Help!! Skeeter Pee might be dead!

[mkjennison]

Oh no!!!
I formulated my 6 gallon batch of Dragon's Blood per Dave's recipe on Sunday morning. On Monday I made a yeast starter (EC-1118) by re-hydrating then slowly adding small amounts of must to the solution. Everything looked great at this point. SG = 1.088, acid = 0.68%, pH = 3.2.

I pitched the yeast starter solution, and stirred vigorously to introduce oxygen. On Monday night and Tuesday morning I stirred and squeezed the bag. It's about 48 hours after pitching now and my must shows NO signs of fermentation whatsoever.

So, what should I do? Should I dry-pitch my other packet of EC-1118 on the surface and let it work? Or make another yeast starter as I did above? I suspect that I stirred the starter thoroughly into the must too early and killed the little guys.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[dangerdave]

Miraculously, I have never had my first pitch of yeast not take off. Now that I've said that...I'll have a failure, no doubt.

You have the right idea, though. Sounds like you did it right the first time, but you did not mention temp. Keep that stuff warm (70-80F), and pitch another crop of yeasties. I simply follow the instructions on the package of yeast. Always figured the manufacturer knew their yeast best.

Good luck, mk!

 

[fivebk]

Stir your wine first then add the re-hydrated yeast and leave it alone for 8-12 hrs before stirring again. See if this helps you.

BOB

 

[Boatboy24]

When you say there is no sign of fermentation, do you mean from a hydrometer reading? As was mentioned already, keep it warm. Simply warming it up at this point might kick things into gear. If not, re-pitch as Bob mentioned.

 

[mkjennison]

Thanks for all the help. Sorry I didn't mention the temperature: It's been kept between 75 and 78 the entire time. I went ahead and rehydrated a second EC-1118 and pitched it gently onto the surface this morning after stirring. Hopefully I'll have good news tomorrow

Have a good day.

 

[mkjennison]

The second rehydrated yeast has been in the primary for about 12 hours now, and this is the result (the big thing on the bottom left is the nylon bag with fruit.

Something similar happened with the first yeast I pitched. After I saw this the first time, I stirred the must and the stuff disappeared never to come back. I'm going to let it sit this time and see what it looks like in the morning.

Does anybody know if these are yeast colonies, or bacteria, or something else? Is there a way for me to test or check these theories? I'm a little concerned that it may be garbage-time for this batch.

Thanks so much,
Mark

 

[Arne]

Mark, if that doesn't make it take off, open a new pack of yeast, put it in a cup of warm water with a half tsp. sugar and a little yeast nutrient. let it sit til it gets going real good. now add a cup of your must to it. Wait til it gets going good again and add another cup. Keep this up til you get a half gal. or so. Add it to your must. Bet this will make it take off. It also lets you know that yur yeast is good before pitching. Arne.

 

[seth8530]

Are you sure you did not do anything like put sorbate in the must?

 

[mkjennison]

UPDATE: There is definitely fermentation moving along now, although slowly. Yeast are starting to grow and it has the typical fermentation bread smell. Cap is starting to form.
Potential root cause: I also didn't use ReaLemon lemon juice from concentrate. I used the store brand, which according to the label had all the same ingredients and preservatives... but maybe it had more of the preservatives...??

Mark, if that doesn't make it take off, open a new pack of yeast, put it in a cup of warm water with a half tsp. sugar and a little yeast nutrient. let it sit til it gets going real good. now add a cup of your must to it. Wait til it gets going good again and add another cup. Keep this up til you get a half gal. or so. Add it to your must. Bet this will make it take off. It also lets you know that yur yeast is good before pitching. Arne.

Thanks Arne... That's what I did the first time around, and is why I'm so surprised that things didn't take off as usual. The second time, I did it per Dave's instructions (per the packet instructions).

Are you sure you did not do anything like put sorbate in the must?

Thanks for this comment lol!! I went and checked the group of chemicals I used again, and the correct ones were there. Also, my sorbate was at the bottom of my box, so no concerns there. Phew!

 

[seth8530]

Good to hear, it never hurts to check. I started my first dragons blood this sunday and only got a giid fermentation going this wednesday.. of course i am using D47 instead of ec118

 

[g8keeper]

i'm thinking also that it might be a possibility at least that the first time you rehydrated the yeast to make your starter, the water might have been too hot and you cooked the yeast....that's one thing you really have to be careful of when going that route....personally i have always just pitched my yeast dry into all of my musts and have never had a problen....but once again, as we say, there are many roads to travel to get to the same destination when it comes to wine making....

 

[dangerdave]

Now you're going! What does the hydrometer say?

 

[mkjennison]

Haha! As soon as the wine got a good cap on it, we left for the weekend and I haven't been able to touch it since Friday. I'll give the specific gravity a check when I get home from work tonight. I'm not expecting any problems but you never know.

 

[mkjennison]

Sorry I never updated last night. SG last night was 1.033, SG this afternoon is 1.026. Everything looks good with the batch - there are no off smells or tastes, so I don't think the batch was injured by my late start with the yeast.

Thanks for the help, all!