My mead fermentation is stuck

DNisich · 05-28-2008, 04:27 AM

So I made a 1 gallon batch of JAO. I changed the recipe just a little in that I used Lalvin EC-1118 because I wanted to end up with a dry or nearly dry mead. I started at an OG of 1.067 and fermented down to 1.026 over about 5 months. I racked then to a secondary and topped up with a mix of honey and water that I boiled for a short while to sanitize. This bumped the gravity to 1.047.

Its been about 5 months since then and I've only fermented out about 3 gravity points to bring things down to about 1.044.

How about some input as to the top one or two things that other mead makers have done to remedy a stuck fermentation. So far, I read about adding some yeast nutrient.

Can anyone recommend anything else or in addition?

Thanks in advance,

Don

**david_42** · 05-28-2008, 03:15 PM

Yeast nutrient and fresh yeast is your best hope. Lalvin EC-1118 should have hit 1.010 in a couple weeks starting at 1.067. Honey is a nutritional wasteland.

malkore · 05-28-2008, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_42

Yeast nutrient and fresh yeast is your best hope. Lalvin EC-1118 should have hit 1.010 in a couple weeks starting at 1.067. Honey is a nutritional wasteland.

Bingo. either the honey you've got is loaded with non-fermentable sugars (which means it was 'fortified' artificially since regular, raw honey is VERY fermentable, but lacks nitrogen and nutrients yeast need to thrive).

specifically you need to add nitrogen, not just nutrient/vitamins (some nutrient blends have nitrogen, some don't).

yeast energizer would be a source of nitrogen.

at this point its gonna be rough...restarting fermentation when you're already at like 5% ABV...but its doable.

**BigKahuna** · 05-29-2008, 01:35 AM

and as a side note, the Bread yeast in JAOM will take it as dry as you can imagine. the one I did with bread yeast finished at .990...it didn't' taste very good...but it was dry.