How much slower is lighter honey?

[Tiwas]

Hi,

I just made my last two batches this Friday.
One a copy of my first batch, to play around with different tastes

• Heather honey
• Wyeast Dry mead (two packs of liquid yeast)
• Water
• OG: 1.108

The other, similar, but a little different

• "Summer honey", which is whatever blend the bees made - a lot lighter in color and taste
• Wyeast Sweet mead (one pack of liquid yeast)
• Water
• OG: 1.108

The day after, the first batch was bubbling happily away. When I put my lees stirrer (ok, it's a cement stirrer) into it, it started fizzing and even a little extra foaming. 10 seconds of airating it and I was afraid the foam would spill onto the floor. The second was not bubbling, and had very little foam on top. I've now airated them both the same. The first one is going like crazy, while the second one isn't. The only sign of action I can see in the second batch is that the water in the air lock is moving just a little. Last night, the SG was down two points, which might as well be more air in the must the first time I read it.

So...any good ideas on what to do? There are no sediment on the bottom of the second batch, as far as I can see. The pH is ok at ~3.5. Could it be that the yeast packet was a dud? Should I pitch another one and see what happens?

Cheers!

 

[Smarrikåka]

Wyeast Dry, is a lot easier to get going than Wyeast Sweet, so I think that's the main reason to your problem. If you don't get it going, try pitching another yeast.

Also that the heather honey will foam a lot compared to the "summer honey", is to be expected.

 

[Medsen Fey]

Yes, the difference in performance has a lot more to do with the difference in yeast than in the difference in the honey. That sweet mead yeast is notoriously finicky, and is very sensitive to pH, temperature, and nutrients/aeration.

 

[Tiwas]

Thanks for the replies I guess my best bet is to get another one of the dry mead and pitch that instead - that was my original plan, but my shop was out of dry mead when I last went there and I figured the sweet would be ok as I was going to backsweeten anyway.