Do I have a Stuck Fermentation?

Hello all been reading the forums awhile and just realized I never registered when I went to ask for help...

Here's the Recipe that I pitched 8 days ago...

Cherry/Vanilla/Cinnamon

8 lbs of honey
24 oz Of Dark Sweet Cherries
138 oz of 100% Cherry Juice
4 Sticks Cinnamon
½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient
2 teaspoons Yeast Energizer
1 teaspoon Petic Enzyme
1 Teaspoon Grape Tannin
2 Teaspoons Acid Blend

Lavin D-47 Yeast

Target SG: 1.076
10.24% ABV

Starting SG: 1.170


After 8 days there's is no bubbling... Is it stuck? Should I add Nutrients again and/or Pitch in some 118?

Can you check the gravity? That is the only way to know for sure how much fermentation has occured. Also, did you really overshoot your SG by ~0.100 or is there a typo in there somewhere?

With a mead of this ABV, you are safe to let it sit in primary for at least a month (or longer) to get those last few gravity points. Getting antsy after 8 days does not work out well in mead-land.

The Must when I pitched the yeast was 1.170

The Target SG is 1.076 which will be 10.24% ABV

So it has to ferment down to 1.076...

Or am I all messed up?

I'm gonna have to go look at my hydrometer...

It really isn't bubbling anymore after 8 days...

I'll have to check the SG later tonight...

I hope you realise that the cloyingly sweet dessert type meads only have a final of about the 1.040 sort of area.

1.076 is gonna be like syrup........

If you added some nutrients to knock it down to the yeast tolerance and D47, it tops out at about 14%. So you'll still have enough residual sugars for it to be very sweet....

I wanted a very sweet Mead...

Ugh ok I read the Hydro wrong...

Starting SG was 1.070

I think I am ok...in 8 days it went down to SG 1.010

So the yeast rocked the sugar that quick huh?

I think I am good to go and just gonna follow my 1st rack at 30 days...

Am I right?

DonMcJr said:

I wanted a very sweet Mead...

I think I am ok...in 8 days it went down to SG 1.010

So the yeast rocked the sugar that quick huh?

I think I am good to go and just gonna follow my 1st rack at 30 days...

Am I right?

Click to expand...

Your readings are incorrect. You couldn't have started at 1.170 and finished at 1.010. It's not possible, so I'm not sure what advice to give now.

Your "target SG is 1.076". Is that where your mead started? That would seem reasonable. To go from 1.076 to 1.010 in 8 days isn't fast at all. Any yeast can easily do that. It should go down to .990 before it's done, if it did start at 1.076.

DonMcJr said:

I wanted a very sweet Mead...

Ugh ok I read the Hydro wrong...

Starting SG was 1.070

I think I am ok...in 8 days it went down to SG 1.010

So the yeast rocked the sugar that quick huh?

I think I am good to go and just gonna follow my 1st rack at 30 days...

Am I right?

Click to expand...

Yooper said:

Your readings are incorrect. You couldn't have started at 1.170 and finished at 1.010. It's not possible, so I'm not sure what advice to give now.

Your "target SG is 1.076". Is that where your mead started? That would seem reasonable. To go from 1.076 to 1.010 in 8 days isn't fast at all. Any yeast can easily do that. It should go down to .990 before it's done, if it did start at 1.076.

Click to expand...

Ok, so it looks like Yooper spotted the issue. My reply was based on your first figures.

So, given the 1.070 start, not 1.170, Yooper is (as usual), spot on. It's not that fast.

What I will add, is that with SG of 1.070, it's most likely that it will ferment dry. So you should be just leaving it as it is for the moment, and looking up about stabilising and back sweetening.

For back sweetening, I'd suggest that once you've stabilised, you do this in small increments, as it's easy to got over the top.

Sure you say you're aiming at a sweet mead, but there's a point where it goes from "yum yum", to bleargh.......:smack: