Chill out or be concerned?

[Sonesen]

How concerned do i need to be if i may have pitched my yeast and little too soon and a little to hot?

i have some sediment in the bottom which is concerning, due to me thinking its the yeast (dead), i may have fudged that bit up and will need to add new yeast so the new yeast can feed on that yeast.

its only been 24 hours, and its like having a newborn, gotta watch it like crazy.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Sonesen - and welcome. But you need to be more like a doctor and less like a mother. Have you taken the gravity of the mead? What is it reading? That's just about the only way you can tell if the yeast are alive and kicking or they have given up the ghost because you cooked them. And if you haven't yet got an hydrometer then you are not behaving like a doctor.

 

[BrewInspector]

What's "a little too hot"?

A little hot will just produce some flavors you may not want.

Way too hot might have killed them

 

[Sonesen]

The temp 90F, when it should have 85, will have the gravity later.

 

[vevenson]

I'd give it a shake and wait another 24 hours. If it doesn't start up by then, I'd add new yeast. My 5 gallon batches always take 24+ hours before they show signs of fermentation. You might want to wait for someone else to weigh in though, as I'm no professional. Good luck!

 

[BrewInspector]

Not hot enough to kill the yeast.
Give it some time.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

If you pitched at 90 degrees I wouldn't worry about the heat killing your yeast since most "Lalvin" brand yeast say to rehydrate yeast in water between 104 and 109 degrees if I'm remembering correctly. What yeast have you chosen to use if nobody has asked yet, some can be slow or finicky. Also how big is your brew in gallons or liters? I read somewhere back that under pitching yeast can be a simple issue to fix. And also welcome to the forums

 

[Sonesen]

i am starting with a gallon right now. i was just worried that i may have over heated the yeast.
another question, if the yeast doesn't have a full time as per direction to activate, will that be a concern or will it activate either way? i am seeing some folks add yeast direct to the must without heating the water.

thanks for all the help! im enjoying this forum!

 

[Kyzaboy89]

I have actually done both with some wet and mostly dry yeasts but can only remember once or twice that i had to wait a couple of days to see activity. I prefer rehydrating simply so I can see the yeast are actively starting and because adding the rehydrated yeast to room temperature must gets going within a couple hours usually. Everything from Fleischmans bread yeast, Lalvin wine yeasts and assorted wet yeast packs are perfectly acceptable for meads, everybody just has a personal taste. If you used a whole packet of yeast for your gallon that should be plenty, can you see if it has an expiration date on the pack or if it may have been compromised somehow?

 

[growlrr]

Kyzaboy is correct. Re-hydrating is helpful mostly to assure you the yeast is viable, but even some yeasts (Red Star Cote comes to mind) kinda just sit there in the glass looking gross even after an hour and still go right to work when you pitch them. I've sprinkled dry yeast right out of packet onto the must and given it a swirl and off they go. No one asked yet , so I will - was the yeast at room temperature? If so you should be OK. If they came right out of the fridge, that could be a problem. Anywhere from 72 to 100 degrees would be within the window, BUT (and this is a big but), the must and yeast should be within 10 degrees of each other (within that range) when you pitch. Otherwise you run the risk of shocking the yeast and causing yourself problems.

 

[Sonesen]

Alrighty folks, got fermentation! i chucked it up to the cold here. I place my jug in a warmer area and it's looking good. Pulled a gravity sample last night too, 1.100. (tho could be off a little due to inexperience with hydrometers)

 

[bernardsmith]

You can always check your hydrometer reading by calculation. What's the total volume? What is fermenting? A starting gravity of 1.100 suggests the equivalent of a scant 3 lbs of honey dissolved in water to make 1 gallon (times the number of gallons). One pound of honey dissolved in water to make 1 gallon will raise the gravity of the water by 35 points (1.035). If suggesting that each gallon of must has a scant 3 lbs of honey seems way off then inexperience reading an hydrometer may be at work (of course, if you added fruit then we can assume that most fruit juice will have enough sugar to have a gravity of around 1.040 -1.050 absent any added water).