Repitch?

[TUO]

I made a Cyser on tuesday night of 1 gallon tart cherry juice, 3 gallons apple juice, and 12 lbs of honey. I pitched D-47 and have no activity yet ( I know its only been 48 hours...). So i reread the yeast information and noticed optimal fermenting starts at 59 degrees and my basement is at 57 degrees.

I have a place where i can warm it up so that isn't the issue, but should i pitch another packet of yeast before warming it up or is it fine just to get it into the temperature range.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wayneb]

I'd try warming it up a bit first, especially if you dry pitched the yeast. I'd also ask that you provide us with a few more details about your process (things like did you rehydrate the yeast first, do you have any yeast nutrients to add - or have you added them already, must temperature at yeast pitch, etc.) since the way that you added the yeast to your must can significantly affect the kinetics of the batch during primary fermentation. If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to check out the Newbee Guide to meadmaking (a link is over on the left side of this page). That guide, along with info already contained in lots of threads archived here, should answer virtually all your questions - but if you come up with another one, feel free to post it here!

Oh, and Welcome to "Gotmead?"!!

 

[Mars Colonist]

Just warm it up to 67°F first. Ive got some 71B at 61-63°F and it took 6 days to get going (10g in 6gal, rehydrated on GoFerm, lots of aeration and post lag nutrients). Not ideal as potential for other things to take hold (low probability with lower temp) and yeast might be stressed by temperature shock, but certainly better than too hot, IMO. I usually like growth phase to be colder than the fermentation temperature, but I may have pushed past the happy yeast point.

 

[TUO]

Thanks for the responses, as far as pitching i followed the beer brewer in me and just tossed it in without rehydrating, the more i read it seems like that doesn't work as well in a must as opposed to wort. I added 2 tsp. of yeast energizer to the must as well. When i get home from work i will warm it up in my fermentation chamber and see if that will do the trick, also the OG was 1.120.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I used to dry pitch a lot and most of the time when I had problems it was with a SG over 1.110, rehydrating gives the yeasties a much happer headstart.

Oh, and welcome to the forum (and the addiction!) TUO!

 

[tweak'e]

So i reread the yeast information and noticed optimal fermenting starts at 59 degrees and my basement is at 57 degrees.

my chart says minimum temp is 59F (15C), so your under minimum so i doubt it will ever start. just put it in a warm location and it should start to get going. tho it will take a while to warm up.
max temp is 68F(20C) so its a bit of a tight temp range to work with. watch your night time temps

 

[TUO]

Thanks tweak's, it shouldn't be a problem, i have a dual stage temperature controller, i was just waiting for a belgian golden strong ale to finish out its primary fermenation at 75 degrees before i could put in the mead. I figured the basement was warm enough but i was wrong.

 

[tweak'e]

Thanks tweak's, it shouldn't be a problem, i have a dual stage temperature controller,..........

<drool>

 

[fatbloke]

Don't forget, D47 is good for meads but is seemingly known for making high levels of fusel if it's fermented at too higher temperature (search for some of Medsen Fey's posts about that).

I understand it's best kept below 70F for the fermentation temperature to be good.

Wayne will probably be more knowledgeable than me on this........

 

[kudapucat]

Yup. Hot is allowed to get too hot. Slow as buggery if allowed to get too cold, but I've never yet had a D47 stall on me.

 

[TUO]

Thanks so much for all the replies i have it set at 66 degrees +/- a half degree. Hopefully i will see activity this afternoon.

 

[wayneb]

Let us know. If it doesn't start, then an inexpensive next step is to rehydrate (per Lallemand's direction) another packet of D47 and re-pitch. Also, if you happen to have a way to test pH, either with a meter or with pH strips (in the wine making range of 2.8 to 4.2, so if you have typical beer brewing pH strips they won't work here), you should check out the pH of your must. If it is lower than 3.2, the must may be too acidic for the yeast to be happy.

And fatbloke is entirely correct with his advice. We all have had D47 produce "paint thinner" instead of mead when fermentation temperatures are too warm. In my experience, 72F is still OK, but I know that others (like Medsen Fey) have had fusel generation in musts over 70F.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Oh, and if everything's settled out to the bottom, a thorough stir (or aeration) wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[TUO]

Woke up to a nice healthy fermentation!! Thanks for all the suggestions. Will i need to degas this cyser or can i just leave it and check back in a few weeks, I have read a bunch of threads about degassing and not degassing, but there really wasn't a solid yes or no.

 

[Loadnabox]

Woke up to a nice healthy fermentation!! Thanks for all the suggestions. Will i need to degas this cyser or can i just leave it and check back in a few weeks, I have read a bunch of threads about degassing and not degassing, but there really wasn't a solid yes or no.

By all means degass and even aerate until the 1/3 sugar break. Stir & degass without aeration is OK until as late as the 2/3 break.

 

[TUO]

So while degassing i had a little eruption....whoops, is this cause for alarm or just be more careful when degassing?? Also how long am i looking for the yeast to ferment out I am used to 7-10 days for beers, but i am thinking more like 2 weeks- 1 month for this.

 

[Chevette Girl]

So while degassing i had a little eruption....whoops, is this cause for alarm or just be more careful when degassing?? Also how long am i looking for the yeast to ferment out I am used to 7-10 days for beers, but i am thinking more like 2 weeks- 1 month for this.

Probably a be more careful kind of thing, start really slow and if it fizzes too much stop for a bit and remove whatever you're stirring it with. It means you've got a nice strong ferment going and it's making lots of dissolved CO2, and the cooler you keep it, the more dissolved CO2 it can hold.

If you're still keeping it on the cool side, that will also make it take longer. It will probably also mellow out and be drinkable faster with a slower, gentler ferment, although your eruption may indicate otherwise!

Also I didn't see a mention of nutrients or energizer, that sometimes has an effect too.

How's your SG coming along?

 

[TUO]

the OG was 1.120, i checked it after the eruption and it was down to 1.110 after about 48 hours. I think i will check it again in a about a week, degassing for the next few days. I used no nutrients and 2 tsp of yeast energizer.

 

[wayneb]

You might want to consider adding some yeast nutrient (Fermaid-K by Lallemand, or something similar) since in your recipe, the apple and cherry juice won't add sufficient nutrients (especially yeast assimilable nitrogen) to keep your yeast from getting stressed (and throwing hydrogen sulphide as a result). For best results you'll want to get the nutrient in there in several steps (search on the terms 'staggered nutrient additions' and you'll see what I'm talking about), and if you use a combination of organic (amino-based) and inorganic nitrogen (such as DAP), you'll want to be careful to not add much in the way of inorganic nitrogen too late in the primary phase, because at that point the yeast will have lost the ability to utilize it.

 

[TUO]

Well it seems that my fermentation decided to crap out early at 1.040. It started at 1.120 with D-47. Is there something i can do to know it down to about 1.019? or do i just rack it and have a super sweet cherry cyser??