Blueberry won't start fermenting

[physics911]

I'm trying to start a blueberry wine from concentrate, but the fermentation won't kick off.

O.G. 1.1
pH 3.0 (lowered to this with a little acid blend, then the rest of the way with tartaric acid)
temp of room ~68-72 (same room where I do all my other wines)

Mixed everything together 3/1, including the kmeta (put lid on primary to keep cats out of it)
3/2 I sprinkled premiere cuvee yeast on it without rehydrating (has worked fine in the past)
3/4 still wasn't fermenting
3/4 rehydrated another pack of premiere cuvee with 1/3 must, 2/3 warm water for about 20 minutes. Was going good. Temp was back to almost ambient. Pitched.
Still no sign of fermentation this morning.

I'm wondering if putting the lid on the first day didn't let enough SO2 escape and it is just killing the yeast.

Thoughts?

Thank you,
Chris

 

[NorCal]

Did you add any nutrients?

 

[physics911]

Yes on the nutrients. And yes on good sanitation procedures before starting.
I don't have my wine log in front of me right now, but mixed everything per the 3 gallon recipe on the label, then brought the pH down more with tartaric acid.
96 oz can of blueberry fruit base
kmeta
pectin enzyme
yeast nutrient
acid blend
sugar
water to 3 gallon mark on 7.9 gal primary.

Measured O.G.
Adjusted down pH with tartaric acid.

I did not add tannin, nor did I add sorbate.

Sprinkled yeast when must was about 70 degrees.

All ingredients are the same batch I've been using for everything else, which have worked off fine.

 

[peaches9324]

Give it a good stirring to get some oxygen in it and take the lid off and drape with a towel and keep the cat gated out of that room! And you might want to warm it up till ferment starts. Good luck!

 

[novalou]

Another thing to try:

Hydrate the yeast in one cup of water, one cup of your blueberry must. Let the yeast work on that for a day, then add another cup the following day. Once you see the yeast really going, add this mixture to your fermenter.

Really stir your must, vent out the sulfite a you added.

 

[Norske]

If it were me, I'd start post ferment pH at 3-5 - 3.6.

 

[physics911]

Still no activity after 24 hours of the 2nd, hydrated, yeast pitch.
The temp is 70 and I can detect no off odors in it.
I just added some yeast energizer, stirred to oxygenate again, and started warming it up.

How many times can I pitch yeast before it starts tasting yeasty?
I have some EC-1118 which is supposed to be good at low pH.

If I don't see any activity by Sat. morning, I'm going to start another half gallon or so and inoculate with that.

Thank you,
Chris

 

[physics911]

I measured the gravity and pH this morning, and they are right where they were on day one. I'm 100% positive I didn't add sorbate to the must, but I can only assume I either added too much Kmeta, or the SO2 didn't dissipate enough because I had the lid semi-tight.
I didn't have time for an SO2 test this morning, but will do one tonight or tomorrow.

 

[WaterWolf]

Blueberry has a reputation for being hard to get started.

Like others have said, give it a good stir to ensure it has some oxygen in it. Make a yeast starter but leave it for at least 12 hours and ensure it is really fermenting very strongly before pitching it. After pitching a yeast it can take up to 48 hours before you'll see obvious fermentation in the must.

 

[Ernest T Bass]

I'm just going to repeat what I have read on this forum. Sounds like you added the K-meta at the same time you added everything else. If so, you may have stunned or kept your yeast from working. I would say to stir the must real good to get rid of the K-Meta ( Normally you add the K-Meta and wait 24 hours before doing anything else). You may want to even pour the must back and forth between two buckets to get rid of the SO2, the O2 won't hurt anything now, you ust want to get rid of the K-Meta so the yeast can take hold and start the fermentation. After 24 hours, I would add another pack of yeast, 1118 is about the same as you used before. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong
Semper Fi

 

[physics911]

Let me just consolidate some of what has been said and asked.
I'm 100% sure I didn't add sorbate.
I'm 100% sure I didn't add the yeast on Kmeta day; it was 24 hours later. But the lid was on semi-tight with an airlock. I did the same thing with a batch of strawberry and it worked fine. Not saying that is proper, just saying it didn't bite my butt before.
I've aerated it plenty.
Must temp has been around 75 for most of the time.
It is certainly possible I added too much Kmeta, though I don't think so and I don't get any odor even with intense agitation.

After the 1st inoculation didn't work, the 2nd one I used about 1/3 must and 2/3 water, totaling about 1 cup, and that started going right away. After that pitch, 24 hours later the SG and pH hadn't changed at all.

Right now I have a starter with 1 cup of must and 1 cup of water. I started that about an hour ago. It isn't breaking any records for sure, but it is showing some activity. Basically if I can get that to take off, I will keep adding batches until I have about 50% of the original must left and then mix it all together.

Any other input is appreciate.

Thank you,
Chris

 

[sour_grapes]

Just throwing this out there for consideration: Is it possible that the pH is too low for the yeast? I just spent some time googling, and did not get a definitive answer. Sources point out that yeast work "down as low at 3.0 pH." How low can they go?

 

[physics911]

Just to close this out, I finally got a good fermentation going.
I built up a starter, adding about a cup of the original must at a time, until I had a full gallon at a rolling ferment. I then also added a bit more blueberry puree to the original must to help beef up the body, raise the pH, and bring the gravity down a bit from where I started.

Within an hour or two of adding the gallon of starter back to the primary, I could tell it was going to work. It developed a good cap and you could hear the fermentation going strong by the next morning.

I never measured the SO2 level, but I don't suspect that was the issue. I didn't measure the TA either, but I suspect the acid level is what was holding back the original fermentation.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

[wineon4]

1st PH is to low should be around 3.8

2nd blueberry is a tough one to start I make about 30 gallon of blueberry every year because I have blueberry bushes and use the fruit. I do not pitch the yeast for several days after the Sulfite. I make a starter of 1 cup warm water, energizer, nutrient, Lavin 1118 and some dissolved sugar after this starts I add it to 1/2 gallon of the blueberry must then add that to the whole batch a day after it starts. I have never had one not start.