Not sure if my mead is fermenting

[DrunkenCanuck]

So I have had my mead in a fermenting pail for almost 3 weeks and I am not seeing any signs of fermenting from bubbles escaping the chamber on the pail. Is this normal? I used a White Labs wet yeast mixture for my recipe, 2 gallon pail for primary and a 1L carboy for secondary fermentation. I am still on the primary fermentation, but I don't see any bubbles going yet, is this normal 3 weeks in?

 

[clone63]

Bad seal on the bucket can easily explain the no bubbles.
Hydrometer is king but if there isn't one available then maybe a taste would indicate if it has fermented at all.
If you provide recipe, temperatures, OG, target FG, etc. would help

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Well, I snapped a corner of the bucket open, it was closed tight. It smells musty and there is a layer of foam around the top of the pail, is this what I am looking for to show that it's fermenting? Temperature is around 21 degrees as I keep the room where it is stored dark and cool and it's actually in a closet so it's never exposed to light. Original gravity was 1.6, target should be around 1.4. Just a traditional honey mead (cyser iirc) with

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Sounds like its fermenting to me...

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Maybe it's just slow at doing stage one, could be the yeast I am using. Should I still swap it over to a carboy at 4 weeks or leave it for one more?

 

[clone63]

Guessing you meant 1.16 for a strong wine like mead or 1.06 for a light one.
I'd just let it sit in primary if you're not sure how far it's gone. no harm.
Sounds like it's fermenting. Could have been a slow start, depending on yeast and nutrient additions.. Not enough info to go on

 

[DrunkenCanuck]

Guessing you meant 1.16 for a strong wine like mead or 1.06 for a light one.
I'd just let it sit in primary if you're not sure how far it's gone. no harm.
Sounds like it's fermenting. Could have been a slow start, depending on yeast and nutrient additions.. Not enough info to go on

I used YPL720 wet mead yeast from White Labs, and yes, I meant 1.16 OG. No other additions to the recipe, so I didn't put in nutrients.

 

[thm57]

1.16 is an extremely high OG. There's a good chance a large portion of your yeast died from shock going into that, so a good bet would be to add nutrients, or something else for the yeast to snack on while they replicate back to fermenting numbers. I'm also assuming your going for a very sweet mead, given that that's enough honey to overcome the alcohol tolerance of even some of the heaviest hitting yeast.

If using nutrients doesn't get it fermenting, you may have to water it down and make more mead than you were originally planning.