Orange - "Normal" Fermentation begins

Today was the day! 5 Days after the process began "Vigorous" fermentation has slowed to a more normal pace. Also just as drastically as it took off, so too does it seem to be slowing at an alarming pace. This morning I went ahead and cleared out the airlock (again, I have been doing this almost every day since the "explosion" on day 2) I noticed that the bubbling was once about every 5 seconds. While this is more "normal" it is also alarming that the fermentation slowed so dramatically.

I also have a tremendous amount of lees in the bottom of the carboy already. This is also concerning. Lees means that the yeast are dying off. While this is a good thing overall (for clarity/flavor/bottling) dead yeast at this amount by day 5 is staggering. I will definitely need to take a gravity reading when I am done to see what the ABV ends up being.

As an aside the SMELL from this mead batch is WONDERFUL! I remember last year when I made this batch that there was a period of foul smell (about a week). The smell wasn't too pervasive so I thought it was ok and after that one week the smell turned to something like this, only not as strong. The smell from this batch is tremendous. I am keeping the batch in a small dark cabinet in our pantry and now when walking in (or even by sometimes) all one can smell is oranges and honey. Truly mead is the only beverage the Gods themselves would ingest.

I have very high hopes for this one to be done quick (2 weeks perhaps?), hit that ABV volume I always shoot for (12-14%), and taste pretty dang good!

I'll keep you posted!