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668

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I originally started this at here the winpress.us forums, but these boards seem to be way more active in the mead section, so I thought I'd ask my question here instead.

Quick & Dirty summary.

1. 1 gallon of Chocolate-Cherry Mead
2. Original SG: 1.122, which I believe I goofed during the reading since. . .
3. SG at transfer to glass jug three weeks later: 1.142
4. SG a month later: 1.135

Currently there is about 1.5 inches of lees at the bottom, so I'm thinking I should rack this guy sometime soon, and maybe top it back up with a honey water/mixture and just let it sit. But, In my very short Mead & Wine making I haven't seen a SG reading behave so slowly, so I'm just wondering what any of you with a more experience would think in this situation. Is the current rate fine, or should I be taking measures to get the yeast fired up again? There still is activity in the airlock, but its pretty slow at about 1 bubble per four minutes.

Thanks.
 
any of your gravity readings are EXTREMELY high, and going to be pretty tough to get started. Post your recipe if you have it.

Some times, you will get an increase from the fruit if you don't account for it in the origional recipe.
 
Figured the high starting gravity would make it tough to get going, but wasn't sure how tough.

There is a link to the recipe in post #1.
 
Maraschino-Chocolate Sweet Mead

* 4 lbs honey (it's the size jar I had; 3 ½ lbs should have been enough)
* 2 lb 5 oz jar of Mezzetta's maraschino cherries
* 4 oz Hershey's Cocoa Powder
* 2 1/4 tsp acid blend
* 1 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
* 1/8 tsp yeast energizer
* 3/16 tsp grape tannin
* 1/16 tsp potassium metabisulfite
* water to 1 gallon
* 1 pkt Gervin Wine Yeast Varietal B (S. cerevisiae) [alternate: Lalvin 71B-1122]

Jack says: "The starting s.g. was too high to measure with this particular hydrometer, so I measured 100 mL of must and added to it 100 mL of water. In the test jar, the hydrometer floated at 1.075, making the effective starting s.g. 1.152. This was actually 10 points below what I expected."

Wow, SG of 1.152 that's crazy high. Well it is going slow but if it started this high, it has dropper .020 so far. Give it more time, but definitely watch it. This high of a starting gravity has a chance of being stuck.
 
did you aerate? maybe repitch 71B should do it or take the plunge and hit it with EC-1118, and aerate, actually just aerate this one, the added O2 may give the yeast a kick to get back to work, freakin slackers. also racking wont hurt to much, you may just need to repitch in that case...other than that I dont have any ideas.
 
It was well shook in a gallon jug before I put it into my primary pail. Gave it some deep, non tender stirs for the first fews days after that as well. It seemed to be quite happy back then.

There still is visible activity of little tiny bubble going on, so maybe I'm overreacting a bit, though at .02/month it will be an awefuly long ferment.

Would there be any ill effects if I added a pinch of energizer when I rack it?
 
The heck with a pinch I'd do 1/2 tsp per gallon. Meed is low on food for the yeasties and they need all the help they can get.

I suggest 1/2 tsp because thats what mine says to use. If yours is different use the required amount. I use the LD Carlson energizer.
 
668 - That is a killer OG.
I would take out a half cup of your batch, add enough water and some nutriant to bring it down to around 1.060, maybe 1/4 of a cup. Then add some yeast nutriant, and re-pitch yeast. Let it get active then add another half a cup of your mix, step it up till it is tearing into the additions and re-pitch that into your must.
 
668 - That is a killer OG.
I would take out a half cup of your batch, add enough water and some nutriant to bring it down to around 1.060, maybe 1/4 of a cup. Then add some yeast nutriant, and re-pitch yeast. Let it get active then add another half a cup of your mix, step it up till it is tearing into the additions and re-pitch that into your must.

Thanks for the recommendation. Just wondering though, since you mention nutrient twice, was one of those suppose to be energizer?
 
Sorry a little overeager, by watering down the mead and adding nutrient you should be able to get a healthy starter, then just keep stepping it up till it large enough to handle the entire batch.
 
Sorry a little overeager, by watering down the mead and adding nutrient you should be able to get a healthy starter, then just keep stepping it up till it large enough to handle the entire batch.

I think I got you now. No new yeast is being added in your plan, just changing the living conditions for a sample of the existing yeasts to it can have an easier time of multiplying to a large enough population to take over the sugars right?

Any really rough timeline on how long this new starter could take? I don't want to dive into doing this until I know I have enough time blocked off for the operation. I imagine it would be at least 24 hours.

Thanks again.
 
Made the new starter Weds after work, built it up until I went to bed last night and pitched it then. Today after work the airlock is moving at about a bubble every 30 seconds.

Seems to be in better shape now. Thanks.
 
668 - Odds are the initial yeast finally got their act together and started fermenting instead of just slowing replicating. The process I mentioned would take a day for each addition and maybe a total of 4 days.
In any case, just step back and leave it alone for at least a month now. That high of an OG the yeast are going to take their time working through that. After a month to a month and a half you may want to check it out and rack to a secondary.
 
I did a blueberry mead once and the gravity must have been high too. I aereated it twice and finally dosed it with more yeast and yeast nutrient that I whiped up in the blender so it was nice and oxgenated. Still no go. I finally just simply racked it and then it went crazy. So my recomendation is to just rack it and don't worry too much about getting sediment out. Then it should be quite vigorously fermenting.
 
Month and half later. There has been a steady stream of tiny white bubbles slowly working its way up to the next since the repitch, so I took a reading. In the last month and half it has gone from 1.132 down to 1.110.

Any thoughts on this progress?
 
I put this guy away and pretty much forgot about it for the past three months. It had about a half inch of sediment, and still had bubble rising in it so I racked it and took a reading.

1.106. :/ Ugh. dropped .004 in the past three months. This guy is going no where fast, yet appeared to still be active. Any pros want to provide some insight for me?
 
First, thank you for coming back, I know you are here because you have an issue, but this recipe was incredibly intriguing to me and I am glad to see you are still working on it.

Second, have you read over Hightest's mead FAQs? I know he has a specific one on restarting a stuck mead. You most certainly have a stuck ferment, it may have dropped .004 in 3 months, it probably dropped that about 3 months ago. There are a lot of things you can do, but read over his suggestions first, as his are more experienced based suggestions then my own.
 
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