Help with mead

April 5, 2010 4:51 PM

Started a 5 gal. batch of mead on 9/27/2009. It soon became too cold in the house. On 11/21, the specific gravity reading was 8. In Jan., I called the company, asking if there was anything I could do. They said to leave it alone. Yesterday, I took another reading, still G.R. of 8. Should I continue to leave it alone? Is there anything I can do to jump-start/finish the process? Add additional yeast?
posted by frogmoses to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

Best answer: What's the unit on that 8? Brix? What is the initial gravity?

When it becomes too cold, yeast goes dormant - if that happens you normally have to raise the temperature a bit (or in the case of mead, use some yeast nutrient/energizer) to wake it up.

However, if it's been dormant for 4 months, it's probably pooped. Mead is normally poor on yeast nutrients (which is why you normally have to add raisins, or some kind of additive), so just pitching more yeast might not be enough. The best thing to do right now would be to make a new starter (which is when you make a small 1 quart batch with your yeast [all of it], to get it "warmed up"), with about the same proportion of honey, and some more of whatever you used as yeast nutrient on the original batch. Once the starter is fermenting like crazy, drop it in your mead. All sanitation caveats apply.
posted by qvantamon at 5:02 PM on April 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, you might want to use a drier strain of yeast if you repitch.
posted by qvantamon at 5:05 PM on April 5, 2010

Do you mean a gravity of 1.08? That's super high, probably near where it started? I don't know much about mead but cider, beer, etc rarely take more than 1 month of primary + secondary fermentation
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:01 PM on April 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd make a starter of pasteur champagne yeast - probably 1 pint for a 5 gallon batch, heat the mead must to 78 or so and pitch that in - stirring well with shaking the fermenter.
Keep it at 76 - 78 until active fermentation starts, then don't let it get below 75 and you'll be fine.

My latest batch is bubbling away happily at those temps.
posted by BrooksCooper at 8:14 PM on April 5, 2010

Obtain a copy of Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation. If you're not sure about your mead, don't use a device to determine "G.R. of 8" -- taste it! Have a taste, make a face, drink more or leave it for later. Fermenting mead is a caveman thing, not a "G.R. of 8" thing. Put your fingers into it, and then suck on your fingers.
posted by gum at 8:32 PM on April 5, 2010

If you repost your question here you'll probably reach a wider mead-fermenting audience.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:27 AM on April 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sorry, the G.R. is 1.08 - started at 1.10. Will make a starter and see what happens!
posted by frogmoses at 2:14 PM on April 6, 2010

Yeeks. I don't agree with gum at all. Wild fermentation is fine, if that's what you're going for. If it's not, it's important to pay attention to gravities and sanitation.

I would taste the mead before you repitch yeast. If your first yeast didn't get enough of a foothold, other baddies may have.
posted by craven_morhead at 3:11 PM on April 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

I also disagree with gum, and agree with craven.

1.08 is VERY high. Sorry to ask this, but are you sure you're reading it right? With an OG of 1.100, if your temperature was at least in the mid-60s, it should have gotten below the 1.050s in less than a week. Double check if it's not 1.008 (in which case, it's done).

If it's really that high, something went wrong. For the yeast to go to sleep so soon, either it got really cold really fast (like, below 60-65 after a couple of days), or your yeast was DOA (either bad yeast, which is uncommon, or you pitched it too hot, like, above 90F, and shocked it). I don't make mead, but from what I heard if you don't put something besides honey to feed the yeast, it doesn't get enough non-sugar nutrients and poops out. But I don't know if it would poop out that soon.

And definitely taste it. Regardless of your sanitation, unfermented wort/must is basically the ideal environment for critters, especially if it's sitting around for 6 months.
posted by qvantamon at 7:09 PM on April 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: qvantamon - I double-checked the reading on my hydrometer. It is 1.008 as you suggest. I was reading it incorrectly the whole time!

Thanks again for everyone's input.
posted by frogmoses at 7:57 AM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]