Hello

[JLN77]

Question. Can yeast go bad or maybe can some yeast in the same packet be good and some bad?
I started a brew of honey mead with an un-used brew kit I bought from someone. (Kept in a storage unit)
I started it on the 27th, used 1 gallon of room temp honey and 3 gallons of luke warm water and 11.5 gram packet of yeast that was in the kit. Supposedly the yeast should start fermentation in 12 to 24 hours. Here it's been 3 full days and I haven't noticed any action it the bubbler. I did pop the lid today and it smells like yeast and there are some bubbles on the top. But I feel like it should be working alot better. Any input or advice would be great thanks!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Question. Can yeast go bad or maybe can some yeast in the same packet be good and some bad?
I started a brew of honey mead with an un-used brew kit I bought from someone. (Kept in a storage unit)
I started it on the 27th, used 1 gallon of room temp honey and 3 gallons of luke warm water and 11.5 gram packet of yeast that was in the kit. Supposedly the yeast should start fermentation in 12 to 24 hours. Here it's been 3 full days and I haven't noticed any action it the bubbler. I did pop the lid today and it smells like yeast and there are some bubbles on the top. But I feel like it should be working alot better. Any input or advice would be great thanks!

Welcome to the group!

Utah is a fine state, been there twice doing project work in Ogden. Beautiful area!

Three days seems long, but you are seeing some activity. It might take some extra time to get rolling.

Did you take a gravity reading before you pitched your yeast? That's the best way to measure activity instead of removing the lid. A gravity reading before is your base, then readings after you should see it dropping.

 

[JLN77]

I did. It was 1.120
Would it really change much in 3 days?

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I did. It was 1.120
Would it really change much in 3 days?

I suspect this is your starting gravity. As it ferments that number gets smaller, closer to 1.0xx would be your final gravity but that should take a while to get there depending on your temperature

If after three days you're at 1.120 then not much is happening. You did mention that you see some bubbles so it might just be slow to get to full fermentation. Mead ferments slow and could take four weeks to completely ferment. It's best to let it alone and do it's thing.

If after a couple weeks and you see no change, you could add some more yeast.

 

[JLN77]

Ok thank you

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Ok thank you

There's a lot of mead folks on this site and if you go to the mead forum you can search more there.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forums/mead-forum.30/