Stuck?

Hi all,
I put together a 5 GA mead on July 1st 2012 that I believe might be stuck.
Here are the deets:
15lbs orange blossom honey
2 packs Cotes De Blancs yeast
Enough water to make 5 gallons.

The OG was 1.118. Every day for four days I added yeast nutrient and gave it a stir. Since then I have just let it sit. I took a gravity today and it was 1.045. I was expecting it to be much lower. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Do you suppose it is stuck? If so, then do you have suggestions on what I should do?

I would really appreciate any help anyone can provide.

Thanks!
BBQB

Having same issues but on a much larger scale and higher sg reading. Interested in replies.

What "Yeast Nutrients" did you use? If it was commercial Yeast Nutrients like LD Carlson's Yeast Nutrients. That just contains Diamonium Phosphate or DAP. DAP also looks like coarse salt so if it just looks like that then you just used DAP. The problem with that is that DAP is a manufactured nitate which really is great when starting your must. But not so much later in the fermenatation proccess, usually a little after the lag phase. You need other trace nutrients and natural nitrates & amino acids.

Cotes De Blancs yeast is a yeast that uses a lot of nutrients to do it's work. So DAP alone in a traditional mead will often result in a stuck fermentation, regardless of how much DAP you add.

I use Nutriferm advanced for my additional nutrients or some often get away with adding about 10 - 15 fine chopped golden raisins per gallon. B6 & B12 tablets crushed up at 100mg per 1 - 2 gallons will also help out alot.

If all this is true for you then I would suggest making a new starter of Lalvin 1116 yeast with the following recipe and then pitch in a yeast energizer like Nutriferm advanced into the main must:

2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp of yeast nutrients
10 fine chopped raisins

Just let that sit with the yeast for 8 hours and then pitch that with 3 tsp of energizer. That should dry you out.

I'm a little more worried about a drop in pH. If you have a pH meter, see if it is near or below 3.0. If it is, a little potassium carbonate to get it up closer to 3.4 should get things moving again.

KDS

Thanks for the replies.
Unfortunately I am out of town so I cannot check which nutrient I used or the ph. I do remember that nutrient was a powder, not crystals.

Arpolis said:

What "Yeast Nutrients" did you use? If it was commercial Yeast Nutrients like LD Carlson's Yeast Nutrients. That just contains Diamonium Phosphate or DAP. DAP also looks like coarse salt so if it just looks like that then you just used DAP. The problem with that is that DAP is a manufactured nitate which really is great when starting your must. But not so much later in the fermenatation proccess, usually a little after the lag phase. You need other trace nutrients and natural nitrates & amino acids.

Cotes De Blancs yeast is a yeast that uses a lot of nutrients to do it's work. So DAP alone in a traditional mead will often result in a stuck fermentation, regardless of how much DAP you add.

I use Nutriferm advanced for my additional nutrients or some often get away with adding about 10 - 15 fine chopped golden raisins per gallon. B6 & B12 tablets crushed up at 100mg per 1 - 2 gallons will also help out alot.

If all this is true for you then I would suggest making a new starter of Lalvin 1116 yeast with the following recipe and then pitch in a yeast energizer like Nutriferm advanced into the main must:

2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp of yeast nutrients
10 fine chopped raisins

Just let that sit with the yeast for 8 hours and then pitch that with 3 tsp of energizer. That should dry you out.

Click to expand...

I'll give this a shot this weekend, thanks!

KenSchramm said:

I'm a little more worried about a drop in pH. If you have a pH meter, see if it is near or below 3.0. If it is, a little potassium carbonate to get it up closer to 3.4 should get things moving again.

KDS

Click to expand...

Hey, welcome back! It's nice to see you back on the forum. Glad to see you're back to your old self, or at least getting there!

At what point does the pH drop really impact fermentation? You said to bring it up if it's at or below 3.0, but is there a "close" at say, 3.1 or 3.2, that would signal some potential problems?

What I'm asking is, can you forestall a complete stall by catching it at 3.2 and adding nutrients, thus avoiding having to add the K2CO3? And does CaC03 have a similar effect?

I created a cotes des blanc starter and repitched without success. I then did the same with champagne yeast. This seems to be working but slowly. I was at around 1.050 and now a week later am at 1.040. I'll post again if it drops more

FYI-my mead came out fine. I bottled it off not too long ago. Not too shabby if I say so myself. It fermented dry, around 1.00 I think