My1st batch... is it already screwed up?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Well...we need more info first. From the photos you can't really tell too much. What are you making, what are your ingredients? If it's only been a day and you've followed proper sanitizing and yeast rehydrating instructions you should see some action soon. Just be patient.
 
Guns N Roses my friend. You need a little patience.

Is that a 5 gallon carboy? You may want to invest in a blow off tube.

Edit: Sorry I didn't realize this is mead. I have know idea what I'm talking about.
 
Can't see anything in that pic. Without knowing anything at all about what caused you to ask this question, I will say don't worry about it and wait it out.
 
Looks fine to me.
my last mead took 3 days before it fired on all cylinders.

Mead is magic, chaos and hatred in a golden, tasty form.
mead requires patience.

wait.
 
Thank you so much for all the comments :)
My concern comes from the fat that there is stuff floating in the middle of the carboy...
it just looks like there is something growing there and this is not what I've observed from others that happens, thus my concern.
Ingredients:
16 gal of orange blossom honey
3 lemons -acid
3 bags of black tea -tannin
8 bags of green tea added at the last 15 min of on stove brewing
The Yeast is Sweet Whine and Mead Yeast from White Labs.

Also I kept my yeast in the freezer not the fridge, I did defrost them (on their own) before putting them in. it said on the vial that the yeast will take 5-15 hrs to start doing stuff...
So it's been over 24 at this point so I'm a bit concerned

What's a blow off tube? I've got an airlock on it do i need something else?
 
well i cooked it.... i believe you are not supposed to actually boil it.
 
wait a minute wait a minute....you have 5 gallons of water and you put in 16 gallons of honey?

I hope you mean 16 pounds... mainley because that would be about 3 1/5 pounds per gallon of water and youd be alright... and you would have only spent about 50 dallors on honey... but if you put it 16 gallons your OG in through the fuggin roof, hell it would be a fuggin sky scraper its gonna be like 3.00 not 1.030 but 3.00 which means it would never ferment... if it is 16 gallons you put in 3 1/5 gallons per gallon which would be sicne a gallon of honey weights 12 pounds then you put in over 36 pounds of honey per gallon of water... i hope you put in 16 pounds and not 16 gallons... in that case you may still have a slightly too high OG which will take time to start or you may have to divide your batch in half and see if it starts on its own or repinch your yeast

Cheers
 
By cooked it, you mean the honey or both the honey water and Yeast? If the temp of the yeast goes over 90 degrees or so it dies. You may have some dead yeast, in which case the solotion is to just pitch some new yeast. I recomend taking some of the must into a cup and putting the yeast in that for 15 min to an hour before tossing it, should foam up nicely before you toss.
 
ooops... yeah.... 16lbs of honey for 4 gallons of water

I'm just worried that me freezing the yeast was a problem
 
By cooked it, you mean the honey or both the honey water and Yeast? If the temp of the yeast goes over 90 degrees or so it dies. You may have some dead yeast, in which case the solotion is to just pitch some new yeast. I recomend taking some of the must into a cup and putting the yeast in that for 15 min to an hour before tossing it, should foam up nicely before you toss.

I didn't cook the yeast I added them in once the whole thing cooled down to room temp.
 
Never used liquid yeast, so I am not sure how bad the freezer treated them. If it doesn't start fermenting within 72 hours of pitching, then start worrying. And by worrying, I of course mean start driving to the LHBS to pick up a packet of dry yeast. Pitch the dry yeast and you out to be fine.

Oh and of course he meant 16 lbs, he gave us a picture. If he managed to put 16 gals of honey and 4 or 5 gals into a carboy, he would have the biggest carboy I've ever heard of... haha
 
LOL
actually there was this Guy in NJ giving away 14 gallon Carboys/ bottle things for $30 on ebay.
Thank you so much for all the advice and support :) I'll let you know what happens in the next couple of days
 
I agree with the rest too...I don't think I would have frozen a liquid yeast. wait another day yet..and if still no activity...get a packet or 2 of dry yeast...rehydrate according to the pack directions and pitch it in...that should get it going.

Dan
 
+1 on flyweed,
I would rock the carboy to shake things up, give it five days to get it's act together.
What is floating around is most likely "yeasty / things" settling in on the tea and other items added. I don't think the yeast are dead, but highly challenged, that is a pretty high OG must, with thawed frozen yeast.
Now this is a true test of how resistant and vibrant commercial versions of yeast are.
Please keep us posted on how it goes, mostly because I thought I used and abused my yeast, this makes me look good! :)
 
Lol :)

Well here is an update: there was foam for the first 2 days now the foam is gone, but the airlock is bubbling every 3 to 4 sec, atleast in 1 Mississippi counts it is. and there are little bubbles rising to the top. So as far as i can tell it's doing something. I'll wait an see.
*learning patience*
 
With that much honey it takes awhile for the yeast to get going. Next time try adding the honey in increments once a week to get the final 16 lbs. Something like starting with 10lbs and every week after add 2lbs. That doesn't overwhelm the yeast and decreases it's lag time. As you say, patience!!!!!! And I don't think yeast in the freezer is good, fridge yes.
 
With that much honey it takes awhile for the yeast to get going. Next time try adding the honey in increments once a week to get the final 16 lbs. Something like starting with 10lbs and every week after add 2lbs. That doesn't overwhelm the yeast and decreases it's lag time. As you say, patience!!!!!! And I don't think yeast in the freezer is good, fridge yes.

i keeping on kicking myself for that one cause they arrived in the mail and i was all excited Yay! i can start brewing pulling out the thing with the icepack still in bubble wrap and just tossed them into the freezer. and didn't think twice about it until i pulled them out to pitch.
and I'm not even blonde! :eek:
 
With that much honey it takes awhile for the yeast to get going...
Sorry, but I'll have to respectfully disagree with that notion... ;)

Adding 16 lbs of honey to 4 gallons of water only creates a must whose OG is ~1.106. Virtually, every mead I make has an OG over 1.100. In my experience, unless the OG is above 1.130, no special treatment is needed to ensure fermentation starts within 8-24 hours of pitching the yeast.

Only once have I had to take special care of a mead, and that mead had a 1.170 OG. :D

To achieve this success, I adhere to these standard practices:
  • Pitch properly rehydrated (w/ Go-Ferm), dry yeast
  • Add staggered nutrients
  • Add no acid to the must in any form before fermentation is complete
  • Use 5g potassium bicarbonate/carbonate per 5 gal batch
  • Ensure the fermentation area ambient temperature is above 65°F
 
the only thing that i really got various suggestion on was how to add the green tea to must. One person suggested that i only toss the bags into after the 1st racking at the last month of the in carboy fermentation.
The other suggestion which is what i will be following: add the green tea to must on stove 15 min prior to turning it off and then every time i rack and loose some of the liquid it was suggested i brew green tea and add that to fill the carboy back up. This is to prevent the overwhelming bitterness that the green tea can have.
Also i do not use any chemical components, only natural stuff.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top