undissolved honey help?

[yousudsymf]

Hey all,
I think I may have screwed up here...I added my honey direct to carboy trying the no heat/boil idea. Topped it off with warm water thinking it would dissolve eventually, lots of swirling etc. It still settled out to the bottom rather than dissolving. Pitched the yeast thinking the beasties would stir it up in their feeding frenzy. I have activity this morning, but there is still a 2 inch layer of honey at the bottom of the carboy.

Will the yeast still get to the sugar in the settled honey or have I screwed the pooch irrevocably here??

 

[BryanThompson]

Don't worry, it will eventually mix or the yeasties will just eat off the bottom.

 

[DNSDies]

alternatively, are you aerating your mead?
If it's the first 3 or so days, get a big ass spoon and stir that stuff up, or if you can safely do so, shake the carboy.

The yeast needs the oxygen, and it'll help dissolve more of the honey.

 

[yousudsymf]

ok, thanks, I have been shaking it, it still falls to the bottom. Very unsettling Ill give it a few more days and see how it goes. Its going to be a ***** to rack if it stays like this...

 

[fatbloke]

ok, thanks, I have been shaking it, it still falls to the bottom. Very unsettling Ill give it a few more days and see how it goes. Its going to be a ***** to rack if it stays like this...

BryanThompson hit the nail on the head! I've had a couple of batches like that and I've just done the usual methods i.e. daily aeration and staggered nutrients etc and the yeast has always done it's stuff and worked it's way through the fermentable sugars.

If you searched over at Gotmead, you'll find that not only have some done tests of fermenting like this, but they even worked out an acronym for this method..... (it does seem that it's one of the methods used for high gravity/high alcohol type meads)

If you have this ferment in a bucket, you can even aerate the hell out of it with an electric whisk. Though you'll probably see that if you do stir it with a spoon or other stirrer, then after each stirring, the amount of undissolved honey reduces.....

 

[Gamrchick]

ok, thanks, I have been shaking it, it still falls to the bottom. Very unsettling Ill give it a few more days and see how it goes. Its going to be a ***** to rack if it stays like this...

Hi there. I've only used the no heat/boil method. In the future, you will want to just use a long handled spoon to mix the honey and water prior to pitching your yeast. Recently, we bought one of those carboy mixers that you attach to a drill. That cut the mixing time down immensely.

Good luck with this batch. No worries!

 

[fatbloke]

Hi there. I've only used the no heat/boil method. In the future, you will want to just use a long handled spoon to mix the honey and water prior to pitching your yeast. Recently, we bought one of those carboy mixers that you attach to a drill. That cut the mixing time down immensely.

Good luck with this batch. No worries!

Yes they do. Equally, if you have a decent sized liquidiser, then you can just mix 1lb of honey with 2 equivalent measures of the water, then blitz it. Not only does that mix it up, it also aerates it brilliantly.

 

[huesmann]

I have a solid carboy bung. When I'm adding honey to a carboy for primary, to mix it with the other liquid(s), I just put the bung in the mouth of the carboy, tip it on its side, and roll it back and forth along the floor to get everything mixed.

 

[mcaple1]

its a bottom feeding method...worked for me...although my mead ended up tasting like cough medicine. I'll stick to beer thank you.

 

[fatbloke]

its a bottom feeding method...worked for me...although my mead ended up tasting like cough medicine. I'll stick to beer thank you.

Young meads often have a medicinal (a.k.a. alcohol hot) taste to them, it ages out, though it can take a while to age out i.e. 6 to 12 months plus

There's also the thing with some yeasts and temperature of ferment, causing fusels production. D47 is a good example. It's a very good yeast but if the ferment is above 70F, then it has a habit of producing quite noticable fusels (some of which might age out, but not necessarily so).

 

[yousudsymf]

Progress report...It is working. Thanks for all the assurance guys. Its slow, but the yeasties are indeed chomping away on the honey. I think a side benefit of this method (yeah, I meant to do it that way...) is that it feeds the honey to the yeasties slowly, kinda like staggered additions. Anyway, I marked the side of the carboy lastnight at the honey level, this am it has noticably dropped. still has an inch and a half or so to go, but its working...