Fermention Problem

[scumbuster]

I have been making wine for about 5 years with nary a problem. Now after relocating to South America I have been on a experimental brew endeavor. After a month here I have successfully fermented mango, grapes and guava. Early this week a neighbor dropped off some lemons which are pretty rare here in Colombia. Skeeter Pee sounded interesting but I figured I would change it a little with fresh lemons. I also wanted to just start a sugar base and add the lemons after I got it fermenting pretty good. I never made a sugar base before and always had fruit in my primary fermentation. It was simply sugar, yeast nutrient with yeast added. I initially started with a SG of 1.100 which is a typical starting point for me. After 2 failed attempts to start it, I decided that maybe it was too much raw sugar (cane sugar) and diluted it to 1.080 and tried to start it again. Still no luck. Its only 1 gallon but I hate to dump it. Still got these lemons and would like to reward the neighbor with some Skeeter Pee so he keeps bringing them over to me. me lemons. Also I am working with a limited amount of brewing additives. I have yeast nutrient but no yeast energizer. No wine shops around so I will probably have to make a bulk order off supplies from the USA at some point. Since I am short on everything and I haven't seen any supplies here I have been dividing my yeast packets into 3s to make it go farther so I have 1 packet of yeast in this sugar base. What do I need to add to get this to start?

 

[jensmith]

Check temp. Could be too cold. No reason you can't had a handfull or raisons or other fruit. The lemons will cover them up later on. Stirr the crap out of it. Make sure there is plenty of air for the yeast.
If you have a shower stall with a solid door. Take a hot shower and set the fermenting bucket in the shower as soon as you get out. Leave for at least 12-24 h. Something about this method works very well for me for starting up stuborn yeasties.


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