Bradinator

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Hey all,

I have been fighting for the past week to get my mead to unstick. Its been sitting at 1.060 (down from 1.096) since Saturday and I have tried several things to get it going again.

The recipe is pretty simple.

7KG of honey
5G Boiled and cooled water
2tsp of yeast nutrient (yeast hulls)
EC-1118 yeast, rehydrated in 1 cup of must with 1tsp of energizer/nutrient

I stirred this thing vigorously to get the CO2 out daily for a week and added additional nutrients as per the instructions in the mead making FAQ. I noticed it was stuck the last time I added nutrients and found a very minimal amount of CO2 during the stirring.

Here is what I did in order (some were obviously not thought out well) to try and revive it.

1) Add more nutrient, stir the hell out of it (again).
2) Repitched fresh dry yeast.
3) Make a mead re-starter (2 cups of the must, 1tsp of nutrient and 1tsp of yeast, EC-1118 yeast, 12 hours later I pitched it)
4) Warmed the must as its quite cool in the basement (62F)

Now before I make it worse, I was planning to try to aerate the must either by trying to inject it with an auto-siphon. Failing that I am unsure what else I can do... Maybe split the batch into two carboys and rack it onto some juice?

Or did I panic and act too soon? This is the first time I have dealt with a stuck fermentation. Suddenly All-grain beer seems so much easier then mead...

__________________
"There is only two ways do to something; The smart way or the hard way."

"Beer is pretty resilient stuff, its resistant to human stupidity"

lawpaw

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Do you have a pH meter? Traditional mead is notorious for pH drops. You could try some potassium carbonate to see if that helps.

Insomniac

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That OG looks a little low for the amount of honey, but I should still think that 1118 would be able to get it dry.
Did the starter actually show signs of activity before you pitched it?

Bradinator

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Oh yeah, the starter definitely was fermenting before I pitched it into the mead.

The OG is about right, because that is 5 gallons of water on top of the 7KG of honey. The total volume was around 6 gallons.

Do you think boiling the water may have driven out the oxygen?

__________________
"There is only two ways do to something; The smart way or the hard way."

"Beer is pretty resilient stuff, its resistant to human stupidity"

GinKings

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I think the yeast are on a hunger strike after all the crap you've been doing to them this week. Either that, or you beat them to death with all that stirring.

When did you start this batch?
What type of nutrients are you using?

I don't think I'd panic just yet. You had an active fermentation and it sounds like you stirred quite a bit, so I wouldn't worry too much about aerating.

I've read that it's not good to rehydrate yeast with nutrient. I believe the DAP in many nutrient mixes can cause problems at that stage.

Flumpy

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Lalvin says don't rehydrate with DAP, it's baaaad.

IMHO best to rehydrate with nothing but warm tap water

But I'm gonna guess it was the constant stirring over a week that messed it up. Guys, people were making this stuff 10,000 years ago before they could even talk in complete sentences. The only way to botch it is to overthink it.

GinKings

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I think there are lots of other ways.

Bradinator

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I am a bit confused now... I thought degassing mead was a good idea to keep the yeast from going toxic from the CO2? I also got the idea for the mead starter from the brewmaster (meadmaster?) at the local meadery which is what he does for all of his meads.

Anyway, that aside, we know what I did wrong, what can I do to wake it up? Or should I just wait it out a bit?

__________________
"There is only two ways do to something; The smart way or the hard way."

"Beer is pretty resilient stuff, its resistant to human stupidity"

liquiditynerd

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Since your gravity is so high I think you have p.entry of options. I know it's stuck but mead and patience go hand in hand. I am wondering about two things, the degassing and the yeast nutrient. The nutrient you have may not be enough. I usually do melomels and the fruit helps with that. I also use food grade urea and ammonium phosphate. 1 tsp. Per gallon.

If it is possible to rack to another vessel you may be able to introduce some oxygen that will also invigorate the fermentation.

Also the kg to gallon is killing me. we need to go metric and join the world of common sense.

Hope that helps?

__________________
....just add water.....

GinKings

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I was joking about stirring your yeast to death. You're right, stirring (to remove CO2 and aerate) during the early part of fermentation is good to do.

Many meadmakers, myself included, rehydrate with Go Ferm. That's different than nutrient, which usually has DAP in it. I'm not going to pretend to know why it's bad. Something about DAP being an inorganic form of nitrogen that's tough on yeast prior to fermentation starting. I've done what you did before with no ill effects. So, who knows? After fermentation starts, DAP is great.

What type of nutrient are you using? Is it white or tan powder? You mentioned yeast hulls. Is that it or is it a nutrient blend?

When did you start this batch?