Huh....And I thought making mead was simple...

Thought I'd take a crack at making mead.

Grabbed Charlie P's Antipodial Mead Recipe from The Joy of Homebrewing.

Made it, without the nutrients & gypsum, and one pack of yeast which didnt rehydrate to well it seemed.

That was Sunday. I havent seen any action, except once Ive swirled it in the carboy, there appears to be a little co2 pressure escaping.

Because I RDWHAHB'd I didnt get a OG. Gotmead.coms calc estimates about 1.108.

Im toying with ordering a vial of whitelabs mead yeast, making a starter and tossing that in.....or am I hopelessly too impatient?

What yeast did you use?

Lalvin D47?

If you have a homebrew store near by you can get some lalvin 1118 redstar 1116 and see if they work, I had a similar situation with a way over sweet mead I'm making and 71b wouldn't start in it but 1116 started partying in less then an hour. On the other hand you could have just had bad yeast ( which it kinda sounds like) if your set on that yeast or just have more packs try and repitch. Just make sure you are stalled and not just slow

How do I tell the difference?

You should be ok with D47 in a must of that OG... Get some nutrient and yeast energizer and give it the amount it recommends on the bottles (per gallon of must). Aerate/degas it and see what it does in another day or three. Sometimes the yeast needs more time, when you don't properly rehydrate it before pitching.

I would NOT use either EC-1118 or K1-V1116 as bodhi86 posted, since it's still too early to give up on the D47. If anything, get another packet of D47, hydrate it, add the energizer and nutrient to the must, and then pitch it in.

BTW, I have found that the methods for making mead in Charlie P's book are very out-dated and really not followed these days. Read up on the Got Mead? forums about making your initial batches and you'll see what I mean. I do hope you didn't boil the must, or use Irish Moss in it. Irish Moss has zero place in mead.

Uhhmmmm

[pokerface] I didnt boil the must or use irish moss [/pokerface]

Got a link to the energizer and nutrients to use?

Whitey70 said:

Uhhmmmm

[pokerface] I didnt boil the must or use irish moss [/pokerface]

Got a link to the energizer and nutrients to use?

Click to expand...

Saw right through that 'pokerface'... oy vey

Example of Energizer and another source. Fermax nutrient is good, as is DAP

In my current batches, I used Fermax and the energizer, adding it prior to pitching the rehydrated yeast in. They all did really well. I also hit them with pure O2 before pitching, simply because I'm setup for it and would rather give more O2 at the start if possible.

I also picked up a pound of both Fermax and energizer from the LHBS I shop at. Came out to be much cheaper than getting even close to the same volume one bottle at a time ($10 for a pound, as opposed to $2 per 2oz bottle). Put it into a good, sealed, container and the pound will keep for a long time (or until you use it up). Austin has it for a really good rate too.

Sounds like you had some bad yeast. I've done 3 batches and never had a problem, never used energizer or nutrient, just raisins torn in half.

If it's not bubbling slightly when you rehydrate then something's wrong IMHO.

When crashing a car, its usually a rubbish drivers fault, and not because "the metal was soft".

Just chuck some K1V-1116 ! You know it makes sense, and you know you want too..........

I don't know about the moss but boiling wouldn't have hurt it, and I thought I was pretty clear that it sounded like a bad yeast pack, and to be sure it wasn't just a slow ferment, I've had pretty good luck boiling my must and not boiling my must, but I don't have but three meads goin so far so my word is far from gospel.

Rule 1 for mead making: NEVER ever ever ever ever ever ever boil your must.

Now then.

Can you tell us what ratio of honoey to water you used? If the gravity was very high you can shock the yeast and it will stall before even getting started. Also, not rehydrating dry yeast when making mead can also lead to a pre-start stall.

And of course, bodhi86 could be right, prehaps you just got a bad pack of yeast.

Whitey70 said:

Thought I'd take a crack at making mead.

Grabbed Charlie P's Antipodial Mead Recipe from The Joy of Homebrewing.

Made it, without the nutrients & gypsum, and one pack of yeast which didnt rehydrate to well it seemed.

That was Sunday. I havent seen any action, except once Ive swirled it in the carboy, there appears to be a little co2 pressure escaping.

Because I RDWHAHB'd I didnt get a OG. Gotmead.coms calc estimates about 1.108.

Im toying with ordering a vial of whitelabs mead yeast, making a starter and tossing that in.....or am I hopelessly too impatient?

Click to expand...

I think a dose of yeast nutrient/energizer/D.A.P. & a little more time should do the trick, maybe a gentle stir.
Regards, GF.

As stated aerating and adding nurtient can only be helpful. But truly you need to take a gravity reading to see if its been fermenting at all.

Take a reading and use the estimated original gravity reading you got from GotMead to determine where you are at. Then you can proceed.

Also keep in mind that mead does not ferment like a beer. Signs of fermentation are far less pronounced.

Thanks for the feedback guys. It appears fermentation has lifted off. Really subdued, but theres a bubble every second which is up from one every 2 secs last night. What are the next steps?

patience...

What he said /\

Patience, Ive got no problem with, its just that Ive read folks talk about oxygenating the stuff, racking from one fermenter to another...etc etc. So, aside from the patience, whats the next move andvwhen ?

Ive also stolen my wife's wine carboy, she wants it back in about 2 weeks,

Seriously, it's waiting. Primary can take from 2 weeks up to months, you rack at secondary which is either when itssitting on alot of lees ( like an inch or more) or when it startsto clear, orwhen it starts to slow down once fermentation takes off. There are many different times depending on the recipe to rack out. You canstep feed, aerate, and degas until then, but none of those things are actually completely necessary, albeit strongly encouraged.

ok, its been 2.5 weeks since I made the mead, and theres been no activity in the airlock. Took an SG with a thief, and got 1.020, which in the sweet mead range. I moved the mead , yeast and all into a different carboy, because my wife wants hers back for her wine. Thought that it might touch off fermentation again, although I dont want the SG to drop a whole lot more.

Whats next? Kill the yeast? Rack to thirdary?

You could stabilise with camden and sorbate, would ensure that it doesn't start up again. But realistically your now waiting for it to clear and racking when ever there is a load of lees.

just let it sit, for as long as you can. IMO no need to stabilize @ this point. Just let it sit and do its thing. Don't open carboy, no sampling, no testing, no smelling, no additions, no nothin , only rack when you feel like its absolutely needed- this is when you steal a sample.