First mead, abnormally slow fermentation?

[MotivatedKing]

I've been brewing beer for a few years so I guess I'm used to the speed of ale yeast but I tried my first batch of mead 6 days ago and the slow fermentation had me worried.

Mixing honey and water I ended up with 23L/6 gallons @ 1.110 OG
I dry pitched a packet of EC-1118 the same time I started two fermenters of beers.
I couldn't buy "real" yeast nutrition as the closest brewing store is a long distance away, so I usually order over the internet; so I boiled 50g of bakers yest and crushed a bunch of multivitamins calsium and zinc supplement tablets. After that I finally got a krauzen but my hydrometer tells me that I've only got about 2% alcohol in 6 days while my beers are 6.5%

Am I doing something wrong or is mead usually this slow?

 

[dwhite60]

Big gravity can take a while to start. How warm is it? 62F? Dry pitching probably didn't help. That high a gravity I would have rehydrated. It will go though, just take longer.


Boiled yeast was a good idea. Calcium and zinc, I don't know.

 

[MotivatedKing]

Big gravity can take a while to start. How warm is it? 62F? Dry pitching probably didn't help. That high a gravity I would have rehydrated. It will go though, just take longer.


Boiled yeast was a good idea. Calcium and zinc, I don't know.

It was about 24C/75F when I pitched but has been 20C/68F past three days. The EC-1118 tolerates 10-30C or 50-86F.

Would it be wise to add another packet of yeast, not dry pitching this time?

 

[Jag75]

Welcome to HBT ! Have you checked out the mead section? Mead definitely needs nutrients or it lags big time. Get some goferm and the nutrients to do step feeding. It will definitely help .

 

[Yooper]

Make sure you stir your mead often, to get rid of the co2, since co2 is poisonous to yeast. Also, it’s very common to do staggered nutrient additions with mead. Honey has very little, if any, nutrients for the yeast.

 

[CKuhns]

Am I doing something wrong or is mead usually this slow?

My "big" Meads (High ABV) OG 1.120 to 1.125 with really good Staggered Nutrient additions specific to the yeast used AND a yeast starter for 24 - 48 hours prior to pitch take 21 - 30 days to get to my racking target of 1.010 and another 2 - 4 weeks to "finish". As @Yooper mentioned stir a couple times a day to add a little air, suspend solids / yeast and release CO2 until 1/3 sugar break then stir gently 1X a day to release CO2 to 2/3 Sugar break. After that leave it alone until your ready to rack and secondary.