Keep waiting?

25 pounds of clover honey
49 ounce can of Vintner's Harvest Red Raspberry puree
Nutrient
Energizer
Water to 6 gallons
Rehydrated Lalvin 71B-1122
No heat, stirred the crap out of it, pitched the yeast
Hydrometer is broken, no og reading
Basement temp 64 degrees
No visible activity.
Started on New Year's Day around noon.

Could this be too much sugar for the yeast?
Or maybe a Ph problem?
I know you all are probably going to tell me to wait it out, sometimes it just helps to hear it. Lol.

Thanks

Don't wait, check the pH if possible, stir the hell out of it for aeration, and mail order another hydrometer (and possibly get some calcium carbonate in, just in case).

fatbloke said:

Don't wait, check the pH if possible, stir the hell out of it for aeration, and mail order another hydrometer (and possibly get some calcium carbonate in, just in case).

Click to expand...

Hey... this is your 666 th post! CREEPY

Awwwe, I saw "keep waiting?" in a mead forum and I wanted to just say yes...

But Fatbloke is right! 3 days is a long time to have it sitting around doing nothing. But you'll need to check if it actually doing nothing or if it is just hard to see the fermentation.

If all else fails, get an egg, make sure that it sinks in water, then sanitize the egg and put it in your brew. Measure the diameter of the portion of the shell that is floating out of the brew. Store the egg in the fridge. Check it again tomorrow with the same egg... if the diameter is smaller then you have fermentation. If not then you either have very slow fermentation or no fermentation, so check again the day after.

It is not a perfect system, but it is something!

OR it might show nothing... I am not sure if this will work now that I have posted it.

Will the Specific Gravity change fast enough to notice a difference? Does anyone know?

A hydrometer would be 1000 times better to use!

I'll be home from work soon. I borrowed a hydrometer from my dad.

This batch is in a 6 gallon carboy so stirring wouldn't do much. Can I siphon into a bucket and then stir? Would siphoning into a bucket and back into the carboy be enough without stirring?

Still no visible activity.

I sanitized all equipment.
Racked into bucket.
Then I beat the mead like a red headed step child to aerate..
Took a gravity reading. 1.146!
I checked it 4 times.

Tastes like honey with a hint of raspberry, no yeast flavor.

Does this batch have any chance?
What should I do next?

Edit: I used 2 packages of yeast when I first pitched

You've still not checked the ph, worth giving it a check just in case. Other than that you could build up a starter with some new yeast to ensure it's good and pitch that.

Don't have anything to check the ph. Not sure I can get to the lhbs before Saturday.
I have a packet of Red Star Pasteur Red and a packet of Red Star Cote des Blancs.

Which would you recommend?

To make a starter do I just pull off a couple of liters into a separate clean container, pitch the yeast, airlock, wait a couple of days and add back to the rest of the batch?

well, you want to "start"the yeast off with something that is easier for themto handle, so water and sugar, then gradually introduce some of the must.

I think there may be instructions in the stickies up top

What if I took like 1 cup of must and mixed it with 2 or 3 cups of water for a starter?

Edit:
Decided on 2 cups must, 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp of nutrient, and red star Pasteur Red yeast for the starter....

2nd Edit:
Starter is fermenting.
How long should I let it run before adding it back to the must?

Built up two one gallon starters, dumped them both into the main batch just now..

If this doesn't work I'm gonna buy 10 packs of ec 1118 and drill right through this deal..

Not sure I have any other choice at this point

The second starter was almost 90% must so even though I haven't tested Ph, I don't believe it could be the problem, but ill still be buying Ph testers tonight or tomorrow morning.
The uber high og must have been too much for my first 15 minute rehydrated in water pitch....

Sounds promising, good luck!

P.S. - Might not be a bad idea to check the PH even if fermentation does pick up. You don't want to stress your yeast.

Just got home from work, its fermenting like crazy!

My next question is .... I used red star Pasteur red in the starter I made. Alcohol tolerance is 15%. How do I calculate final gravity if og was 1.146 and it runs all the way to 15% with no more problems?

I'm thinking this would be really sweet, too sweet maybe and even if I second ferment with ec 1118 I'll still have plenty of sweetness left right?

If it goes all the way to 15% it should leave an FG of 1.03 ish. It will be sweet, but less sweet than most commercial meads.

That works for me. Thx