1st Mead (Finally!) and yeast issues?

[JP_BeerFan]

After way too much time I'm finally fermenting some Honey... or I hope so.

1 gal batch, basic Tradional, BOMM recipe.

2.5lb Orange Blossom Honey (kinda went over..)
1.9 g Fermaid K
2.0 g Fermaid O
1.0 g K carbonate (decided to lower, using spring water with much more carbonate/dissolved minerals than Bray's Ozarka)
1 gallon water (actually, filling to >1gal, also contributing to higher grav)
1.110 o.g.

And... the obligatory Wyeast 1388. Here's the issue, pack was kept in fridge, not frozen, but is a few weeks over the "use by" date. So far, probably not a problem.
Let pack get to room temp, smacked, waited 2 hrs, and had a hard time deciding if any swelling was going on. Pitched not long after that, to a 68F must, (was cooling after I made it while waiting on the yeast) in a mini fridge controlled at 68F. Been about 20hrs now, not a trace of activity.

I have heard that yeasts can lag for a while. Trying not to worry yet, but wondering how common it is for a smack pack to look inactive, yet be "OK", as well as how long with no start before I just haul off and open something else. I do have a second smack pak of 1388, but am worried about how much flavor input would two paks in a one gallon batch have? And, was going to use that on another batch.

Have a small variety of dry yeasts I can eventually go to as well. So, how long before I should Kviek it?

 

[CKuhns]

How do you know there is no activity? Checked with a Hydrometer? If not please do so.

I would give it another day or two to see what it does. You are at the low end of the fermentation temperature and that could be impacting how it's starting, it wouldn't hurt to warm it 5 Deg F.

Also would stir the dickens out of it to see if a little air and getting things back in suspension will help.

 

[JP_BeerFan]

Huh, thought I'd made a post... must have gotten lost...

Well, despite all my reading, and seeing the many "worried newbee" ferm posts... looks like I did it too.

Ok, after 24hrs, bubbling away. At about 36hrs took a grav reading. Down a bit, to 1.095. Not really far along enough for 2nd feeding, so back to the minifridge. Swirling and shaking, several times a session to degas and aerate, at least once a day. Doing the Bray suggestion of airlock with no liquid in it for the first several days.

Day 2+, still gently bubbling along. Another grav reading. Strangely, still around 1.095... still lagging? Degassed it a LOT, and did the 2nd feeding anyway, 2g Ferm O, mixed into the hydrometer sample to try to minimize reaction. Slow, bit by bit pouring, and I still pulled the control rod out of the Mead Reactor a bit too fast, had a small foam excursion anyway. Bumped the ferm chamber temp to 70F.

Day 3, slowly bubbling. Degas, pull sample, 1.078... probably would have been a good feeding point. Took pH, 3.55. Decided to put the other .5g K carbonate that I didn't put in up front, though that's not a super low pH. Took it again after, 3.76. Starting pH was 5.06.

Overall, just seems a bit slow. Maybe the pack was on the weak side. I have been smelling and tasting along the way, very nice clean honey smell, and sweet taste. So I don't seem to have a batch of Lacto or something wild going, and the pack really was dead. We'll see how it goes.

Very different experience from my recent ciders, and 71-B at a uncontrolled room temp of 73-75F. That stuff TOOK OFF... was boiling in hours, coming out of the airlocks for a few days... etc... Of course, you'd probably expect that, GoFermE'd dry yeast, the high side of it's temp range....

 

[CKuhns]

Sounds to me like your on the right track.

Keep feeding it at the appropriate SG points. Stir to 1/3 sugar break and let the yeasties do what they do.

 

[JP_BeerFan]

Just as an update, it's been slow. Like, 20 days and it's still not done and at 1.018, slow.
It took 8 days to get to the 1/3 break, fed it the second time, filled the airlock.

Don't want to be accused of reposting, did a longer description in the BOMM thread, asking about normal 1388 behavior, vs what I'm seeing.