i think i have slow fermentation

[paddy711]

This is first time making mead and i have a six and a five gallon carboy fermenting in primary. i pitched the yeast in both of them on Tuesday(six days ago) and they have only dropped from 1.132og to 1.10 and 1.123og to 1.10. this seems slow to me, but maybe i am wrong. today is the first day i have checked the gravities and i thought they would be alot further along.

6 gallon carboy recipe:

21 lbs of honey clover/wildflower
water used- spring water from walmart
yeast- 71b 5 grams
go ferm during rehydration, must was 86 degrees at time of pitch.
currently fermenting at 67 degrees
og 1.123
added 4.5g Fermaid-K & 4.5g DAP 3 to 4 hours after pitch.
added 2.8g or Fermaid-K & 2.8g DAP around 30 hours after pitched yeast.
plan on adding 1.8g of each at 1/2 sugar break

shook carboy 3-4 times a day for the first three days

shook carboy today at time of gravity check hoping this would help speed things up


5 gallon carboy

17.5 lbs clover honey
water used- spring water
yeast d47 5 grams
go ferm during rehydration, must was 81 degrees at time of pitch
currently fermenting at 67 degrees
og. 1.132
added 4.5g Fermaid-K & 4.5g DAP 2 hours after pitch
added 2.8g or Fermaid-K & 2.8g DAP around 30 hours after pitched yeast.
plan on adding 1.8g of each at 1/2 sugar break

shook carboy 3-4 times a day for the first three days

shook carboy today at time of gravity check hoping this would speed things up


my questions

Is my fermentation moving slowly or is this normal, i have read that sometimes fermentation will be completed as shortly as a week to ten days.

Since its still young should i still be shaking my carboys to degas and add o2.'


any input would be helpful this is my first mead and i really want it to be great, thanks

 

[malkore]

shaking the carboy is not helping.

you need to degas it properly with a drill mounted whip or some serious manual stirring. The CO2 and low pH caused by the CO2 is hurting the yeast, beyond what your staggered nutrient additions can make up for.

degas 2-3 times a day with a drill mount degasser for the first week of primary and you'll be well beyond 50% done with primary and gravity points dropping.

 

[paddy711]

ok so i will stir it for the next 4 or 5 days and take another reading then. do you think i need to add anymore nutrients before the 1/2 sugar break to compensate for the co2.

and thanks for the help

 

[paddy711]

sorry one more question would it be a good idea to add potassium bicarbonate to raise the ph levels, i have never done this and i don't know much about it. i just think i read that the ph needs to be at the right level for a prime yeast climate for fermentation. any thought on this.

p.s. i made a wip for my drill and i actually mixed the must and made it overflow so it worked pretty good.

 

[MedsenFey]

The de-gassing will affect the pH minimally. Rarely will you see a change greater than 0.1 in a pH reading between a fully CO2-saturated mead and one that is fully de-gassed. If you open your fermenter and stir, swirl or shake it you will allow enough air in to have the yeast reach maximal biomass. After that, stirring/de-gassing is certainly an option (but by no means essential) as I can assure you many great meads get made without active de-gassing during fermentation.

If you check your pH and find it is 3.2 or lower you can add a 1 gram per gallon of potassium bicarbonate initially (allowing some time (like an hour or 2) to equilibrate) and then 0.5 grams per gallon until you have the pH at 3.4 or thereabouts. At that level the yeast will function just fine.

If your temperature is cool, that may cause the fermentation to be slow, but that's usually a good thing.

Medsen

 

[paddy711]

i have been stirring my two carboys three times a day for the last two days as advised. i took a gravity reading from both and one has dropped ten points and the other has dropped 20 points in the last two days. i know i still have along of way to go but does this fermentation is back on track or is this still slow. i ordered some potassium bicarbonate on line but i have no way of checking the ph levels. so if you guys think my fermentation is still moving slow should i just add a little to raise the ph even with out testing, would that be better than nothing. or should i just ride it out and let things take their course, i guess they are still dropping at a steady pace just slow. i thought about the temp its fermenting at and it is actually closer to 64-65 degrees if that changes anything. ha i really don't know what i should do and its driving me crazy, but i guess that's half the fun (just as long as it turns out ok).

sorry about all the questions guys, can you tell i am a giant rookie

 

[MedsenFey]

Dropping 5-10 points a day is fine. I wouldn't add anything that wasn't required.

Medsen

 

[paddy711]

i need to bring this thread back because i think my meads are dieing.

i used my drill to stir the meads with a homemade whip, it worked great and got some good aeration going. then i took medsenfey's advice and let my mead sit and ferment for the last two weeks and i checked them today and notice one had bubbled up into my bubbler so i switched it out for a fresh clean one and while i did i figured i would take gravity reading from the two carboys. they both are still bubbling away nothing fierce but there is still activity.

the one that bubbled up is my 5 gallon batch and the gravity reading was 1.054 the last time i checked was on 2/5/11 and it had a reading of 1.08

my 6 gallon batch only had a gravity reading of 1.08 today. the last reading taken was on 2/5/11 and it was 1.09, so really no movement

everything thing has been kept the same i haven't touched either of them, the only thing i did was add the final nutrient addition to the 6 gallon batch because i thought it was at the mid point from how steady it was dropping before.

are my meads ruined can they be saved, what should i do to get them going again i really am out of answers because i thought i was doing everything by the book and it seems like everything is going wrong. i would really appreciate any feedback, thanks

 

[MedsenFey]

Your batches are definitely sluggish/stalling. They have barely dropped. There is a good chance that the pH of your batches is too low. It really would help you to be able to check them.

Adding more yeast energizer (the tan powdery kind) tends to raise the pH and you might add a bit more to your batches as hightest's SNA tends to be a little on the light side (less than 150 ppm YAN - which may be okay for 71B, but D47 tends to like more). So you might add another 5 grams of Fermaid K to each batch, along with some aeration, and if that doesn't work, you really should check the pH and be ready to add some potassium bicarbonate.

The very worst that could happen is that you might need to pitch a new yeast if everything else doesn't work. So don't worry, you'll be able to get these batches completed.

Medsen