Help with yeast not working in JOA

Hi everyone :wave:

Being that this is my first mead I thought I'd try a Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. I live in Australia and could only get a 5litre glass carboy so seeing as the original recipe was 4litres (1 gallon), I divided it by 4 and then times by 5 to get my ingredient list;

2kgs (4.4lbs) honey
30 raisins
1 1/4 orange, sliced into eighths
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1tsp Tandaco dried yeast (can't get Fleishmans)

Anyway, I followed the directions, but I missed the swirling in of the yeast and instead read the DO NOT SHAKE. So my yeast mainly sat on top of my oranges all night and this morning, 14hrs later, I had no real yeast action, no bubbling, no foaming just a little bubbling around the edge where some of the yeast had touched the liquid. I re-read the directions and swirled in the yeast this morning, but now nearly 2 hrs later I still have no action. I've been reading through all the other JOA threads, but so far it seems no-one else was stupid enough not to swirl in the yeast :

So;
Have I stuffed it up completely?
Should I give it a few more hours?
Should I re-pitch more yeast?
Have I made any other mistakes?
Should I accept I'm an idiot and stuffed up the foolproof mead ???

Here's a link to some photos I just took;
http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa117/amber_stone_photos/mead/


Please help, I'm way outta my league :icon_scratch:

Thanks, Suzy.

Hi Sandman :wave:

Thankyou for the welcome and the reassuring words! So I guess I'll just calm down and leave the poor mead alone, hopefully I'll get some action in the next few hours 8)

Suzy.

Oskaar said:

If you don't see any activity yet give it a shake with a sanitized cotton cloth over the top so you don't explode the bottle. Shake once, and see if you get a lot of foam, if so, then let it calm down, your yeast is working. Otherwise if it doesn't seem to be really volatile, then go ahead and give it a good shaking and then give it a minute to calm down, and airlock it.

Cheers,

Oskaar

Click to expand...

Well I shook it and got no real foaming at all, so really shook it up and still didn't get any, so I tipped the rest of the packet of yeast in (about 1/2 to 1 tsp more), and swirled it in.......I keep on expecting Joe Mattioli to pop up in my kitchen and tell me off for messing with my mead :-[ ;D

*fingers crossed*

Suzy.

AsharaLyn said:

Shaking it has two purposes: it will mix in the yeast (especially since you added more), and it will aerate the must so that the yeast are happier. You should see something within another day or two. Mead isn't very exciting right off the start, it takes a day or two to build up steam to where you can see it working.

Click to expand...

Yep, this is my first mead so I have no idea what to expect, I've only just started homebrewing so only have cider/beer to compare to.

But I'm happy to report that while I still haven't got the huge foaming like I've read about, but I have some real bubbles, some foam and my air-lock is blooping about every 11seconds :icon_thumright:

So hopefully I'll be reporting back in a couple of months with a taste report :cheers:,

Thanks everyone,
Suzy.