I think i may have killed it...

[brokemxer]

Hey everybody, so I'm fairly new to home brewing. I've made a few successful batches of beer, and I'm now trying my hand at a basic mead. At the suggestion of the guy at my local brewshop, I picked up about 13 lbs of blueberry honey, yeast (wyeast smack pack, I've forgotten the actual strain though) , yeast nutrient, gypsum and a new 5 gallon brewing bucket and headed straight home to start on it.

I start by sanitizing EVERYTHING with one step. Like OCD sanitizing. I put 2 gallons of water in the brew pot, heated it up to 120 degrees, mixed in the honey. Kept it at 120 for 15 minutes and then threw in a "pinch" of gypsum. I then mixed in another 2 gallons of cool water and brought the temperature down to 70 degrees in an ice bath. I took a gravity reading (1.100) and then pitched the yeast and added a "pinch" of nutrient.

It's now been a week with no evidence of activity. I know the airlock isn't necessarily the thing to go by for evidence of fermentation, so I took another gravity reading. It's still exactly 1.100.

As far as I know, I followed my brew supply guy's instructions to a T. I'm pretty sure I did what I was supposed to with the yeast. It had expanded in its pack and was at room temp.

Sooo... What have I done?? Have I successfully murdered a billion little yeast cells?
And, more importantly, how do I save it? Can I just pitch a new pack of yeast?

 

[fatbloke]

No, it sounds like you've used, what is debatably, the most PITA of yeast - wyeast sweet mead. Finicky as hell, either sticks or doesn't start at all.

How the hell anyone manages to use it I've yet to work out......

First go over to the gotmead forums and have a read of their "NewBee" guide (linked in yellow box left side of main page) then think about repitching. Probably a dry yeast.......

And no, I tried that bloody yeast 3 times and each one didn't start.....IMO a waste of time and money.

 

[biochemedic]

You should be fine just repitching yeast. It could be, as fatbloke suggested, you have a finicky yeast, and it may eventually start, although a week is a little longer than I'd be comfortable waiting. One simple fact though, is that you vastly under-pitched. In order for the yeast to be healthy and get a good start, you need a critical mass of yeast cells, and a single packet of liquid yeast just doesn't have it. You really need to make a starter with liquid yeast (basically a small batch of beer) to grow up more yeast. Even with dry yeast, you need more than one packet...for a 1.100 gravity mead, I'd use at least 2, if not 3 five gram packets (properly rehydrated, of course...not rehydrating will also significantly cut your viable yeast amount).

Other things...Oxygen is very important in higher gravity brews like mead...at the very least you need to agitate the $h!* out of that beast. Next best would be to use some sort of stirrer on a drill, and optimally, you use a diffusion stone and an air pump with filter, or (best) bottled oxygen. Next, I'm not sure a "pinch" of nutrient is enough...if I were you, I'd read up on "staggered nutrient additions," and start following that protocol for your nutrient. Finally, I'm unsure about the gypsum additions...don't think it would be harmful, but I can't imagine why that would be necessary for a mead. Even if you were to make some sort of "it does something beneficial to the pH" argument, the amount you're adding is negligible...a pinch of fairy dust, in effect!

 

[brokemxer]

Thanks guys! I'll repitch the yeast tonight and see if I can find a way to aerate my must...

 

[fatbloke]

Thanks guys! I'll repitch the yeast tonight and see if I can find a way to aerate my must...

Aerating the must can be stick blending in a bucket, or bubbling air with an airstone. Or taking a pint or so from a gallon and blitzing ina sanitised liquidiser etc. Its just getting air/O2 into the brew up to the recommended 1/3rd sugar break.....

 

[Walking_Target]

Dude.

Just re pitch with some rehydrated Lalvin D-47 or KV1. Then relax hand have a drink, it'll be bubbling within 48h.

 

[brokemxer]

Thanks everybody. It's pitched a few days ago and sloshed my bucket around for a few minutes as an attempt at aeration.

It's now starting to bubble! Slowly... But its bubbling none the less