up to 24C. And on the basis that "reds" prefer slightly warmer ferments than most whites (when considering grape musts/wines), it shouldn't be an issue, though I'll have a read around to see if there's any downside to this, I might even just drop an extra Q over at WaH too see if they thing that there's anything wrong with this "master plan"......