meh. :-\briankettering said:No, this is not normal. A healthy yeast inoculation should have the must bubbling within 24 hours.
Here are a number of questions to help track down the problem:
What did you use to sanitize your equipment?
What is your recipe?
Did you use dry or liquid yeast?
according to the recipe, we had to mix the honey and the water in a pot and heat to 50° celcius.How did you prepare the must before adding the yeast?
yeah, this was a problem. it took ages to cool off, the recipe said around 25°, but i put it in at 33°... it was late, i wanted to go to bed! lol.What was the temperature of the must when you added the yeast?
yep.Did you use any yeast nutrient?
well, it didn't actually say so in the recipe, but i did give it a good airing i think, cause i had to use a ladle to get the must/yeast mixture into the fermenter.Did you aerate the must well after adding the yeast?
JoeM said:Are you fermenting in a glass fermenter or a plastic bucket? Sometimes the plastic variety of fermenter doesnt seal well and you dont see bubbles in the airlock and of course you cant see the liquid inside.
3 kg honey
8 liters water
4 g yeast nutrient
40 g lactic acid
10 g weat flour
yeast (port, malaga or burgung (whatever that is) )
yield: 10 liters
heat the water and honey to 50°, stir until honey has disolved/mixed up with the water.
then cool down to 25°, add remaining ingredients and put it in the fermenter.
optionally you could now add spices and things (lime tree flowers, elderflowers, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, hops, ginger) feel free to experiment.
after 2-3 months the fermentation should be finished, rack and keep in a cool place. if you want to add a preservative at this point, use 1 g of "kaliumpyrosulfit" (sorry, can't translate that one)
the longer you keep it, the better it gets.
Glacierwulf said:i recently found out that my fermentantion cap was bad.
thus causing my first batch to carbonate in primary
might check yours
Greg
JoeM said:Sounds like its fermenting properly but that you have an air leak somewhere in your set up that causing your airlock to not bubble. I find that this is a common complaint with plastic fermenters.
JoeM said:Head space shouldn't make a difference, only if something isnt sealed properly. A simple way to test this is to push down gently on the lid of the bucket and see if the airlock bubbles.
Brewbear said:As a side note, the rubbing alcohol in U.S. is isopropyl... not a good idea to drink it ! I certainly hope you airated the fermentation vessel before you put the must in. The concern is not the ill effect of isopropyl acl. in the drink, it is well diluted, it is the flavor and smell of the higher alcohols that may be imparted to your mead in a small way. It would be a shame to have to age it longer just because of that.
Ted