Can it be saved? Strawberry Melomel

My husband made 5 gallons of strawberry shortcake Melomel and I'm hoping it can be saved. He used 5 lbs honey and 12 bottles of strawberry flavored syrup. (The kind for coffee and mixed drinks). And at first, no water. The opening Gravity was off the charts at 1.17-1.18. That's a guess, it was higher than our hydrometer registers. So after a D47 yeast failed we tried E-1118 and still nothing. We re-heated everything to kill off anything suspect and kill off any yeast, added some water and added another E-1118, Gravity was 1.13 but it's been 4 days and still hasn't started fermentation.

Any suggestions? I thought of splitting it into 2 batches and adding more water and maybe more honey to balance it out. I'm at a loss for what else to try...and to never let your husband use a whole case of syrup to flavor your mead.

Those flavor syrups often have lots of preservatives in them that well inhibit yeast growth.

That's makes sense. That would explain why nothing is working

It might be able to be saved. I probably would try and split the batch into two and top off with water. But before doing that make a nice large starter. Take 4 cups of water, mix two tsp of honey in and also add go-ferm or 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient and energizer. Sprinkle lalvin ec-1118 on top and leave alone for two hours with no stirring. Stir it up good and then take 1/4 cup of your must from the pending brew and mix it in. There should be visible fermentation by this point. Wait two hours and then mix in another 1/4 cup of must again. Repeat this through the day until you have 6-7 cups of fermenting starter. Let that sit over night. The next day split your batch, top off with water and leave room for your starter to go in both. Pitch the starter and see how it goes. Do not worry about adding honey yet. If fermentation picks up then when the SG gets below 1.010 you can step feed little bits of honey over several days until fermentation stops. Rack onto some fresh strawberries once yeast settles. Rack every 30 days as appropriate and call it good once crystal clear.

But if you can't even get the starter to ferment after adding the must then there are too many preservatives and this may be a lost cause.

Thanks for the great advice! Split the batch and followed your direction and both are fermenting like mad!

Hooray! Great advice Arpolis

Glad to hear it is working. Keep us updated on the progress.