Batch Started, But have Concerns

[TriangleMead]

Okay so I made a batch a few years ago and wanted to try again.

So, I found a good strawberry recipe and the wife and I threw it all together Friday night.

A few hiccups (I rinsed after using Star San, finger touched the must while stirring) but worse things have happened.

So, we originally got a 6.5 gallon carboy for fermentation but after crushing 20 lbs of strawberries for juice, we ended up with 1.25 gallons of juice. After adding 2.5 gallons of water, and 18 lbs of honey it ended up closer to 6 gallons total and I was worried about only having an inch of space in the top.

So I hadn't seen any bubbles in about 14 hours, and we decided to go get a 7.9 gallon carboy and move it. We sanitized it with Star-san (no rinsing this time) and moved it quickly over into the new carboy.

It's been about 23 hours since we did that and I've checked a few times- no bubbles.

I opened it up to do some stirring just now and I don't know, I'm worried it's gonna be a bust. Should I be concerned there haven't been any bubbles just yet?

Wondering if I should pitch some more yeast in there?

I don't know, there's like $90 worth of honey not to mention another $30 of strawberries and a lot of time in this so I really just hope it isn't ruined.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Maylar]

How much yeast and what kind?
Did you rehydrate it?
What temperature is it at?
Did you add any yeast nutrient?
Do you know the specific gravity It started with? Do you have a hydrometer?

 

[TriangleMead]

How much yeast and what kind?
Did you rehydrate it?
What temperature is it at?
Did you add any yeast nutrient?
Do you know the specific gravity It started with? Do you have a hydrometer?

How much yeast and what kind?
Did you rehydrate it?
What temperature is it at?
Did you add any yeast nutrient?
Do you know the specific gravity It started with? Do you have a hydrometer?

1 packet (good for 5 gallons) of Lalvin 71B.

I followed the instructions on the packet to heat it at water about 95 degrees for 20 seconds, mixed, then pitched into the must.

Not sure what temp the must is. Apartment has been between 65 and 71 over the last few days.

Yes, I added yeast nutrient.

Tried to use hydrometer, didn't do it right. Yes, I'm stupid.

 

[Maylar]

No, you're not stupid.

All that looks good, except you don't mention "atemporating" the yeast after hydration. Once the yeast has swelled in hot water for 20 minutes you have to slowly add cool water (or must) to bring the temp down to within 10 degrees of the must before pitching. Like, lower the yeast temp 5 degrees every 5 minutes. If you pitch hot yeast into cold must you'll kill them from temperature shock.

 

[TriangleMead]

Edit: Wait, I double checked the Lalvin 71B instructions and it says 20 seconds, which is what I did.

95 degrees, for 20 seconds, stirring, then pitched into must.

Either way, should I add more yeast? Should I have seen bubbles by now?

 

[Maylar]

Yep.

 

[TriangleMead]

Okay, got more Lalvin 71B. Got it in 2 oz of water at 100 degree fahrenheit ( two different instructions- packet says 95-98, online instructions say 104 *shrug* ).

Letting sit for 20 minutes, then I guess I will slowly bring it down to 70 degrees, and pitch it into the must.

I also bought more nutrients. While bringing the yeast to 70 I'll dissolve the nutrients in warm water to pitch at the same time.

Any advice or suggestions?

 

[TriangleMead]

Well, no bubbles this morning. Stirred again and covered again.

In hindsight, I should have chosen a less finicky yeast.

 

[Solstice Meadery]

You say 'covered' and that you can't see bubbles. Does this mean you are not using an actual airlock? No bubbles does not mean no fermentation, not necessarily anyways.

Based on the numbers you provided in the original post, and without knowing what the strawberries bring as far as sugar content you would be well over an original SG of 1.105. You may be above the tolerance of your yeast.

• Take a new SG reading and see if it's lower.
• Take 1 daily and see if it's going down. Even if your reading it wrong, if you read it consistently wrong the numbers should be going down if fermentation is taking place. (but you should really look up a refresher video on reading it if you think your doing it wrong)
• Start recording your temperature at time of readings. Temp fluctuations can put your readings off.
• Get a strip thermometer and slap that bad boy on the side of your carboy
• If the SG is not decreasing you may need to pitch strong yeast as if it were a stuck fermentation

 

[TriangleMead]

You say 'covered' and that you can't see bubbles. Does this mean you are not using an actual airlock? No bubbles does not mean no fermentation, not necessarily anyways.

Based on the numbers you provided in the original post, and without knowing what the strawberries bring as far as sugar content you would be well over an original SG of 1.105. You may be above the tolerance of your yeast.

• Take a new SG reading and see if it's lower.
• Take 1 daily and see if it's going down. Even if your reading it wrong, if you read it consistently wrong the numbers should be going down if fermentation is taking place. (but you should really look up a refresher video on reading it if you think your doing it wrong)
• Start recording your temperature at time of readings. Temp fluctuations can put your readings off.
• Get a strip thermometer and slap that bad boy on the side of your carboy
• If the SG is not decreasing you may need to pitch strong yeast as if it were a stuck fermentation

It is covered, with an airlock. I just meant if I looked for a minute or two, no bubbles were coming through the airlock.

I’ll give this a shot tonight when I get home!

 

[Seamonkey84]

I’m not sure why this batch isn’t taking off for you. That isn’t too high of a gravity, and now two packs of yeast. If it’s not chugging away tomorrow, something like pH might be off. get some fresh yeas and rehydrate. then step feed a bit of your must into the hydrated yeast slowly, so you end up with 3x the original hydration fluid over the course of at about two hours. That should be foaming well by the time you pitch it into your batch.

 

[TriangleMead]

I’ll be checking the SG this evening. If there aren’t positive changes by tomorrow evening, should I consider a different yeast?

 

[Seamonkey84]

That’s up to you, I’d be more concerned with how they were stored or shipped before you got them, so a different/fresher batch should do the trick. Strawberries aren’t very acidic, so I don’t understand why else your batch isn’t taking off. I’ve used almost all strawberry with very little water added to make one of my batches and it turned out great.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I have used 71-B three times. Each time it took days to show me any activity. I don't use it now because I'm never sure if it has started.

 

[TriangleMead]

So I used the hydrometer again, and it looks like 40 for OG? Included pics of both sides of reading. Oh, I put the stick on thermometer on the side of the must, and it reads 68 degrees.

Stirred again before taking it, then filled hydrometer, waited a minute and took reading.

So I guess the plan now is to wait until morning, open and stir again. Then tomorrow evening open, take reading,
and stir again?

What do I do if there are still no bubbles either time? Or if there's no significant change in the reading?

 

[Solstice Meadery]

Looks like your at a 1.140 (roughly 21% potential)which, if fermented to the tolerance of your current yeast( ~14%) will be a very, very sweet strawberry mead.

Looking at the specs of 71B (I've not used it before) it looks like it may need a lot of O2 or it won't be happy. It has moderate fermentation characteristics so if it was doing something I would think you would be seeing evidence by now. Also you will probably really smell this one when it takes off. It's known for augmenting aromatic characteristics.

 

[Seamonkey84]

1.140 is ~18%abv according to my chart. You’ll finish at least semi sweet for sure, even with proper degassing and staggering nutrients. That may be a bit high for yeast without using goferm and step feeding during after hydration. Though I regularly start my batches at 1.150 with liquid wyeast 1388 (I use a starter culture) using the BOMM protocol, it may shock dry yeast.

 

[Solstice Meadery]

1.140 is ~18%abv according to my chart.

Seamonkey, your using the simplified ABV Calc. I use the alt calculation as it is said to be better for higher ABV brewing. Either way, he's definitely finishing sweet....if he can ever get it off the ground.

 

[Seamonkey84]

Seamonkey, your using the simplified ABV Calc. I use the alt calculation as it is said to be better for higher ABV brewing.

Oh, so my BOMMs that drop 120 gravity points are higher than 16%?!

 

[TriangleMead]

So I added nutrients this morning when stirring. I have to admit I did it initially when I pitched the yeast (the second time) but forgot to other times I opened to stir.

I'll check the reading again this evening when I get home. We'll see how it looks.

 

[Maylar]

Beware of adding too much nutrient - the yeast can only use so much of it and what doesn't get used will be left behind... you'll taste it.

 

[Seamonkey84]

You should add nutrients at the beginning, then as the gravity drops.

 

[Kevin Gallagher]

I would repitch with lalvin EC-1118 yeast. I am fairly new to brewing mead but I have good luck with this yeast. Never a stuck fermentation.
I started two 5 gallon batches yesterday, no problem. Sounds like you did not follow the protocol for starting the yeast.

 

[TriangleMead]

I didn’t follow protocol the first time, but definitely did to the letter the second.

Also, the second time I followed instructions on nutrients and used like 1/4 of the small bottle initially, and another 1/4 this morning. I missed putting it in yesterday, so I’ve put in a little less than I should.

Is it too late to throw in a different yeast if it’s not showing anything tonight?

It’ll have been 96 hours since initial brewing and 48 since trying the yeast a second time, this time correctly.

 

[Solstice Meadery]

Oh, so my BOMMs that drop 120 gravity points are higher than 16%?!

yes. Both Calculations are still considered best guesses. But ABV doesn't rise linearly as in the the standard OG-FG*yada. Works fine for beers that are typically under 10% but the higher you get the more off the basic calculation becomes because ABV does not actually raise in a linear fashion. It's not exactly exponential but far from linear. The alt calc gets a much better guesstimate at higher ABV's. ABV =(76.08 * (og-fg) / (1.775-og)) * (fg / 0.794)

I use an app called Homebrew Logbook. It has basic and Alt calculation methods built in so plug in your OG and FG and it's a done deal. Plus you can log all your Mead data in a single digital place. has ads though....meh

Is it too late to throw in a different yeast if it’s not showing anything tonight?

I would wait and see what your SG is tonight. If it's lower, even by a little bit it would indicate your fermenting, just not real fast. Then you would want it look at ways of making the current yeast happy instead of pitching what...a third round? The yeast you started with needs lots of Oxygen. If you didn't aerate the holy living **** out of it (highly technical term) to begin with they may just be struggling. If your fermentation hasn't really taken off perhaps another vigorous round of aeration is in order. But that's your call because at some point that's just going to assist in making strawberry vinegar. Are you there yet, I don't think so but it's not my call.

 

[TriangleMead]

Looks like it's fermenting! The first one yesterday was higher than 40, and now it's closer to 32?

Am I reading this right?

(Note these are both readings from tonight- you need to compare to the readings I posted above).

 

[Solstice Meadery]

You do indeed appear to be much lower than last night. HUZZAH!

Keep an eye on it and make sure it trends that way each day. Couple of things to take note of now:

• Your must appears to be fermenting. No bubbles in the airlock means the C02 is escaping somewhere else where it is easier than pushing the water in the airlock out of the way.
• Check your lid, bung and airlock seat. Make sure all are nice and tight. I've even seen people use rubber bands to make sure the bung/airlock doesn't get unseated.
• If all appears locked down....some buckets/setups just leak. Be aware of it and make sure you don't apply any downward pressure on your lid if you can manage it. This will push some C02 out of the fermenter and when the pressure is released....suck oxygen into your must.
• This yeast is supposed to accentuate aromas so if you really want to try and find the leak you can try sniffing around seals to see if you smell the C02 coming out stronger at some point.
• When taking your readings. Make sure you drop the hydrometer in, let it spin a second or 2 and try to make sure there are few if any bubbles clinging to the sides. This can throw your readings off. (Think of it like a straw in a cold glass of soda. As the bubbles collect on the straw it slowly climbs out of your glass. Same thing is happening, just on a smaller scale.
  • You want to read the SG. The column with the 1.000 in it where your current reading is something like 1.132
  • Your first reading was 1.140 so with the yeast you pitched it should run dry somewhere around 1.030 give or take 10 points. That should be a nice sweet/semi-sweet mead.

Good luck and keep us appraised. Love to know how it turns out in a few months

 

[TriangleMead]

- Regarding no bubbles- I've been opening the must to aerate roughly every 12 hours. I'm wondering if there are no bubbles in part because
of that? Opening the must every 12 hours may not let enough CO2 build up enough to push through the airlock? It's a 7.9 gallon carboy so with 3 inches of space at the top, there's a fair amount of room for air.

- The lid, bung, and airlock all appear to be pretty tight. Every time I close I close pretty hard to make sure it's secure all the way around. And I make sure the airlock is set well in the rubber hole thingy. I don't know? Is it going to ruin my batch if there's an unseen hole?

- Do I need to keep taking hydrometer readings now that I know fermentation is taking place? Or should I wait until the end?

- Do I need to keep aerating the must every 12 hours? I wouldn't have thought so after maybe tonight (Day 3 of the second yeast pitching) but I'm no longer sure.

I appreciate everyone's help getting this off the ground! Thank you!

 

[Solstice Meadery]

If it were me I would stop aerating but continue taking readings so you know when to feed your little beasties if your going to follow any SNA protocols.

A leak is not going to be a problem. As it ferments a layer of C02, which is heavier than oxygen/air will build up on top of the must protecting it.

 

[Maylar]

You can leave the bucket lid on loosely during this phase. No need for an airlock, just keep the bugs out.