Should I pitch more yeast in my mead???

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

homebrewbeliever

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 11, 2012
Messages
309
Reaction score
16
Location
Portland
Hello all! I've brewed 2 batches of mead so far without any problem. After a bit of time, they cleared and were delicious! I got too cocky and decided that I would go for the gusto: I was going to make a high-gravity mead with some delicious and expensive honeys. So, I used a bit over 4 lbs of honey per gallon and ended up with an OG of 1.135. I pitched my yeast, had a very healthy fermentation, and after about 2 months I racked it into secondary and the gravity was down to 1.040. Since then, 7 months have passed (making this mead about 9 months old) and I've racked it twice but the gravity is not going down. Furthermore, although it cleared a bit, it is still pretty hazy. Although I like sweeter meads, this mead is pretty damn sweet. How do I know if I should pitch more yeast? Would it even be a good idea? I'd like to do something because it was an expensive project that I wouldn't like to have be a failure. Any help that y'all can provide would be MOST appreciated...
 
I have done 2 meads with this exact gravity successfully without periodic aeration, yeast energizer, starters, or ever getting it stuck by using lalvin ec-1118. That stuff eats through a high gravity in less than 2 weeks.
 
1.135 - 1.04 = 12.58 %

I like it sweet also, like around 1.02 which is 14.98%

Most of the popular yeasts should have gotten you there with proper nutrition.

I would try adding some nutrient and give it a good shake.(watch for geyser) What temp is it at? Might try warming it up a bit.

You could pitch a higher tolerance yeast but that could take it dryer than you wanted.

I am working at my 1st attempt at trying to get my mead to finish at the yeast tolerance and end up at my desired FG. I've backsweetened my previous batches.
 
I have done 2 meads with this exact gravity successfully without periodic aeration, yeast energizer, starters, or ever getting it stuck by using lalvin ec-1118. That stuff eats through a high gravity in less than 2 weeks.

1118 is a beast, but the OP was trying to retain some residual aweetness.
 
Yeah, once I kill it, if I want it to be sweet, I back sweeten. I understand that he may not be going for this, but... If I ever had a stuck fermentation and used a different yeast, in goes the 1118
 
When you add the 1118, try adding a few raisins in the batch to add some nutrients, just make sure they don't have any preservatives in them!
 
1.135 - 1.04 = 12.58 %

I like it sweet also, like around 1.02 which is 14.98%

Most of the popular yeasts should have gotten you there with proper nutrition.

I would try adding some nutrient and give it a good shake.(watch for geyser) What temp is it at? Might try warming it up a bit.

You could pitch a higher tolerance yeast but that could take it dryer than you wanted.

I am working at my 1st attempt at trying to get my mead to finish at the yeast tolerance and end up at my desired FG. I've backsweetened my previous batches.

Hmmm, do you think there are yeasts still alive for the nutrients to help? Its about 9 months old... If I add more nutrient, should I add more yeast as well? Also, if I add more yeast, do I have to do the whole aeration process again? I've never done it before and I would be worried about oxidizing the must.
 
So, I used a bit over 4 lbs of honey per gallon and ended up with an OG of 1.135. I pitched my yeast, had a very healthy fermentation, and after about 2 months I racked it into secondary and the gravity was down to 1.040....

Racking it before you were near the final gravity that you were looking for is where your ferment slowed down.

Since then, 7 months have passed (making this mead about 9 months old) and I've racked it twice but the gravity is not going down....

The more times you rack the less chance any further fermentation will occur as you are slowly seperating mead from any yeast that may still be kicking.

Furthermore, although it cleared a bit, it is still pretty hazy. Although I like sweeter meads, this mead is pretty damn sweet. How do I know if I should pitch more yeast? Would it even be a good idea? I'd like to do something because it was an expensive project that I wouldn't like to have be a failure. Any help that y'all can provide would be MOST appreciated...

Definitely does not have to go into the fail column, you have a few options.

1) you can dilute, you've made other batches of mead, what type were they and were they dry or at least dryer? if they were a traditional or at least complimentary flavors and dryer than this batch you can blend them, cutting the sweetness of this one....there is the water or wine dilution method but one dilutes flavors and abv the other ehhh, not a fan of the idea.

2) you can give it some nutrients and pitch some yeast, but your options are kind of limited for yeast strains because of the alcohol level you already have so something like 1118 is what you will need to use just remember that you are only sitting on a gravity of 1.04, so if the yeast gets started it will burn through every bit of sugar you have left and take it super dry. Not ruining your batch, just adding steps later of backsweetening to bring sweetness back if that is your desired finish. kind of like chasing your goal back and forth.

3) Even with a mead that alone is sweeter than you like there is the option of not trying to get rid of the sweet but balancing it out so it's not cloying. Look into acid blends and tannins or aging on oak chips, the first two you can add in small amounts until the balance reaches a point where it is pleasant to you and not overpowering and leaving you chasing it back again. Mead doesn't have to be fermented dry to not be annoyingly sweet.

4) Well I'm sure I overlooked something another poster will thow out there as an idea for you. Just take a moment and contemplate each suggestion before leaping at any, not so much what will immediately occur in your carboy, but what will happen next, kind of like playing chess, think a couple steps ahead and see what options will get you to the end product you desire with the least number of moves.

For the haze still in it, there are the options of time (not always 100% effective) fining agents (i've read K&C works well) after you get it to where you are happy with the flavor you could try cold crashing it, see if anything more falls out.

All is definitely not lost, it sounds like you have a delicious project going, just have to decide on what types of small tweaks to make (yes at this stage a bunch of small adjustments will be more advantageous than a huge leap somewhere) and you'll be enjoying an awesome glass of mead in the future.
 
Thanks brewmedic! I like some of your suggestions; thank you for being so thorough. As of right now, I have no idea what I want. I am thinking that it might be best to just go for the gusto and add the 1118 yeast, kill off all of the sugar, and then backsweeten it a bit. However, I have never repitched yeast before. Do I "recondition" the mead all over again? Should I aerate it and add more yeast nutrients and tannins? I'd love some advice on this one...
 
Don't aerate, the 1118 will be able to handle it as is... If it's a concern of yours, you could always rehydrate the 1118 in a separate container before pitching.
Also, if it stays cloudy, try chilling it in the fridge overnight before you rack it again, that's worked for me in the past.
 
Don't aerate, the 1118 will be able to handle it as is... If it's a concern of yours, you could always rehydrate the 1118 in a separate container before pitching.
Also, if it stays cloudy, try chilling it in the fridge overnight before you rack it again, that's worked for me in the past.

Good idea here if you definitely unleash the 1118 beast lol....great if you have a sealable container, it's just easy to work with.....sanitize the container add a cup of water thats been boiled then cooled to 104*-109*F, a dash of nutrients (1/2 tsp) and a teaspoon of honey if you have it, close the container and shake the he!! out of it, this will mix everything real well and aerate it, let the foamyness die down for a couple minutes then pour the 1118 in, let it sit 15 minutes, mix it up in a slurry, give it a couple seconds and pitch it.
 
TheBrewingMedic said:
Good idea here if you definitely unleash the 1118 beast lol....great if you have a sealable container, it's just easy to work with.....sanitize the container add a cup of water thats been boiled then cooled to 104*-109*F, a dash of nutrients (1/2 tsp) and a teaspoon of honey if you have it, close the container and shake the he!! out of it, this will mix everything real well and aerate it, let the foamyness die down for a couple minutes then pour the 1118 in, let it sit 15 minutes, mix it up in a slurry, give it a couple seconds and pitch it.

Fantastic! Thanks so much for all of the help! I'm going to do exactly this. Am I going to have to wait for this brew to primary again and then rack it into secondary and wait for an additional many months before I can backsweeten it to my liking and bottle it?
 
Am I going to have to wait for this brew to primary again and then rack it into secondary and wait for an additional many months before I can backsweeten it to my liking and bottle it?

Youre basically restarting a ferment as if it were stuck. It's not the same as a full primary all over but you will want to follow the same procedures of letting it do it's thing and then use your hydrometer to take readings, when they stabilize, meaning when you take three readings that are the same with minimally a few days if not a week between them then it is done. I't will probably go relativaly quickly as there is not a ton of sugar left to be eaten.

What you will want to consider after doing this is stabilizing. just because it doesn't appear to be fermenting anymore, since you are going with 1118, it will probably mean that it just ate all the sugar that was available then is sitting waiting for more. so when you back sweeten it will start again.

I'm not really big on stabilizers but in a case like this you will need to add potassium sorbate to inhibit yeast reproduction and commonly potassium sulfite (aka camden tablet) is added along with this as an antioxidant/preservative. Cold crashing if you have the ability to do so will also help. You'll want to make these additions a couple days before backsweetening. you may want to do this when you go into secondary even, give it time to do it's thing, some say they leave slight off flavors/smells initially. By stabilizing in secondary it gives that all time to disipate before youre even ready to sweeten or think about bottling.
 
Okay, so I pitched a new batch of yeast a few days ago. I did not use the 1118, as the brew shop I happened to stop by did not carry it, but instead I used a comparable champaign yeast. I made a starter and everything and the airlock bubbled away for about 12-16 hours and then stopped. The bottom of the carboy now has a layer of sediment and there doesn't seem to be any activity going on... did the yeast not make it?
 
MasterJeem said:
Hmm... You added nutrient? Maybe a little energizer? What's your gravity now?

Yeah, I added nutrient. What is energizer? I've never heard of that before... I honestly dont know what the gravity is, but I will check soon. However, isn't it weird for so much stuff to be at the bottom already? It's as if all of the yeast flocculated already...
 
No, I made a starter the other day and within hours saw lees at the bottom. Yeast energizer is to restart stuck fermentation, but is sometimes used along with the nutrient in high og cases. I've never needed it for any of mine... Yet. Just because there isn't airlock activity, doesn't mean that your fermentation is done. You won't know until you check your gravity.
 
Okay, so its been a little while, and I think its still fermenting. However, there are now little white bits that have formed where the must touches the inside of the carboy... I'm a little worried that its mold, but it may also just be a byproduct of fermentation. Since I've never re-pitched yeast, I really don't know what to expect. Anyone?
 
Mine did the same thing. Just yeast floaties, as best as I can tell.

At this point there should be enough alcohol that picking up an infection would be unlikely.
 
So oddly enough, the mead started bubbling away yesterday... it seems like there was just a large lag time while the yeast propagated. Anyway, its going to town! =)
 
So oddly enough, the mead started bubbling away yesterday... it seems like there was just a large lag time while the yeast propagated. Anyway, its going to town! =)
Just as an "aside", it might be worth hitting google, or at least Gotmead etc, and read up on "restarting a stuck fermentation", because that's basically what you did.

Actually you were lucky with the champagne yeast, because it'd be quite normal for there to be too much alcohol for the yeast to start.

The technique is basically some must/mead and water, rehydrate the yeast and mix it in, then slowly adding further amounts of the must/mead to it, to acclimatise the yeast so it's still active and doesn't get killed off by the presence of alcohol

Don't forget, alcohol and CO2 are the byproducts of fermentation, so it's the equivalent of dumping yeast into their own sewage........

Well done getting it going though and good luck with your batch.
 
fatbloke said:
Just as an "aside", it might be worth hitting google, or at least Gotmead etc, and read up on "restarting a stuck fermentation", because that's basically what you did.

Actually you were lucky with the champagne yeast, because it'd be quite normal for there to be too much alcohol for the yeast to start.

The technique is basically some must/mead and water, rehydrate the yeast and mix it in, then slowly adding further amounts of the must/mead to it, to acclimatise the yeast so it's still active and doesn't get killed off by the presence of alcohol

Don't forget, alcohol and CO2 are the byproducts of fermentation, so it's the equivalent of dumping yeast into their own sewage........

Well done getting it going though and good luck with your batch.

Thank you for your thoughts! I didn't even really think about it in those terms... I'm really glad it started up again.
 
Don't know if this thread is still active after a year and a half, but I just had basically the same thing happen. I had 5 gallons of blueberry that started with an S.G. of 114 and Unfortunately I used Lalvin D47 (second year, still learning to watch gravity and yeast strains). It dropped to 104 and seemed to have stopped. It is sweeter than I care for in a mead so I started two packets of EC-1118 and used the recommended amounts of nutrient and energizer for 5 gallons. 12 hours later the airlock was bubbling pretty good (every 3 seconds or so). 24 hours later it is about every 9 seconds.

I am shaking it occasionally and had thought about aerating with my aquarium pump. One of the earlier posts said not to worry about aerating. Would it be a BAD thing to do?
 
Don't know if this thread is still active after a year and a half, but I just had basically the same thing happen. I had 5 gallons of blueberry that started with an S.G. of 114 and Unfortunately I used Lalvin D47 (second year, still learning to watch gravity and yeast strains). It dropped to 104 and seemed to have stopped. It is sweeter than I care for in a mead so I started two packets of EC-1118 and used the recommended amounts of nutrient and energizer for 5 gallons. 12 hours later the airlock was bubbling pretty good (every 3 seconds or so). 24 hours later it is about every 9 seconds.

I am shaking it occasionally and had thought about aerating with my aquarium pump. One of the earlier posts said not to worry about aerating. Would it be a BAD thing to do?

It depends on what you are aerating. If you are aerating your starter, then no, its not bad to aerate for the first 24 or 36 hours or so. If you are aerating your already fermented must, then yes, it is a very bad idea to do that as you risk oxidizing your mead and giving it lots of off-flavors. I am the person that started this thread, and I had great luck making a hefty starter batch with some EC-1118, yeast nutrient, and some fresh honey/water mixture that was sitting at about 1.035. Once the starter began to ferment, I added a little of my fermented mead into the starter to help the yeast acclimate. I let this ferment a little more and then added a bit more fermented mead and waited for it to acclimate. I did this a few times until I felt that I could mix the yeast into the full-strength mead without shocking it, and then I placed the yeast starter into a sanitized carboy and then racked the mead on top of it. Within 12 hours or so the entire thing was fermenting and I was able to dry it out nicely. At no point was aeration needed.

If you just pitch yeast into your must, it may or may not take and ferment. If it does, then congrats. If not, then I'd recommend doing what I described above. However, if you pitch yeast directly into the must and then try to aerate your already-fermented must, you will oxidize your mead and most likely ruin it. In short: the only time you should oxygenate fermented beverages is just prior to pitching yeast into your room-temperature wort or must, or while you are making a starter. Any other time, you risk oxidizing your beverage and making it taste like crap. I hope this helps!
 
Thanks HBB
As I wrote i DID get the 5 gallon batch going and now two days later the airlock is bubbling every three seconds or so. It's been below zero here for acouple of days and I put the batch close to a furnace vent so it stays nice ad warm most of the time. As you said no need to aerate if it gets going.

I will be doing a first racking og a 5 gallon batch of Ken Schramm's Fall Bounty Apple Cyser today. Based on the taste of what was in the hydrometer tube I may lose a bottle to the new year :)
 
Thanks HBB
As I wrote i DID get the 5 gallon batch going and now two days later the airlock is bubbling every three seconds or so. It's been below zero here for acouple of days and I put the batch close to a furnace vent so it stays nice ad warm most of the time. As you said no need to aerate if it gets going.

I will be doing a first racking og a 5 gallon batch of Ken Schramm's Fall Bounty Apple Cyser today. Based on the taste of what was in the hydrometer tube I may lose a bottle to the new year :)

Excellent! Happy brewing, and happy new year! :mug:
 
Thanks HBB
As I wrote i DID get the 5 gallon batch going and now two days later the airlock is bubbling every three seconds or so. It's been below zero here for acouple of days and I put the batch close to a furnace vent so it stays nice ad warm most of the time. As you said no need to aerate if it gets going.

I will be doing a first racking og a 5 gallon batch of Ken Schramm's Fall Bounty Apple Cyser today. Based on the taste of what was in the hydrometer tube I may lose a bottle to the new year :)

Excellent! Happy brewing, and happy new year! I hope 2014 brings you many happy days and many drunken moments! :mug:
 
Back
Top