When does Mead start bubbles and airlock bubble?

[Sebass]

Hi Guys. When does Mead start bubbling and airlock starts to bubble? Roughly?

My ciders start on day one. Mead didn't move yet on day 2 at all. I know it's more dense and honey is more antibiotic.

I just want to get rough idea so it doesn't go bad due to lots of sugar and fruit in there. If yeast won't work, whole batch will go bad.

thank you.

 

[Maylar]

what yeast and how much? what temperature? rehydration protocol? what's the starting gravity?
if you did everything correctly, usually within 24 hrs unless it's cold.

 

[Sebass]

I used 2g/gallon of Red Star Premier Classique (Montrachet). I rehydrated for 20 min and was foaming and showed active. Same yeast started ciders next day but mead on day 2 nothing. Rehydraton was at 90F. Mead is at room temperature 70-80F.

Mead gravity is 1.134

 

[Maylar]

that looks good to me. is the yeast outside the expiration date?

 

[Sebass]

that looks good to me. is the yeast outside the expiration date?

It's fresh, 2024 exp date. Looked as potent to me as previous batch. Just worried it won't start. Thinking maybe i should add half a pocket on top of that.

Edit: I decided to hydrate and add another half a pack. It's 30 cents so not worth risking batch pennies.

 

[bernardsmith]

Yeast need time to acclimate to the acidity and sugar concentrations they find themselves in. In addition, the yeast need to repair cells and prepare to for life in the solution you provide - this is the lag time. Now, you are also talking about adding another "half pack"... so that suggests that you are not using a large enough colony of viable yeast cells - (Note my words, a large enough - colony - viable yeast cells). Sure there are dozens of self publishing Youtube videos where the host pitches a tiny colony of cells and then probably injures 50 -90% of those cells because they have no understanding of what they are doing... but if you really want to make a consistently good batch of mead and the gravity of the must is around 1.090 then you want to pitch a pack and you want to rehydrate that yeast before you pitch it and you want to provide that pitched yeast with enough nutrients for the yeast to repair and build strong cell walls across which they can easily and effectively transport sugars. I know when I pitch my yeast I can expect the fermentation to begin with a few hours.

 

[Sebass]

That's a great explanation. So far i have not pitched yeast to anything. I've hydrated it first to see if it's not dead.

When froth pop up after 20-30 min, i break it gently. Then i swirly it gently and pour into must.

Cider just goes after 12 hrs. Every time it's super fast and hard.

Mead i see is stubborn fella i see. It's my very first attempt so i may not know what to expect first either.

 

[amber-ale]

Imake mead all the time. I never rehydrate my yeast. Unless you are doing really high gravity meads or low nutrient or high acid meads you should be fine.
Mead just doesn't foam up like beer does. Look for little bubbles along the sides or sniff the bubler for the smell of alcohol. Give it another day.
And don't stress about it. People were making mead before they could count, before the pyramids were built.
If you want really high gravity meads try adding the honey/ sugar in batchs so the yeast doesn't have to deal with a lot of sugar all at the beginning.
What was your recipe?

 

[Sebass]

I'm making is Joe's Ancient Orange Mead with mod of adding some black tea in it. I zested orange, zest went in, got rid of white stuff to rid off bitterness, and cut orange into small pieces which went inside.

After adding that extra half packet and plus one day, i see airlock making one bubble every minute so it's going now. I just didn't see anything while my ciders were already going all crazy. Thank you for feedback.

 

[Dan O]

Do you use GoFerm to rehydrate?

 

[Sebass]

Do you use GoFerm to rehydrate?

No sir. Just 90F water and sugar. I also oxygenated the mead. I'm keeping it simple.

I think it's going now although it's super slow. 1 bubble per minute. I think i didn't use enough of yeast and/or mead starts super slow.

 

[Maylar]

No sir. Just 90F water and sugar. I also oxygenated the mead. I'm keeping it simple.

I think it's going now although it's super slow. 1 bubble per minute. I think i didn't use enough of yeast and/or mead starts super slow.

Sugar during rehydration is a bad idea. And for that gravity, GoFerm Protect is highly recommended.

 

[Sebass]

Sugar during rehydration is a bad idea. And for that gravity, GoFerm Protect is highly recommended.

Can i ask why sugar is bad idea when rehydrating? The gravity of the mead is what 3.5 lbs of honey is. I didn't really change anything.

I'm surprised bread yeast doesn't stall out at meads. I'm using commercial yeast and it's working hard. lol

I have fleshmens's active dry yeast and will use in concord grape wine recipe with 1.5 lbs of sugar. I will be interested how sweet it comes out.

 

[Mtrhdltd]

Any nutrients for the yeast? 1.134 is a high OG. I would expect a long lag time with that much sugar.

 

[Sebass]

Any nutrients for the yeast? 1.134 is a high OG. I would expect a long lag time with that much sugar.

Nothing besides raisins.

 

[Mtrhdltd]

Nothing besides raisins.

Check out staggered nutrient additions. That will help your fermentation to be more like your used to. Honey is poor in nutrients, most now accept that raisins have very little nutrients. Also I would expect a long fermentation, you have potential of over 17% abv.

 

[videojunkie1208]

Nothing besides raisins.

As @Mtrhdltd says, raisins are a terrible nutrient. Secondarily, they can leave off flavors in the mead which is undesirable especially if you've followed the advice of several videos that recommend dicing them up first (which makes them hard to get rid of).

Proper nutrition will radically change your brewing. Instead of months waiting for your brewing to finish, you can be done in weeks. (It took me a while to get onboard too).
here is a calculator:
https://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/
GoFerm and Fermaid O are awesome. Relative to the cost of the honey vs the improvement in your mead, they are inexpensive. You typically only need 20-50 grams of each per 5 gallon batch.

 

[Sebass]

Thank you guys for feedback. I will monitor the progress. Ciders are blasting away nicely.

Looking forward to tasting new yeast and i changed all of them to dextrose.

 

[ScottishCelt]

I have a question concerning Mead. My batch has already ended it's fermentation and I have racked it twice. I back sweetened it with honey, but I used too much and it is too sweet. Can I add a small amount of yeast with nutrients to ferment it again? If not what do you suggest? All help appreciated.

 

[Maylar]

I have a question concerning Mead. My batch has already ended it's fermentation and I have racked it twice. I back sweetened it with honey, but I used too much and it is too sweet. Can I add a small amount of yeast with nutrients to ferment it again? If not what do you suggest? All help appreciated.

If you stabilized it with sorbate, then no.. the yeast won't ferment it. If not, then it should continue to ferment on its own. No nutrients after 9% ABV, yeast won't use them and they'll stay in the mead (bad taste).

 

[videojunkie1208]

@ScottishCelt Do you know what your OG and FG were before you back sweetened? (or your ABV) Do you know what the current SG is?

As @Maylar said if you have added sorbate, it is what it is, you could reduce the perceived sweetness by either blending with a dryer mead, or diluting with water at the expense of mouthfeel.

Depending on the answers, probably the most reliable way to treat a mead that is too sweet (especially if you have treated it killing the yeast) is to make another similar batch, and blend the two. It's how wines and cognacs are made all the time.

 

[ScottishCelt]

I have not added anything to the mead as far as anything to stop fermentation. I took a reading yesterday and I could not read the numbers, (bad eyes) and the hydrometer was very deep with the mead nearly to the white band at the very top.

 

[videojunkie1208]

I have not added anything to the mead as far as anything to stop fermentation. I took a reading yesterday and I could not read the numbers, (bad eyes) and the hydrometer was very deep with the mead nearly to the white band at the very top.

What yeast did you use, and what was your OG and your current SG? That will help us figure out how to help you. It might be best to move to a different thread.

 

[ScottishCelt]

I am new to this forum. How do I go to a different thread? Thanks for your help/

 

[Maylar]

If you haven't added potassium sorbate and your yeast can ferment above the current aclohol level then it will continue to eat the honey you added. If the yeast have reached alcohol tolerance, then yes you'll have to add more. But no nutrient.

 

[Maylar]

I am new to this forum. How do I go to a different thread? Thanks for your help/

go to the top or bottom of the page and click the forums link.

 

[videojunkie1208]

I am new to this forum. How do I go to a different thread? Thanks for your help/

look for this button:

 

[ScottishCelt]

If you haven't added potassium sorbate and your yeast can ferment above the current aclohol level then it will continue to eat the honey you added. If the yeast have reached alcohol tolerance, then yes you'll have to add more. But no nutrient.

Your answer is exactly what I need. Thank you so much.