I'm pretty sure I'm contaminated..can I save it?

Ok. Actually that was the issue which makes me work about. I'll do it asap and share the result.

Hello again,

I did add 20-25 gr. of boiled bread yeast by the next morning. Now, it's 5th day and SG is 1035, alcohol is %13 according to vinometer (seems a bit high compared to SG) and acidity is 4.00 sharp. That white layer on the mead dissolves when I disturb the mead and comes back again in a few hours (it does not grow though). Airlock bubbles once or twice a minute now. Looking forward for your suggestions.

All the best

(btw. sorry for the typos. I use my smartphone sometimes and it has "word correction" feature which turns to be messy sometimes.

Ok there are 2 possibilities which come to mind:

1. This is a copy of a reply to white stuff floating on top of mead by Wayneb a while back:
"What you are describing sounds very much like something that is called a "yeast pellicle." With some yeast strains, near the end of primary fermentation, as the yeast run out of nutrient and the ethanol concentration rises a fraction of the yeast cells will start to produce more fatty acids for incorporation into their cell walls - it acts as sort of an osmotic throttle against the ETOH, allowing the yeast to survive a little bit longer in an increasingly yeast-toxic brew. It also makes those cells less dense than their surrounding must and they will then rise to the surface of the liquid, forming that off-white filmy substance that you are describing. If the pellicle is made up of the yeast strain that you pitched, there is absolutely no harm in it as long as you have properly airlocked the mead to prevent exposure to oxygen and wild microbes.

However in some cases, especially if good sanitization practices aren't followed, the pellicle can be made up of wild yeasts (Brettanomyces and/or others). Additionally, acetobacter bacteria can form a floating colony that can look a little like a yeast pellicle. In both those situations it is a good idea to stabilize the mead right away, since wild yeast can introduce funky (musty, moldy) flavors into your mead and the acetic acid produced by acetobacter can make your mead smell and taste a bit like vinegar."

2. Maybe some beeswax which floats naturally when using raw/unprocessed honey. In this case it is also nothing to worry about

Thank you very much Stasis. That explanation seems very familiar. I'll give it a try but I want to hear Medsen's opinion as well before I take any action.

All the best,

Hi Medsen,

Could you please give me some more insight please? By the way, I see posts saying that primary fermentation takes a month or so (or sometimes longer). Is that true?

P.S. SG is still 1035 although CO2 bubbles keep rising from depths.

Update.

After five days there's no decrease in SG so I decided to make unstuck my mead. I sulphited the must and waited for 24 hours and then transferred it to a new carboy. It was a bit messy since my first carboy fell of the chair (reminder: don't leave your carboy unattended if you incline it on a chair) and created three brand new problems: 1) The yeast and whatever else in the must had a disasterous earthquake which make them rise into must from their peaceful rest on the bottom. 2) Some of the must spilled 3) All my room smelled as if someone threw up after drinking wine.


For the first one, I had two choices between stopping the process and wait for the suspension to settle again and resuming the process and finish the unstucking attempt. My decision was to resume the process because I thought it would take some time for the suspension to settle and during this time either yeast could get alive in a stressed state or other microorganisms could spoil the must. I did not want to sulfite it again either since I did not know how much sulphite needed at that point. So I made a quick decision.

For the second part, I prepared and added some more must (600 ml) that has same SG with my original batch thinking it'll not affect the result seriously. Then I aerated the must and added Lalvin ICV-K1 yeast (after properly rehydrated). When the lag phase is over I added some nutrient. Now after 36 hours, airlock pops 10 times in a minute. I did not take any SG reading yet but it seems ok at the moment.

I know it's too late to ask for opinions however I wrote this update to share my experience and ask for opinions nevertheless so people may find it useful in the future.

All the best

Sounds like it's working out for you. Can't argue with successful restart. Oh how did you do with problem #3 the stale wine vomit smell? I bet that's harder to deal with.

Actually, hardest part was to explain my little daughter why her father is busy making something with so strange odor.

It sounds like your plan worked. As a general rule it is best not to sulfite a stuck batch that you want to restart, but as you see, that may not stop yeast.

Vomit smell means sulfur odors. Give the batch some yeast hull or some Fermaid O. When done, if that odor remains, splash rack it and use a copper scrub pad.

Uhhmmm. Hello again.
After some weeks of patience I noticed no progress following that last brief fermentation. I just let it alone hoping it'll progress slowly. However, it was still stuck. Then I decided to give it another shot. I took readings first: pH- 3.70 / hydrometer- 1040 / temp- 18 C / Alcohol- %10. Then prepared a starter culture with Lalvin ICV K1 (I didn't have EC1118) according to instructions on the package. When it got alive, I added 250 ml warm water with nutrient and sugar addition. After a few hours I added 125 ml of my stuck mead just after the starter begun bubbling with activity. Almost as soon as I added the stuck mead, starter died and never bubbled again. It was as if poured some poison in it. Any ideas?

Was the stuck mead sulfited? From Medsen's previous post it seems it was. Maybe there was enough sulfite in the stuck mead to stop the starting culture.
When I had a stuck ferment of 15 liters, I created a much larger batch of 54 liters, but only used 40l in primary. The stuck batch was added towards the end of primary when both batches had equivalent alcohol so the yeast would have little or no shock from the sudden rise in alcohol.
Or you can try making a very dry batch and blending them both. However, I'd be rather afraid of these approaches since you had worries of contamination

Thank you for your reply, Stasis. Contamination is not an issue any more. I did not sulphite the batch after my first restart attempt. I also aerated it for 15 mins with an aquarium pump.

Well. Finally I've figured out what's going on. Fermentation was over although the gravity reading was still 1040 and alcohol content was %10. Since all variables were in reasonable limits, except the gravity reading, I started to suspect sugar content of honey. I realized that honeydew honey (especially the pine honey that I used for must) was less sweet than blossom honey. I quick research confirmed my suspicion. Indeed, honeydew honey has less sugar and more minerals etc. than blossom honey. That was why gravity reading was 1030 despite depleted sugar. When I added more honey to restart the fermentation at my first attempt, it raised to 1040 after fermentation's over.
Now, as soon as I added sugar to the must it started to ferment very actively. In short, anybody who want to use honeydew honey should consider this issue when taking gravity readings.