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Izzie1701

NewBee
Registered Member
Aug 10, 2015
14
0
1
First batch of mead. Making an apple pie cyser. Starting OG is 1.100. 13# of honey 10 liters of Apple juice and 1# brown sugar topped up to 23L with water. I used a pack of Lavalin 1116. My question is I pitched my yeast now over 12 hours ago and no activity at all. I pitched with 1/3 the dosage of yeast energizer and nutrient. All into the must at the same time. I would have expected to see some activity? Looks like there is sediment at the bottom of the primary. I had heated 4 liters of Apple juice just to melt the honey. Wasn't even hot enough to steam. Did however pitch the yeast a little warm. It was 28C so around 85F. Should I add another packet of yeast or is this normal?

Also should mention I rehydrated my yeast in 50/50 water and Apple juice for about an hour and a half. I started rehydrating to early and the must Wasnt cooling as fast as I wanted so it sat a little long. It had started foaming in the rehydration liquid.

Thank you,
 
No I didn't use go firm. 50/50 water and apple juice. Rehydration liquid was at 72f. But I don't think that was the issue as it was foaming when rehydrated. Unless the shock of temp change killed them?
 
So my must temp was at 66 so I'm guessing this is the reason for the slow start or what I am hoping is a slow start. Still no activity. I bought an extra pack of yeast. Is there any harm in pitching it? Will it taste yeasty as a final product? I have put a heating pad under it (root starter pad for plants supposed to raise temp 10F) so this should bring the temp up to mid 70s where the yeast says is best. Any idea on pitching another pack though?
 
Can't see any harm in it. Won't taste yeasty if you let the fermentation complete.
 
You will have lost some yeast viability with that temperature difference, I believe a difference of 18f is the limit. Also not using goferm and just pitching the yeast into apple juice will have hurt the yeast cells a bit, but I don't think it would be anything to worry about. Just take hydrometer readings over the week and see if its fermenting.
 
You will want to rehydrate your yeast at 104 F. you also need to to atemperate your yeast/must to within 10 degrees difference before you inoculate. Lastly your yeast population begins to decrease after 30 minutes once you hydrate. Make your must at room temperature.

So ,,, rehydrate at 104, let sit for 10 minutes or so. then add (one quater of the amount of yeast slurry) of must to yeast slurry. Do this every 5 minutes or so until the temps are within 10 degrees of each other. And do this within 30 minutes from the start of the rehydration process. Then pitch it into your must.

Lastly, I usually use 1 5 gram packet of yeast per gallon of must.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I pitched another 5g packet and now it is bubbling away. I de gassed this morning and added another 1/3 of the energizer/nitrient and will again add the last 1/3 when OG has decreased by half. Looks like all is working though. OG has dropped by 0.010 so far.
 
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