Help with my first batch. (No action)

[MulletHunter]

Hi to all. This is my first batch of mead. I may just be freaking out (I have been explaining the feeling to my wife as if I were a newborn mother.) Anyway the ingredients i used are

10 lbs unfiltered clover honey
3 gal bottled spring water
1 package of Red Star Pasteur Red yeast

I boiled the water added the honey, cooled it, prepped the yeast, poured it in the carboy, and then capped it with an airlock.

That was 24hrs ago and it looks the same as it did when I put it in.

Now I know it's only a day later but like I said no action what so ever. I have pictures that I just took here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanburch/sets/72157608005809850/


Thank you for any help in advance.
Ryan

 

[WRATHWILDE]

Did you take a temp reading before you added the yeast? If it still felt warm to the touch it might have still been hot enough to kill the yeast. Also with that much head space it might take a while to build up enough pressure to activate the airlock, especially if the room temp is cool, and no nutrients were added to the must. Give it another 12 hours and if you dont start seeing considerable airlock activity... add another packet of yeast.

Cheers,
Wrathwilde

 

[MulletHunter]

Thank you for the quick response. I did a temp reading and it was around 75F. I will give it more time and keep an eye on it and you guys updated.

 

[Oskaar]

A couple of things that I've ran into with Pasteur Red.

It is a medium to slow starter and takes a while to get up a head of steam. How did you prep this yeast?

Have you noted any foaming at the surface of the mead. When the yeast are just starting to become active and convert the sugar to EtOH you'll see a foamy surface which is indicative that the lag phase has ended and aerobic fermentation has begun. At this point you'll want to add nutrient in order to help your yeast along. I recommend Fermaid-K at a dosage of 1 gram per gallon of must. In this case your total volume if I read your recipe correctly should be about 3.83 gallons which rounded up would be 4, so you would add 4 grams of Fermaid-K dissolved in some tepid distilled water, and slowly, VERY slowly stirred in to allow the mead to degas. Once the mead has degassed you may stir more vigorously in order to aerate. Do this twice per day until the gravity drops 33%.

Measure your gravity and when it drops 33% add another dosage of 4 grams of Fermaid-K. This will give your yeast what they need to finish the fermentation. At this point its a good idea to airlock your container and swirl it twice per day, not to aerate, but to keep the yeast in suspension so they have easy access to the residual sugars for a good strong fermentation. Keep an eye on it and when your airlock activity drops to 1 beat per minute you may rack to the secondary vessel and let it clear completely, then rack again and age for as long as you can be patient.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

 

[MulletHunter]

I prepped the yeast by putting it in a cup of water (I can't remember the exact temp, but it was within the range on the back of the package.) Then I added a little honey to get it started. Now it was in this mixture for about 30 min before I added it to the must. That was a little longer then I meant it to be but the must took longer to cool than I thought it would. So I think the initial foam from the yeast was already formed when I added it to the must.

So my new question is should I still add nutrient now or try and wait until my gravity is 33%?