# Stuck Ferment



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Well, we'll need to know what you mean by 1/3 to go. A third of a specific gravity point? A third of the alcohol tolerance for your yest strain? The airlock bubbling doesn't necessarily mean it restarted fermenting, likely just dissolved CO2 in solution that degassed with the increase in temperature (gases are less soluble in solution with rising temp, so CO2 left in solution from the fermentation would start bubbling out. Gently agitating the carboy will give a similar "false ferment" as gas is excited out of solution). Winers (I do this for occasional meads too) use a sanitized degassing rod in a drill chuck to stir dissolved CO2 out of their wine to keep it from prickling the palate later on. 

Don't add anything to it just yet; if you can look up the actual SG reading now, and tell us the original gravity reading plus the yeast strain, we can troubleshoot this puppy with a great deal of accuracy for you. Plenty of time; it's mead after all!


----------



## wade (Apr 1, 2006)

Thanks for the offer Ben, here ya go.

The OG was 1.090 back in February. I racked it about 1 month later and it had stoppped, with the Sp G being about halfway there, meaning 1.050. It tasted great, like a sweet wine cooler with the fizz. I left it alone until now, where the Sp G is 1.030. By 1/3 to go I meant I'm shooting for 1.000 or less which is where my wines end up. This is my first batch of mead. Sorry but I don't know what yeast I used, probably a wine yeast I had that will go to 14-15% alcohol.

I'm after a dry product. Its still very sweet.

The airlock is still glugging about once every 3 minutes. I haven't done anything else to it since posting this thread.


----------



## nursebee (Sep 29, 2003)

Wade, 1st off, do you by chance originate in Texas?

This is a regular problem to me. I pay more attention to nutrition for the yeast now, and it helps. Yeast strain important, you can always repitch with champagne. 

I have a 2yr mead with 5% potential alcohol still to go.


----------



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Hmmm... that's only about 6% alcohol, so you're probably correct that it may be stuck. Did you add any nutrients to it at pitching? Is it clear? If it's bubbling well over time, take a reading in a week or two. If it's changed, your yeast are back on the job and you could see wait to where they're headed. OTOH, and/or for some insurance, you could repitch. Repitching is occasionally a little tricky mid-mead, since most of the nutrients (already scarce in a traditional mead) have been taken up already. Nonetheless, dry yeast does have a modest amount of nutrients in their "backpacks" to conduct a reasonable ferment if properly hydrated in warm water before pitching.

If you wants to improve your odds, make a starter. Hydrate a new pack of yeast IN WATER while you prepare your starter solution from dry malt extract to a gravity of about 1.020. Shake well and long to dissolve oxygen into the wort and add the yeast. Let that ferment to completion (a day or two), chill, and decant the spent wort from the flocculated yeastcake. Then rouse the yeast with just enough preboiled water to loosen it and pitch. This regimen prepares the yeast with nutrients, glycogen reserves, oxygen and a good attitude. Really it's probably overkill for a routine repitch, but for high-alcohol meads, low nutrient levels, finicky yeast or an anal mazer who enjoys twiddling it can be just the thing.


----------



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Cool website the Nursebee, good on ya. That last 5% will probably need a repitch. Can't stress enough that efforts to make the yeast healthy before ferment (oxygen and nutrients) will pay huge dividends compared to trying to patch up later!


----------



## wade (Apr 1, 2006)

nursebee,
Intersting question about TX. I didn't originate there but do have roots from there, what precipated the question?

Ben,
It has cleared somewhat but I wouldn't call it clear, maybe just off of clear. I'd bottle it if it were ready based on looks.

Between you two it looks like I need to repitch. I'm going to give it another week and see if its still working then repitch if it isn't. 

I originally had help from my good friend that has done this before and has a good book about it. I used what he suggested which was yeast nutrient, in the amount he said. I started the yeast in a pint jar before adding it to the must started directly in the carboy.

Ben, that wort-starter looks like a lot of trouble but is very interesting and would be fun to try, I may do it. Is that a lot better than honey, yeast nutrient, water, and yeast?


----------



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

> Is that a lot better than honey, yeast nutrient, water, and yeast?


Only is that it's easier, and you know what you're getting. Some nutrients are nutrients, some are nothing but ultrsonically exploded yeast, some are nothing but urea for nitrogen. If it's a good nutrient formulation there'd be no disadvantage aside from the preparation. Malt is nature's perfect yeast food. At Lallemand, where they make the Lalvin strains of wine yeast, they propogate in malt meduims. So does Wyeasy, White Labs, and everywhere else I've heard of. It's easy for me because I pressure-can five gallons of sterile wort medium at a shot about once a year.


----------



## wade (Apr 1, 2006)

I figured I'd give an update.

What I did and have to say isn't very precise or scientific, sorry.

I did this on Friday.

I boiled some water in a pan, boiled a jar and lid in it, then let it cool in the jar after I added 3 tsp of yeast energizer to it and shook it good a few times during the cooling.

When it cooled I pitched a packet of 1118 Lavlan yeast (something like that), it was listed to be good with sparkling wine and recommended by my local brew/winemaking store. I let it set for 20 minutes then poured it into the mead.

Of course I removed enough of the mead from the carboy to allow the added volume of gruel. I feel very dumb for not taking the SG of the mead. I drank it instead. It was pretty good, probably finished, certainly more done than I'd thought, with far less sweetness than it had last week. So I believe that warming it up a bit caused it to ferment some more for a few days.

On reflection I should've stopped it completely with sulfide then bottled it. But now its working again- very slowly. Yesterday the airlock was blubbing every 30 seconds, but now its down to about once/minute. And of course its murky again.

We live and learn. This will be very dry which is good.


----------



## nursebee (Sep 29, 2003)

My wife is kin to a Wade that lives in OR, family from Pearland TX. Did not think he kept bees or made mead without my wife's uncle telling us.

I do not like to stop or prevent fermentation due to headaches. That is one the big reasons I make wine and mead at home. Sometimes it can't be helped.


----------



## buz (Dec 8, 2005)

OOOH those sulphides......
Lol


----------



## Propolis30 (Aug 25, 2005)

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink becasue when they wake up in the morning that is the best they are going to feel all day".


----------

