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First mead attempt

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Mayhem2444

Mayhem2444

NewBee
Registered Member
May 5, 2018
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For my first mead I decided to go for a dry traditional mead. I put my must together with 112oz of spring water and 2 pounds of wild flower honey and after the honey dissolve I oxegenated by stirring vigorously. Then I added 1 g of fermaid to the must. In 8 oz of water 110 deg. I dissolved goferm and let sit until it was 95 degrees then I added 5 g of yalvin d47 and let sit 5 min then stirred and pitched into my must ( I’m not sure why I didn’t let it sit longer I had read 15 min most places but must have gotten confused). My sg before pitching yeast was 1.08 it’s been about 36 hour and I haven’t seen a whole lot of movement in the airlock I’m going to give it till 72 hour and do another hydro reading let me know if any of you more experienced have any input or precautions thanks
 
Any idea what the temperature of your must and the yeast, when you pitched? They should have been within 10 degrees of each other or you run the danger of shocking the crap out of them. If the temperatures are greatly different, you need to slowly add some must to the yeast slurry, until the temps are similar. http://www.meadmaderight.com/yeast-rehydration.html

What was your total batch size? 2 pounds of honey is approx 0.166 gallons, which is 21.4 oz.

So, 112 oz + 8 oz + 21.4 oz = 141.4 oz (1.1 gallons).

Using the gotmead calculator, I get a gravity of 1.065. Could it be that your total batch size was 112 oz, which would have given you an sg = 1.082 ?
 
I forgot to take the yeast temp down within 10. the must was 61 degrees and the yeast were like 89 when pitched so I’m sure they did get shocked. I took the hydrometer reading before pitching yeast so it would have been on just the 112 oz water+ 2 pound honey.
 
I took another hydrometer reading 60hr in and I got the same 1.082. Would it be different at this point if there were active/heathy yeast? Is it possible that they didn’t survive the temperature change I exposed them to? Would it be beneficial to pitch more yeast being sure to drop there temp down gradually to the must temp?
 
What's the current temp of your must? The temp range of D47 is 59-68F, so if it's still sitting at 61F, it may be slow to get rolling. You might want to bring the temp up to 67F and see if that helps. At some point, if you're not getting any fermentation, you may want to think about pitching another yeast. Rather than trying to pitch more D47, I would go with something that was a little more aggressive, like K1-V1116 or EC-1118.
 
It’s been at 64F since I pitched the yeast. Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it.
 
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