Newbie Mead can't start

[jcpose]

hi there,

I started with a basic mead:

1.4kg Pasteurized Wild Flower Honey
Spring water up to 1 Gallon
(Came up to about 1.12 SG after fully mixed.)
1 tsp wine tannins
2 ounces raisins (sun dried, organic)
Zest of one navel orange
Red Star Wine Yeast
Fermaid O


Fully blended, and oxygengated. As of 24 hours I still see no tell tale C02 passing through the airlock at this point any ideas? I will next measure the pH but didn't suspect with just water and largely honey that pH would be factor here. Am i missing anything?

Thank you!

 

[jcpose]

well it has started.. just alot slower then what I am used to with making other fruit based wines and fermentations.. perhaps not as much yeast nutrient as was present with this mead vs other brews I have done with just honey, water, raisins and zest.

 

[tracer bullet]

Often, too, the answer is in how you are finding out - if it's airlock activity, that can actually take a bit to spit out CO2 while the yeasties multiply and do other things. Also if you have a small leak you may never see anything,

 

[jcpose]

that's a good point Tracer, I went back to double check all my entry points and leak points. cheers

 

[Raptor99]

SG 1.120 is quite high. Some wine and mead yeasts will have trouble getting started with that much sugar. I would not be surprised if it takes a few days to really get going.

The amount of nutrients required depends on the needs of the yeast as well as the initial SG. A higher SG mead will need more nutrients. A mead calculator can help you determine the right amount of nutrients to add.

The most reliable way to find out how well fermentation is going is to measure the SG. If the SG is steadily dropping, then fermentation is happening.