24hr and no fermentation.

[CoolYon]

Pitched K1-V1116 in a raspberry lemonade mead with an OG of 1.112 last night. It's been 24hr and nothing has started fermenting.
It's kept in the same conditions with 3 other meads I've pitched in the past 3 weeks and all of them had similar starting gravity. Those are all fermenting just fine, and a couple of them started within the first 4 hours.

Should I give it more time, or try repitching a new pack of yeast?

 

[SteveO820]

hmm... odd. What are the other meads? I'm wondering if the raspberry lemonade used for this recipe is store bought and if it was checked for preservatives. I know a lot of store shelf juices use sodium benzoate which would prevent fermentation.

 

[CoolYon]

hmm... odd. What are the other meads? I'm wondering if the raspberry lemonade used for this recipe is store bought and if it was checked for preservatives. I know a lot of store shelf juices use sodium benzoate which would prevent fermentation.

Other two meads are a cinnamon vanilla methaglin, and a spiced cyser. All used the same honey, and I used Simply Raspberry Lemonade as the base for this one. No preservatives listed on the bottle. I also used a bottle of the same brand in my cyser. Preservatives shouldn't be an issue...all of the meads used the same nutrients and same yeast starter methods...

 

[SteveO820]

That is a tough one.
Maybe PH is the hold up? The other two seem like they have a lot less acidity. Wine yeast like being in the 3.5 range.
I'd love to hear from others on this as Sima is pretty popular mead style. I haven't made one so idk.

 

[SteveO820]

Did a search on here and found a thread for lemon mead.
@MedsenFey said this
"Fermenting lemonade can be a challenge due to pH being so low. There are two approaches that I know can work.

1. Ferment by using the yeast cake from a prior fermentation using a yeast like EC-1118 that is tolerant of low pH. These yeast will be more-accustomed to a harsh low pH environment. Then keep it warm, and aerated, and be very patient and it will usually get going.

2. Adjust the pH. It takes a lot of Potassium Bicarbonate or Calcium Carbonate to to bring the pH up from Lemonade levels (typically 2.8 or lower) up to the range where yeast can work, but if you get the pH up to around 3.2-3.4, you can typically get it done easily. Once the pH is adjusted, the yeast love citrus fruit. After fermentation is complete, you can taste it to see if it is tart enough to suit you; in most cases it probably will be as the acidity is still very high, and TA is more closely associated with acid taste than is pH. However, if you need to add some acid to suit you, using acid blend, citric acid, or more lemon juice will allow you to get the level you want. When I do this, I find the lemon aroma still present, but I do ferment them relatively cool. Adding some lemon zest will give you more.


Of the two approaches, I much prefer the second method. However, there are a lot of folks on www.winepress.us that make a lemonade recipe called "Skeeter Pee" that uses the first method, and they mostly seem happy with the results. Check out skeeterpee.com for the details."

 

[CoolYon]

Did a search on here and found a thread for lemon mead.
@MedsenFey said this
"Fermenting lemonade can be a challenge due to pH being so low. There are two approaches that I know can work.

1. Ferment by using the yeast cake from a prior fermentation using a yeast like EC-1118 that is tolerant of low pH. These yeast will be more-accustomed to a harsh low pH environment. Then keep it warm, and aerated, and be very patient and it will usually get going.

2. Adjust the pH. It takes a lot of Potassium Bicarbonate or Calcium Carbonate to to bring the pH up from Lemonade levels (typically 2.8 or lower) up to the range where yeast can work, but if you get the pH up to around 3.2-3.4, you can typically get it done easily. Once the pH is adjusted, the yeast love citrus fruit. After fermentation is complete, you can taste it to see if it is tart enough to suit you; in most cases it probably will be as the acidity is still very high, and TA is more closely associated with acid taste than is pH. However, if you need to add some acid to suit you, using acid blend, citric acid, or more lemon juice will allow you to get the level you want. When I do this, I find the lemon aroma still present, but I do ferment them relatively cool. Adding some lemon zest will give you more.


Of the two approaches, I much prefer the second method. However, there are a lot of folks on www.winepress.us that make a lemonade recipe called "Skeeter Pee" that uses the first method, and they mostly seem happy with the results. Check out skeeterpee.com for the details."

Thanks for this! I was starting to think the same thing about the acid... I'll try pitching a small second yeast starter, and if nothing happens tomorrow I'll look into adjusting the PH levels.
I've actually made skeeter pee before, and I guess I probably should have thought about the yeast cake

Thanks a ton!

 

[CoolYon]

Btw I pitched a second half pack of yeast after letting it rehydrate for about 40 minutes, and it took off within a half hour after that she's a brewin'

 

[SteveO820]

Nice! Gotta love how temperamental yeast can be! lol Happy it was such an easy fix!