corexcore

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Hey there, all. If anyone can give me any advice, it'd be much appreciated.

Background: I've got a one gallon batch of mgayer's blueberry mead going, on which I followed the recipe as closely as possible. This recipe calls for a step addition, adding honey to the mead once every 30 or so days, and the yeast it called for is Lalvin D-47. However, the home brew shop where I was when I started the mead didn't carry this, and having seen someone making a similar recipe with a Lalvin EC-1118, I opted for this. I've since gone back to school and the local homebrew shop here carries D-47.

The problem: About 5 days ago now I followed the recipe and racked the mead into a newly sanitized carboy with an adequate amount of honey on the bottom. After the 5 days have passed, the honey seems to have more or less been dissolved into the mixture, but I've yet to see any signs of active fermentation. I made sure the airlock cap was on tightly and watched it for over 3 minutes and saw no discernible movement in the water's level. I've read that EC-1118 is a fast fermenting yeast, faster than the D-47, and had wondered if giving it the same length of time between racking would damage the yeast. My assumption is that the length of time without any new food source has killed the yeast, or at least screwed it up. Now, since I've got D-47 available and that is supposed to give more desirable flavors for this mixture, I'm wondering: Should I make a starter with some of the mead and some water and pitch it with D-47 into the mead? Should I simply put some additional energizer and nutrient into the mix and hope that it comes around? or have people seen meads go this long or longer without signs of fermentation than come alive, indicating that I should wait some more?

Again, thanks for any advice that can be given.

Kauai_Kahuna

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By racking, you reduced the yeast population while increasing the Specific Gravity by racking onto more honey. In other words you shocked the hell out of the yeast, slowing them down, most likely by a couple of weeks.
They have most likely gone into a reproductive cycle, which will be difficult unless you added oxygen, nutrients and DAP.
I suggest reading through the sticky on the top, and review the stuck fermentation section to decide what would be best for you. Personally I would take a SG reading, wait two weeks, take another one and then decide.

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mosyslack

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+1... You will not always see signs of fermentation with a mead (air lock activity). If possible, take a SG reading and repeat after a week or two. After all, there is no real hurry on a mead.

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LightningInABottle

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Hey Core, I plan on using the same recipe and I plan on using EC-1118 like you did. On the initial ferment when did the bubbling die down? I also plan on racking on to more blueberries along with the honey. I was also planning on cutting the amount of honey that you rack on to in half. I'm watching this thread to see how yours comes along. Mine gets pitched next sunday.

corexcore

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Alright, thanks for the advice. I'll certainly wait a week or two and see what's going on. I was just concerned because I had seen signs of life again last time I racked onto honey, but that was after i think only a couple of weeks, wasn't sure if it may have died or something. I'm really wondering whether I should simply follow stuck fermentation instructions to try and re-energize this or use a new batch of the correct type of yeast. Even so, I've got a couple weeks to figure this out, I suppose, so its not so big of a deal.

Lightning, I don't really remember, as I don't keep an in depth log, but I seem to remember there being active bubbling activity in the airlock to some degree for about a week or more. After that, it settled to about 1 bubble every 30 seconds for a couple of days and then it seemed slower. I look forward to hearing how the blueberries added with racking goes, hopefully well. I didn't want to mess around with it, the original recipe sounded so good and it's my first home-brew ever ('though I've got some JAOM and cider going which will be drinkable much sooner), so I didn't want to mess around too much. Good luck!