Help, Am I in Trouble

chop1620 · Jun 4, 2012

I made my first batch (1 Gal.) of traditional mead on the 1st of June, The recipe called for half a package of activated yeast (lalvin d47), but i was having trouble dividing it in half (my OCD strikes again), so I used the whole package for a control number. I checked my mead this morning and the airlock is popping about once every 3-6 seconds, and the mead is bubbling gently and slowly. I checked the seal and its tight.

Did I use to much active yeast? Is this a fixable problem? Or is it just going to be a slow fermentation?

Thanks in advance from a newbie,

Chop1620

TAKeyser · Jun 4, 2012

chop1620 said:
I made my first batch (1 Gal.) of traditional mead on the 1st of June, The recipe called for half a package of activated yeast (lalvin d47), but i was having trouble dividing it in half (my OCD strikes again), so I used the whole package for a control number.

Many of us use the whole 5 gram package even for 1 gallon batches. At $1 a pack who wants to measure lol

No you are fine with the whole package.

chop1620 said:
I checked my mead this morning and the airlock is popping about once every 3-6 seconds, and the mead is bubbling gently and slowly. I checked the seal and its tight.

Did I use to much active yeast? Is this a fixable problem? Or is it just going to be a slow fermentation?

Thanks in advance from a newbie,

Chop1620

I'll tell you now and many will probably also say it, but airlock activity is in no way, shape or form an accurate indicator of how a fermentation is going. For that you need a Hydrometer and Gravity readings.

That being said did you use any nutrients to keep your yeast happy?

Chevette Girl · Jun 4, 2012

Hey Chop, welcome to the forum!

Don't worry about using a whole packet for a gallon, it's actually standard procedure. One packet is good for up to 5 gallons though so it's also acceptable to divide it up for small batches, but you don't have to. Only some of us cheapskates ever bother.

And yeah, I will reiterate what TAKeyser said about airlocks. You're going to want to invest in a hydrometer if you want to take your meadmaking seriously and really know what your fermentation is doing. Your fermentation may pick up and froth a little bit for a few days, or it may maintain a steady rate, but either way the yeast is doing its job.

If you read the description of this section, it does request that you post your exact recipe including all ingredients and quantities, it's better for us to try to help you with full information, and we might be able to head off problems early on, before they become problems.

chop1620 · Jun 4, 2012

awesome thanks for the help. But me being a newbie, this makes a few more questions arise. So to start.

My recipe I used. 1 Gallon of water, 3 lbs honey, 1 tblspn of energizer, 1 tblspn of nutrient, 1 package of lalvin d47, and two measly arms to shake it all together.

my questions, is it ok to take the airlock off during fermentation? and when do you start using the hydrometer, when you rack it? When do i rack it if the airlock is not a valid gauge to go by? is there anything else i can be doing between now and racking (minus starting another batch)

Chop1620

Penguinetti · Jun 4, 2012

TAKeyser said:
I'll tell you now and many will probably also say it, but airlock activity is in no way, shape or form an accurate indicator of how a fermentation is going. For that you need a Hydrometer and Gravity readings.

That being said did you use any nutrients to keep your yeast happy?

Chevette Girl said:
Hey Chop, welcome to the forum!
And yeah, I will reiterate what TAKeyser said about airlocks. You're going to want to invest in a hydrometer if you want to take your meadmaking seriously and really know what your fermentation is doing. ...

Bienvenidos Chop! I'm just gonna go ahead and jump on the bandwagon with my own anecdote. My first mead did very little bubbling away, and the krausen was small in comparison to others I saw. And by the end the result turned out to be... a beautiful golden package of the good stuff.

Don't let your airlock be your point of worry; grab a hydrometer, take a reading, wait a day or two; then take another reading.

Penguinetti · Jun 4, 2012

chop1620 said:
...my questions, is it ok to take the airlock off during fermentation? and when do you start using the hydrometer, when you rack it? When do i rack it if the airlock is not a valid gauge to go by? is there anything else i can be doing between now and racking (minus starting another batch)

Chop1620

Although I can't answer many questions, I can say to use the hydrometer after you mix the ingredients and before pitching the yeast. This'll be your starting gravity. Then use it to take readings throughout to see how much your gravity has dropped. Once you've taken a couple of readings that stay the same through several days, it's probably time to rack.

I don't know if you've gotten the chance yet, but definitely read the NewBee Guide (it's over in the Site Menu on the left, 5th item down). That will give you a good start.

TAKeyser · Jun 4, 2012

Penguinetti hit the nail on the head with suggesting the Newbee Guide. While reading it pay attention to things like the Sugar Breaks, Oxygenation and Nutrient Additions because you'll need the Hydrometer to guide you through these steps.

chop1620 · Jun 4, 2012

OK, so I am going to buy a hydrometer directly after work today. So Is it ok to undo the rubber stopper/airlock setup during fermentation to take readings or do I have to wait for a certain time to test again?

Chop1620

wayneb · Jun 4, 2012

You can remove an airlock periodically during fermentation in order to take specific gravity readings without any problems. In fact some of us don't even airlock a fermenting mead during most of primary fermentation. I typically just cover my fermenter with a sanitized cloth (held in place by a bungee) during the first 2/3 or so of primary. Just be careful to sanitize anything that comes into contact with the mead, and you should be fine.

You might also want to invest in another tool when you pick up that hydrometer. Get a "wine thief," which will allow you to pull samples from the fermenter without disturbing it very much.

chop1620 · Jun 4, 2012

Thank you to all you chimed in with great info for me. I feel a lot better about what I am doing as a newbie, and feel confident to run another batch of 'the nectar of the gods' and start shedding the newbie label (LOL).

Seriously, thanks for the help and advice

Chop1620

Chevette Girl · Jun 4, 2012

Oh, and if you can, get a wine thief that fits in your 1gal carboy, the big one you can put the hydrometer into sometimes won't fit in the mouth of the 1-gal jugs.

And during primary when your must is creating carbon dioxide, you're pretty safe to be taking the airlock off for readings as often as you feel like it (but don't get too OCD about it, twice a day is about as often as you'd ever want to bother, I usually do it once a day for the first third of the fermentation while I'm in there aerating and adding nutrients). It's when you're into secondary and the SG isn't changing that much and the yeast isn't producing much CO2 that you want to start being careful about oxygen exposure, but since the SG isn't changing that much you don't need to check it that often anyway.

Just out of curiosity, where did you get your recipe? 1 tablespoon each of nutrients and energizer seems a bit much for a gallon, although don't worry too much about it, it probably won't affect the taste.

I think the biggest thing to worry about when you're a newbie is not to worry.

Do the best you can, don't stress out, the yeast knows what it's doing and will probably do a good job despite you and whatever little mistakes you may have made. The only time to be worried about anything is if you've bottled unstabilized young wine with residual sugar. Bottle bombs are really the only thing that warrant true worrying.

Enjoy!

TheAlchemist · Jun 4, 2012

Chevette Girl said:
I think the biggest thing to worry about when you're a newbie is not to worry.
Enjoy!

Yes.
What she said.
Keep calm and carry on.
Lighten up and enjoy the ride!

chop1620 · Jun 4, 2012

I found the recipe online through a few hours of looking. Would I be ok with a half tblspn of energizer and nutreints? or what would you suggest for a gallon batch.

I also stirred the energizer and nutrients together in 2 cups of water and added them to my honey/water mix and lightly swilled to make consistent. then i added the active yeast to 2 cups of 106 degree water and let sit for 15 minutes. then i joined it with current must, topped off with water, and shook vigorously for 5 minutes. Then I put airlock on and stored it in a 73degree...ish room temp. Did i do this procedure out of order? Or am I in good shape to enjoy some sweet mead next summer.

Chop1620

Chevette Girl · Jun 4, 2012

Your yeast rehydration procedure sounds correct

When you read the newbee guide (which I highly recommend, the rest of this post will make more sense afterwards, even if it may contradict itself from time to time, we're working on a rewrite), there are some basic recipes in there. Take a look and compare them with what you'd found, you'll notice that we don't recommend anywhere near as much on the nutrients and energizer. My DAP suggests 1 tsp per gal and my energizer 1/4 tsp per gal, but these are sort of negotiable, you use a little less DAP because there's some in the energizer, you use a little more energizer because your energizer was designed for grape musts, which have a lot more of the vitamins and trace elements that yeasties need than honey does.

There's no one good answer, just a whole lot of "this is how I do it" answers when it comes to adding nutrients and energizer, but doing a search on the forum (or just reading a bunch of brewlogs - if you use "traditional" as a search term it should give you mostly brewlogs where they use just honey, not fruit) will give you an idea of how it gets done.

The general outline as I have absorbed it is as follows: You want to add the DAP before the first 1/3 of your fermentation (sugar break, look it up in the glossary), too much DAP (nutrients) right at pitch can hurt the yeast, DAP in your rehydration water can seriously harm them (you didn't put it in your rehydration water, and they seem to be going along fine so don't sweat it, I put mine in at pitch for years before I found this site), so you want to hold off on adding DAP until the yeast have had a while to get used to their new surroundings and start multiplying, and a lot of us break up our DAP and energizer additions into multiple doses, called SNA or staggered nutrient addition. Some folks use a complicated schedule, some people dump it all in right after lag phase is over (when bubbles and foam start forming in the must), most of us are somewhere in between, but we all make drinkable mead, whatever our process happens to be. I have a lazy approach, I put in 1/3 or 1/2 of what I expect to need in total into the must right after lag phase is over, then I mix the remaining amounts of energizer and nutrients in a spare container, and every time I aerate, I sprinkle some in, in amounts that should make my last addition right around the time where the yeast have eaten 1/3 of the sugar I expect them to eat, which coincides with when I stop aerating.

Hope this was more helpful than confusing!

chop1620 · Jun 4, 2012

ok, after reading the newbees guide tons and back tracking through my process to make a recipe, i realized I'm an idiot.......LOL at myself a lot, feel free to join in if you want. I misread my findings and replaced teaspoon with tablespoon. So I am going to run another batch next to my first one (with the correct quantities). Will my first batch turn out ok? What happens if you over energize/nutrient the must?

Chevette Girl · Jun 4, 2012

Problem number one, you might be able to taste whatever the yeast don't use. Problem two, anything the yeast leave behind is fair game for other organisms (although probably won't be much of a worry if you stabilize it with sulphites and sorbate when it's done its thing).

Sometimes it can cause the yeast to go bugnutz very early on and then stall out early, you won't know for sure till it's done its thing.

THawk · Jun 5, 2012

chop1620 said:
My recipe I used. 1 Gallon of water, 3 lbs honey, 1 tblspn of energizer, 1 tblspn of nutrient, 1 package of lalvin d47, and two measly arms to shake it all together.

Isn't 1 tablespoon each of energizer and nutrient for a gallon a bit much?

Also how warm is it in Colorado this time of year? D47 isn't exactly the most temperature tolerant yeast in the world...

chop1620 · Jun 5, 2012

today, the first batch is doing not so well, it is no longer even producing bubbles, it has a weird cloudy look to it, and the hydrometer doesn't even float when i try to test the mead. First timers luck for me.

My second batch i started yesterday, and using the right measurements..lol..its off to a good start. How soon should one start using the hydrometer to test the mead?

Chop1620

Also to THawk, My mead is in a almost constant 75 degrees give or take a couple degrees.

Soyala_Amaya · Jun 5, 2012

chop1620 said:
the hydrometer doesn't even float when i try to test the mead.

What exactly do you mean by this? Your hydrometer is hitting the bottom of your container? Then you either don't have enough sample in your tube, or must in your bucket for the size of hydrometer you have and the SG you're at. Your hydrometer will ALWAYS float somewhat, but the SG may be well below the 1.000 line, unless your hydrometer is broken. However, your mead might just be done. Make sure you have a high enough level to completely cover the hydrometer, not have it touch the bottom.

TAKeyser · Jun 5, 2012

chop1620 said:
Also to THawk, My mead is in a almost constant 75 degrees give or take a couple degrees.

D-47 is best when it can ferment below 70 degrees, above that it can produce some off flavours (I spelled it wrong for you Canadians and Englishmen) and aromas.

Help, Am I in Trouble

NewBee

NewBee

All around BAD EXAMPLE

NewBee

NewBee

NewBee

NewBee

NewBee

Lifetime Patron

NewBee

All around BAD EXAMPLE

I am Meadlemania

NewBee

All around BAD EXAMPLE

NewBee

All around BAD EXAMPLE

Crazy Martian Cat

NewBee

NewBee

NewBee