I think I may have killed the yeast- what to do?

[Jam]

So I made a light lemon mead from a recipe on here. I used lavin d47 as the recipe called for

So after 2 weeks of airlock activity I took hydrometer readings, it was at about 4%

A few days later, I went out of town for the holidays. I turned the heat off, thinking the residual heat from the other apartment wouldn't let the temp get too low. I came back a few days later, and the temp was down to 52*!

I turned the heat back on, the temp went back up to mid 60's but no airlock activity for days

Should I put more yeast in? Do I need to wait longer? Did I ruin this batch?

Thanks guys

 

[Cbaddad]

Wait a bit. You could very gently stir the yeast to try and rouse them.

 

[Beernik]

You didn't kill the yeast but it might have gone dormant. There are two options: try rousing the yeast or pitching new yeast.

Trying to rouse it might cause oxidization. I'd pitch new yeast, dry yeast is cheap. Since it's dry yeast and only 4% ABV in the fermenter, you could probably get away with just rehydrating a pack and pouring it in.

 

[Calder]

I assume by 4% you mean the gravity was about 1.030? We generally don't use the % scale. It just tells you thevalcohol potential if you ferment to 1.000. Since most beers don't go that far, it doesn't mean much.

I don't know your recipe, but if it was all simple sugars, it should go down below 1.000.

Unless the brew actually froze, the yeast will be alive. By dropping thectemp, thevyeast went dormant and dropped out of suspension. Keep the temp up, and gently stir, and leave alone, and it should start up again.