48 fruitless hours

I have been waiting two solid days and have yet to see any bubbling in my mead i used this recipe
1lb honey
12 cloves
1 cup strong tea
1 juiced lemon
yeast

Any ideas explaining the delay?
This is my first mead

Could you clarify what kind of yeast you used? Is this one gallon of mead?
You might need some sort of yeast nutrient. I've heard of people throwing raisins into batches similar to yours for yeast nutrition (unless you happen to have yeast nutrient on-hand, which is probably not the case).

Where did you find this recipe? Looks similar to, but not exactly like this one http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm

Unless this is a 2-liter batch, you aren't going to get very much from 1 pound of honey, and unless this is a 12-gallon batch, you've got so much clove in this that clove is all you are ever going to taste (and your tongue will probably go numb after the first sip).

With that said it still should be fermentable. How did you mix and add the yeast? What type of yeast is it? What temperature are you keeping it?

It is distinctly possible that the lemon juice has dropped the pH quite low as you have very little honey or anything else to buffer it and that may be the root of your slow start. However we need more info.

You might be much better off to try with JAOM (Joe's Ancient Orange) recipe.

seems like i really made a mess of this.

Its about 65f in the room. with a sachet of champagne yeast. and yes it is a recipe from storm the castle. And a 1 gallon batch

So if I wanted to try to fix this mess i should add some raisins. could you suggest a quantity? And do you know anything that could help hire the ph?

Thanks for the help

For a 1 gallon batch using champage yeast I would suggest using at least another pound of honey, maybe even a pound and a half. Even with 2 1/2 pounds it will still turn out very dry. The honey would help the PH and you might try to remove all but one of the cloves ASAP.

irishbrewer said:

seems like i really made a mess of this.

Its about 65f in the room. with a sachet of champagne yeast. and yes it is a recipe from storm the castle. And a 1 gallon batch

So if I wanted to try to fix this mess i should add some raisins. could you suggest a quantity? And do you know anything that could help hire the ph?

Thanks for the help

Click to expand...

I haven't used that recipe but that site seems to suggest 1 box of raisins. It doesn't say how big of a box but look at the pic and you get an idea.
Also I didn't notice before how many cloves you used. Ouch. That's gonna hurt. Do you really like clove? Like 2ndGenBrewer said, maybe you could get some of those out of there before it gets ruined? You're probably looking for a little spice, not an anesthetic, haha.
(Related but not, when my daughter was teething, my MIL told me that in the old days people used cloves to anesthetise their gums/mouth in early dentistry. Dare you to try chewing one of those cloves up!)

It also appears you need more honey, maybe two more pounds?
The champagne yeast is going to make it very dry and unsweet.
And like MedsenFey said, the acidity is probably too high. If you have access to potassium carbonate, that would help lower the ph for you. Is there a brewer's supply store around you somewhere?

Good luck to you if you are able to salvage it. Who knows, maybe you can save it and turn it into something really good.
Personally, I'd probably do some more research and start over. Try the FAQ's up at the top of the board here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/sticky-mead-making-faqs-83030/ and maybe try doing the storm the castle recipe (for real this time) or the JOAM recipe. I hear a lot of people rave about JOAM and it's a very entry-level recipe.

Let us know how it goes, and welcome to the boards here. Do keep trying! It's a fun and tasty hobby

I think my best bet is to toss it out and try joes ancient orange recipe. Glad i didnt have to wait a few monthe to realise the extent of my mistake, could have had some funny results. Thanks hopefully this goes better the second time and I can make a hobby of it

irishbrewer said:

I have been waiting two solid days and have yet to see any bubbling in my mead i used this recipe
1lb honey
12 cloves
1 cup strong tea
1 juiced lemon
yeast

Any ideas explaining the delay?
This is my first mead

Click to expand...

What size is this batch? 1 gallon, 5 gallon, 1l, 23l? Did you add water? It's not listed.
What type of yeast?
Regards, GF.

its a 1 gallon batch with red star champagne yeast. and i used enough water to nearly fill a 1 gallon carboy. Not that it matters anymore i gave up and made a 1 gallon batch of JAOM. and stuck exactly to the ingredients. Needles to say i did not want a repeat of my last attempt

Well, my 1st guess would be low PH. The lemon juice could've lowered the PH enough to inhibit fermentation. Now I don't know if the cloves could've had anything to do with inhibiting fermentation or not, but I can tell you that 12 cloves in 1 gallon is WAY too much! One clove would've been enough, likely more than enough, for 1 gallon. Hope your next batch works out better. Regards, GF.

irishbrewer said:

its a 1 gallon batch with red star champagne yeast. and i used enough water to nearly fill a 1 gallon carboy. Not that it matters anymore i gave up and made a 1 gallon batch of JAOM. and stuck exactly to the ingredients. Needles to say i did not want a repeat of my last attempt

Click to expand...

So how's the new batch going!