71B-1122 yeast six days

[billingsbrew]

I started a black current and pomegranate mead six days ago. It had and OG of 1.142, checked it last night and it was at 1.102. Fermenting at 70°. I put more nutrient and yeast in last night. My concern is it may be fermenting at to slow a rate. I have not used this yeast before and am just a little concerned. I was thinking of just adding a large starter of 1118 to override the original yeast. I was hoping to finish at 1.035 with the 71B-1122 however, I am concerned it may conk out before it ever reaches this stage. Any thoughts?

 

[Arpolis]

That is a real high gravity for 71b to take on. That coupled with probably high acidity from the honey and fruit the 71b is probably having a hard time starting a large colony.

I would stick with the 71b regardless and not resort to ec-1118 unless fermentation truly stalls out. If you can I would whip up some O2 into the mead and feed the yeast as much oxygen as you can. A wine whip on a drill is preferred but I have even chucked a bent coat hanger into a drill to good effect. You can do that until at least half the sugar is eaten away by the yeast. If your gravity does not change over a 4-5 day period then it can be safe to add another yeast like ec-1118 or my preference K1v-1116.

Be patient with the yeast. Not all fermentations are done in 1-2 weeks. If this takes a month or two it will not be the slowest mead to finish fermenting.

 

[billingsbrew]

Thanks I was thinking of more aeration along with the yeast and nutrients. I have and aeration stone and I will give it all I can. I was just concerned if it stalls at 10.60 it would be too sweet and it would be too late to add 1118. Have you used 1122 before and what was the outcome?

 

[Arpolis]

I use 1112 all the time. It is a great all around yeast that consistently gets to 14% ABV and I have pushed it to 15% a time or two. But most of the time I do not let starting gravities get over 1.080 - 1.090 and if I want more ABV I add honey later into fermentation. My only drawback to the yeast is that after the wine/mead clears it does not do well to ferment a little after priming with sugar or honey. So I often do not get fizzy meads or wines with that yeast. I did once on a white grape peach wine but fermentation did not pick up in the bottle till after it set for about 2 months.

This yeast with plenty of nutrients and your air stone should got you down to a gravity of about 1.030 - 1.036 I would bet. So still really sweet but drinkable at that range depending on your tastes.

 

[billingsbrew]

It is a 6 gallon batch and I think I will split it between the 1118 and the 1122. It's like betting on a team to win and lose. At least I will be able to figure this out with a little bit of Monday morning quarterbacking.

 

[billingsbrew]

Wow I forgot I took 1 gallon off of that batch and put it in a separate container. The only difference was the 5 gallon batch had 7 pounds of raisins and the 1 gallon batch had 8 ounces of Rosehip. The 1 gallon batch, after 6 days had a reading of 1.042. The 5 gallon batch was just over 5% ABV and the 1 gallon batch was just over 13% ABV in the same timeframe. How could wild Rose hips make that kind of a difference, or perhaps too large and addition of raisins In the 5 gallon batch. I went ahead and split the two batches. I added 2 pounds of puréed rosehips to the 1122 batch. I will see if it continues down the same road as the 1 gallon batch?

 

[Arpolis]

Could just be a specific nutrient was lacking in the batch with raisins over rosehips. Rose hips are super high in both vitamin A & C compared to raisins. That may have been the contributing factor.