Wanting To Try Mead

Had to leave.....to make a living and as it turns out "this" is not "living"......lol.

Pitched the yeast on 9/11 at 2:00 am and as of this evening, no sign of fermentation yet. I understand that it could take as much as 4 days for fermenting to begin with mead so will patiently wait and see what happens.

Should have made a starter!

Waldo,


What recipe did you use?

Used the recipe here on Georges site


http://www.finevinewines.com/Honey_wine_sweet_Recipe.htm


Going to try a starter Hippie and see if I can ger her going

I checked the recipe and didn't see any yeast nutrient...I would add 1/2 to 3/4 of a tsp and stir well when pitching the starter.

Thanks All. I added the Nutrient, Stirred the stuffings out of it and pitched the starter. I also moved it from the cool dining room to the warmer wash room to see if that would help it along too.


I will not get discouraged..I WILL MAKE MEAD!! Edited by: Waldo

Alright! A good attitude is very important! Good catch on the nutrient, Scott!

Will I ever be able to meet the need


of making my daughter some lovely Mead?


You #*$%# betcha I will. I got home this evening and .....NOTHING !


No fermenting, no bubbling, just sitting there it's arse off at me. OK Waldo, what's wrong here? I checkedthe SG and it is now at a whopping 1.100. I know my initial reading was correct because I checked and double checked it. So now what?I stirred the mustandracked off half of what was in my fermenter into a gallon jug and added water until I got the SG down to 1.090. I then did the same to the other half remaining in my fermenter. I then began me two more starters. One with EC118 in about a half a cup of welches grape juiceand the other with another pack of the original Cote des Blancs in another jar with a half cup of the Welches. My plans now are to continue feeding the starters until tomorrow evening and if the Mead in my fermenter and Jug have not begun fermenting then I will add the starters to them and go from there.


If no fermenting has begun by tomorrow evening should I go ahead and add more nutrient and energizer to both batches before I pitch the starters or do I need to be doing something totally different here?

Whoa big fella….lets take a few steps back and look at the recipe. <?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><?:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O></O>
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2 Campden, crush I personally don’t think any sulfite is needed when making mead since honey is naturally antibiotic and therefore choose not to add any in the beginning. Having said that 2 campden tabs is twice as much as you should add to any must honey or grape. The standard is 1 tab per gallon which should yield 50 ppm. This amount of sulfite should not impede the starting of the yeast since most of today’s strains are tolerant of fairly high levels.<O></O>
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I rule this out as a problem.<O></O>
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Honey, Tannin and water are ruled out and the SG of 1.100 is certainly not too high to prevent fermentation.<O></O>
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That leaves the acid additions which changes the pH of the must. My first guess is that the pH is too low which is lethal to the yeast. The correct range should be between 3.7 and 4.6. From all of my research I would suggest to never adjust the pH of honey when starting since the pH can vary and it always can be adjusted later on after fermentation if it is needed to balance the sweetness. <O></O>
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Do you have a way to accurately measure the pH?<O></O>

All I have Masta are the strips I got from George. I just checked it with them at it is around 3.4

Ok....since the strips are not all that accurate I would say it could be even lower which most likely is the problem.


Now we have to raise the pH to at least 3.8 with some calcium carbonate. Go easy and only add 1/2 tsp at a time and stir then test.


http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=7325A

With a little over 1/2 tsp I am now at 3.8 with the strips

I would let it rest~ 24 hrs and see if you have any signs of fermentation tomorrow night. Not sure if the yeast dies off or just becomes inactive due to the pH.


My guess is that you will still have enough viable yeast cells left after pitching 10 grams already that they will wake up and get to work.


PS: I feel somewhat responsible not catching the acid addition and lack of nutrient onthe recipe when you started it. I have already discussedwith George about replacing the mead recipes post on his site with better versions.


Not to worry my friend


masta will stick with you till the end


you will fulfill the longing need


to make your daughter a very nice meadEdited by: masta

Will let it rest until tonight


And hope for a bubbling, foaming sight


That will continue on for days and nights

Got home this evening and no activity at all in either container of the must. And, the starter pooped out. What is going on? I know my temps are within desired parameters. The SG is where it should be and the PH should be close. The only thing I can possibly think of is the yeast. I know it is fresh but it just kinda hit me..I have been taking it right out of the refrigrator and pitching it. Does this matter?


Other than that I am klueless

I have no experience with mead, but maybe you're killing your yeast because of the low temps in the fridge....











I could be wrong, but check the temp scale for the particular yeast you are using. You might need to knit them some scarves and gloves.

From a previous post by Masta:


Not to worry my friend


masta will stick with you till the end


you will fulfill the longing need


to make your daughter a very nice mead


And Scott is true to his word. Our game plan on the phone with Scott this evening was to once again make another starter. This time with 90 degree water only to begin with, ( AsScott explained, Ijust wanted torehydrate the yeast at this point) then,pitch both containers of my must into a larger primary fermenter, stir it good. Readjust the PH if necessary and then add a small ammount of the must to the new starter. After the starter got going good I would then add it to the primary and see what happened from there. I got my primary cleaned and sanitized. gotThe new starter going and when I took the towel off thatI had over the two containers of Must......

Martina...I think I have read that it is best to store the yeast in the fridge but I am going to research it more now. Masta did not seem to think that the practice was a problem.

Oh, I misunderstood -- I thought you put the starter in the fridge....





Sorry,





My bad!