how to fix this

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lazykmcranch

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 2, 2014
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made a batch of mead on 11/11/13, used 5 qts honey (alfafa/clover), 2 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 tsp yeast energizer, 2 pack 1122 yeast, 1 tsp tannin. sp grav 1.130. 12/20/13 racked to carboy with sp grav of 1.060. checked it yesterday 11/1/14 sp grav still 1.060. what happened and can I fix this? The mead is dark/cloudy and taste sweet.
 
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Reads like it was racked too early. Plus as a traditional type, there's little to buffer pH.

I'd suspect that if you tested pH, it may well be quite low. If/when it drops below 3.0pH, the yeast can stall.

It's equally possible that you could restart fermentation, by using the acclimatised restart technique.

Just search for restarting stuck ferments. You'll likely have to use a champagne yeast, like EC-1118.

I'm thinking that some potassium carbonate will likely help too.
 
For future batches you might want to hold off on racking until the SG is either near 1.000 or has stopped changing for a week. Sometimes racking it off the lees while it's active can stall it out. But never count on early racking to stall a batch you want to stop, yeast will rarely do what you want :)

If your pH is OK then a restart should work out just fine, I had a batch that stopped at 1.060 several years before I realized it'd stopped, so I restarted it with an acclimated starter using EC-1118 and it finished the rest of the ferment within a week.

And welcome to the forum!