slow ferment (ginger lemon mead)

Badhuan1775 · Jul 13, 2014

Hi There, I am have some trouble getting my mead rolling the recipe is: 18 lbs wild flower honey
1 cup lemon juice fresh
4 oz fresh ginger sliced in quarter size
zest of 2 lemons
2 packs of EC1118 yeast
4 gal. bottled spring water
I used (DAP) and White labs WLN-1000-HB yeast nutrient 0.5 tsp. of each before the pitch, and the same 24 hrs. after. I waited about a week and added some more of the same.
the fermentation seamed to be doing OK, bubbling at about 6 sec. interval. it stopped after the 3 (DAP) and nutrient application.
I left it alone for a bit and took another reading and it had stopped fermenting so I prepared a re-pitch with nutrient, (DAP) and honey then acclimated with must over 3 days. The re-pitch was doing well... bubbling...So I poured it in to my must mixed it up and nothing. So then I figured through the reading I have done that the PH my be to low so I tested it and the PH was lower than the lowest colour change (4) so I added some skinned, dryed and crushed egg shells to bring the acidity down (4tsp.)...nothing

The starting SP was 1.145, the gravity now is 1.088. its been sitting for 30 days, no off smells and it tastes good, but still too sweet and not enough alcohol
I am at a loss...

Ironpapa40 · Jul 13, 2014

Based on my reading as well, I would put odds on the pH but also keep an eye on temps.

I'm not sure of the proper way to handle this but here's what I would do if I did not have proper pH testing equipment available:
Give it about 3/4 tsp of potassium bicarbonate
May need to pitch another packet of yeast
Probably won't need anymore nutrients at this point.

1118 should be blowing right through.

For future reference, a standard nutrient addition for a 5 gallon batch might be more like this:

Mix 2 tsp DAP and 1 tsp fermaid K and dose- 3/4 tsp at pitch and 3/4 tsp every 24 hrs after for a total of four additions.

Hope this helps.

Ironpapa40 · Jul 13, 2014

Also, in the future you might consider waiting about adding any sort of acid like lemon juice until after fermentation is complete. And adding some potassium bicarbonate up front might be a good idea as well. Not only for pH buffering but also adds potassium for the yeast.

Badhuan1775 · Jul 13, 2014

Thank you

I will try that next time. Do you think I should I should transfer to secondary fermenter and re-pitch again? or should I leave it for a bit and put in a cooler place, it is at 72-74 now would 60 be better?

Ironpapa40 · Jul 13, 2014

I wouldn't repitch until you can find out something definite about the pH. Maybe someone else will give some thoughts on that.
I can't recall the best temp for 1118 but most, as I recall, seem to do better below 70F. You can do a search and find the best temp range.

I will say from what I've heard, 1118 makes for a fairly harsh mead when young. Seems more so than other yeasts. I haven't used it so I'm basically passing along info from other posts on here.

My wife has a melomel which she made with 71b-1122 which is about 10 weeks old and we don't mind drinking it just as it is. From what I've read, you could never do that with 1118.

Badhuan1775 · Jul 14, 2014

Thanks again I'll do a search on the yeast temp. preference, short of buying a digital PH reader I cant find strips that read low enough. So I think I'll leave it for a bit and take another reading in a week or so. thanks again

i'll update

fatbloke · Jul 15, 2014

The strips I found that worked were listed as being for making kombucha. Not a clue what that is but some thing fermented as the strips were in the HBS. Ranged from 2.6 to 4.8 pH. Ideal for meads......

But that was when my pen meter was dead. I got another one for about a score......

ostensibly · Jul 15, 2014

I read somewhere that using inorganic nutrients like DAP and likely your WLN-1000-HB before pitching will inhibit yeast activity, maybe a contributing factor.

Chevette Girl · Jul 21, 2014

As mentioned by Ostensibly, adding DAP to your rehydration water might have sabotaged your restart.

What catches my eye is your starting gravity at 1.145, that's pretty high for a start and can cause even EC-1118 to choke out, especially if you have pH issues as well (which I agree is likely). For future batches, you probably want to keep it at or around 3 lb honey per gallon of must for starters, you can always add more later (step-feeding) if you want to boost the alcohol content. Front-loading your must like that stresses the yeast out right from the beginning. And, as mentioned, no acid additions until later, since honey has its own acidity. Go ahead and use lemon zest for flavour, but leave out the juice until after fermentation's complete. It's a common recommendation in wine recipes and it does work if you're fermenting sugar or fruit juice, but not when you're using honey as your main fermentable.

Check the pH with your strips again, try more eggshells if it's not up to 4 (it may take a day or two for the eggshells to dissolve and the pH to change, and if it's REALLY acidic, it might take a few tries), ideally you want it around 3.8 but 4.0 is close enough. If you can get to a brew store, potassium or calcium carbonate is probably easier to manage than egg shells.

Have you tested your water's pH with these strips? Dilution might help too, especially if your water has a pH above 7.0. It will not only bring your pH up a bit but will also dilute the alcohol your yeast have already produced and might get them to be able to go a little further even without a restart, it might be worth siphoning some off into one of your water jugs and mix 1 par water to 3 parts mead and see if it kicks back up again. Oh, make sure you stir up your must before taking some out, to make sure that there are enough yeast transferred over, they have a tendency to settle down to the bottom when they think they're done.

What you can try to do if you want the fermentation to progress a little further is to dilute your mead with a little water and then make an acclimated starter. I'm not sure of your exact procedure with the starter you made but the way I do it is this: rehydrate another packet of EC-1118 in water as per the directions. Then after the allotted time (15 min in 1/4 cup water if I recall), add that volume of must, so you double the volume. Every time it's fizzing happily again, repeat the volume doubling (the first time add 1/4 cup, the second time 1/2 cup, the third time 1 cup, etc). This will slowly get the new yeast used to the alcohol content and the pH instead of shocking the heck out of them by starting with honey and DAP. You don't want to wait too long between additions or else the yeast might chew through all the sugar and think it's finished and go dormant... I usually do a doubling every hour until I've got about 1/5 of the total volume I'm pitching into, you don't want the SG of your starter to bottom out.

Good luck with it and let us know how it goes!

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slow ferment (ginger lemon mead)

Badhuan1775

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Ironpapa40

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Ironpapa40

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Badhuan1775

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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....

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