placervilledan
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- Joined
- Sep 11, 2007
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Most of my posts so far have been of the, "...what did I do wrong?" kind. So being true to form, here is another:
I took five gallons of fresh juice (un-anythinged), yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and 5 campden tablets. I waited 24 hours, and pitched a WL sweat mead yeast. Gravity was 1.058. Nothing happened for a week. I asked the LHBS what had happened, and he said that I didn't wait long enough for the campden to disapate for the amount I had added. He figured that the mead yeast had been sterilized. He suggested that I pitch another yeast. So, I pitched the Lalvin 1118, and that time it worked. Smelled great, tasted great at racking.
SG was 1.000 when I racked to secondary. However, as I was racking, great big chunks of yeast were coming through the tube, which was situated right in the middle of the bucket. It continued to ferment in secondary which was fine, but now I have the following problems:
An "oily" kind of white film has developed on the top, which has little pieces of white sediment in it. It doesn't look like mold, just an oily film. It doesn't smell wierd, but their are little bubbles in some of white clumps of sediment that make them look like a kind of "zit". Gross.
There is yeast sediment immediately under the film. For a while, the little yeasties would float up and down. Now it looks like they are dropping out. If I bump the carboy a bunch of them will fall down a ways and then hover. Some will float back up, but I think that majority of them fall down, and overall it does appear to be clearing.
Is it possible that the mead yeast wasn't dead after all and combined with the 1118 to make something wierd? Or is this just the 1118 doing what it does? Is the oily film normal?
Did we really land on the moon?
I took five gallons of fresh juice (un-anythinged), yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and 5 campden tablets. I waited 24 hours, and pitched a WL sweat mead yeast. Gravity was 1.058. Nothing happened for a week. I asked the LHBS what had happened, and he said that I didn't wait long enough for the campden to disapate for the amount I had added. He figured that the mead yeast had been sterilized. He suggested that I pitch another yeast. So, I pitched the Lalvin 1118, and that time it worked. Smelled great, tasted great at racking.
SG was 1.000 when I racked to secondary. However, as I was racking, great big chunks of yeast were coming through the tube, which was situated right in the middle of the bucket. It continued to ferment in secondary which was fine, but now I have the following problems:
An "oily" kind of white film has developed on the top, which has little pieces of white sediment in it. It doesn't look like mold, just an oily film. It doesn't smell wierd, but their are little bubbles in some of white clumps of sediment that make them look like a kind of "zit". Gross.
There is yeast sediment immediately under the film. For a while, the little yeasties would float up and down. Now it looks like they are dropping out. If I bump the carboy a bunch of them will fall down a ways and then hover. Some will float back up, but I think that majority of them fall down, and overall it does appear to be clearing.
Is it possible that the mead yeast wasn't dead after all and combined with the 1118 to make something wierd? Or is this just the 1118 doing what it does? Is the oily film normal?
Did we really land on the moon?
