Slow Fermentation

I have a batch of mead that I started around Valentines Day, and when I checked the SG the other day it was 1.055! Here is the information about the batch, which is a 3 gallon batch:

Ingredients:

11 lbs (5 kg) No. 1 White honey
½ Tbsp yeast nutrient
6 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup Double strength tea (2 cups water with 2 bags for 4 minutes)
1 tsp. Irish Moss
1 pkg. Lalvin 1118 yeast
~1 oz. Oak Chips
water balance to 3 gallons

Steps:
Feb. 12, 2009 9:00 pm
Cooked the must to 170°F. Put in ice bath at 9:20. Pitched the yeast at 10:00 pm and 77°F. The OG was 1.124.

Feb. 26, 7:45 pm
Racked the mead to the secondary, and checked the SG: 1.090! I added a ½ Tbsp. of yeast nutrient. It started bubbling right away!

Mar. 16 6:30 pm
I added about an oz. Of oak chips to the mead. I roasted the chips for 3 minutes at 350°F. After adding the chips, I gently shook the carboy to get the chips into the mead.

Mar. 19 6:30 pm
I racked the mead off the oak and into a clean carboy. The SG is 1.065. I added ½ Tbsp. of yeast nutrient. The mead can be seen through.

Apr. 20 1:30 pm
I checked the SG and it is only 1.055! I put it back in the closet to keep on bubbling. The mead is crystal clear with some little bubbles that can be seen rising up from the bottom of the carboy, but the bubbles on the top are gone now. There is also almost no sediment on the bottom of the carboy.

April 23 11:15 am
I added ½ Tbsp. Of yeast nutrient, and it started bubbling again and I got foam starting to form again on the top of the mead.

I have thought of adding some yeast energizer, but there is none available in the area. Would it be worth it to get some shipped to me? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

In order to save this, I'd add 1/2 teaspoon yeast nutrient per gallon, and I'd add yeast energizer & D.A.P. at the same rate. Give it a good swirl & see if fermentation starts up, you may need to raise the ambient temp a bit too. This should take off again, but I'd leave the irish moss out next time & wait until tertiary for the oak. Regards, GF.

Thanks for the advice. I just got the yeast energizer today, even though I ordered it a month ago at a wine shop in town. I have not found a place that sells DAP, and without a credit card it is tough to buy online. I added the yeast nutrient earlier when you answered, and then I added the energizer today. The SG was 1.050 this morning.

I'm in the same boat with my sweat varietal mead from northern. 1.120 SG and 2 months later 1.050. It hasn't moved in 2 weeks! So I swirled it up to hopefully kicked the yeast up some. But I need to order some nutrient to add in to help now. This "kit" only had me add nutrient in three phases over the first 3 days!

Hopefully its save able at this point, 6 gallons of mead is pretty hard on my wallet to screw up!

Just want to point out that, while nutrients were the first thing I thought of, temperature is also very important to yeast farming such as we do in mead/wine/beer-making.

Why don't you check your temps, and ensure that they're kept in the low 70s for the duration of the fermentation.

Why don't you let us know how this progresses.

My fermentation temps have stayed around 65-67, I was thinking of buying a "brew belt" or something similar since my basement like most never gets warm.

So your saying nutrients aren't really our issue, just the temperature? Possibly rousing the yeast + increasing temp even after this long could make it finish?

***Update***

After adding nutrients and waiting a while, I checked the SG today, and it is 1.024! I will be using energizer in my batches from now on. Thanks for the help!

Something else I noticed about your recipe was that you added lemon juice. Mead really doesn't need added acid(s) during fermentation; this could be a contributing factor to your slow fermentation. Save any acid additions for post fermentation & I think you'll do much better. That's my 2 cents worth, GF.