All is well now, got everything bubbling away. Looks as though all my many errors as stated above are not as plentiful as thought...but thanks for the input.
Hi Bilbo
After reading my post to you this morning I can imagine I came across as an ass. I'm sorry if I did, I meant well for sure. You have found the very best forum on the web for making mead. We are here to help you.
I'm really surprised you yeast we able to get going with such a high gravity. I have never heard of anyone starting this high and having success. The added honey in the must adds pressure to the yeast. The more honey (higher gravity) the more pressure (osmotic pressure). Think about diving in a 6' pool to the bottom. Now dive 200' down to the bottom of a lake. Huge difference. I personally start at 1120. If I want a higher ABV or a sweeter finish than that I would need more honey. So as not to start out with a "too high" gravity I get it started, let the yeast eat until the gravity is lowered enough that I can now add the remainder of my desired gravity points and not harm the yeast.
Next:
It's not good to just toss your dry yeast on top of your must for many reasons. People do it but it's not really that good. To my knowledge there are 2 yeast that handle that much better than everything else. That is K1V and EC-1118. You will find these in wine kits because they are very hearty and can withstand the dry pitching process. Literature would suggest around 60% of your yeast die when dry pitching. I'm really surprised you got your started. Especially the D-47. That is a great yeast by the way for traditional and lightly spiced meads.
When you start out with a small army, and many, or most of them are wounded you have a huge chance to have a stalled ferment. Meaning they will not finish the job before giving up. I suspect you will find this to be true.
pH control is also very important to monitor and understand. If your pH goes lower than around 3-3.2. it is too toxic of an environment and the yeast cannot go to work. Because of this it is highly recommended to not add any acids (lemon) in your must up front. But rather wait until your fermentation is complete and then make acidity adjustments if need be. Most of the time you will be fine as is. The pH will drop on it's own once fermentation begins. Sometimes as much a .5. I have heard from some who monitor these things to have almost a whole point swing. Remember ,,, go below 3.2 or such and you will stall out. You may find this the case with the added lemon in a must that began right at the border line to begin with.
There is almost zero nutrition for the yeast in a honey must. Therefore we feed them. To do this right , we calculate how much food they will need. We determine how much food we will need to feed them over the course of the fermentation and then divide the feeds up on a specific schedule. Think eating breakfast before you go run a marathon. Now, think of having breakfast, start running, and along the way eat small amounts every so many miles. Very few people just feed a single dose up front. There are different things in different types of food. Some are not good (DAP) to be feed to your yeast after the first (breakfast) feeding.
Your food does not list it's ingredients nor the amounts. You can't "count calories" so to speak when you know nothing about your food. Most of us feed to our yeast an exact amount of (YAN) yeast assimilated nitrogen. And, we feed it on a schedule so the yeast have some through the entire marathon. Those generic food additions do not list ppm of YAN so you do not know what value to add to your feeding protocol.
Temperature is very important along the entire process. Starting when you first rehydrate your yeast all the way through to the end and beyond. Too low and your yeast will struggle to keep going. Too warm and they will make off flavors that can take a year or more to go away in the aging process.
If your "purified water" was distilled, your used water with zero nutrients and trace elements. But even way worse, zero dissolved oxygen. Yeast need huge amount of dissolved oxygen, (Between 12-15 ppm) to start of the journey. Without that they don't get the chance to make a nice suit of amour and will struggle at the end of fermentation when the ABF% becomes too high and will crap out sooner, and/or create off flavors (fussels).
You have way more honey/sugar in your batch than the yeast can assimilate. Even if you were to manage all of the above in good fashion. Your yeast could never chew on the honey enough to get to the levels that will be desirable to drink. As the alcohol levels rise from eating the honey, eventually you will reach a tolerance level where the yeast will give up the ghost and die from alcohol toxicity. You will be left with something so sweet you will not want to drink it. Read syrup in this case.
This is why I asked for you to tell us your protocol. There are many things needed to make a successful mead. More than the brief overview I provided above. Miss any one of several, and you will pay the price. Include, and manage them all, and you will have a very good chance of making something to be proud of and enjoy in a matter of a few months.
I hope you appreciate the time it took for me to type this, and the time it took to learn these things. I would have been more specific to try and help you. Specifically, with your recipes had you come back and listed your protocol. I wasn't trying to be an ass.
You are lucky to even see any proof in your vessels. Even though you have some bubbles (which really isn't a good indication of what's really going on) I am afraid these will be very difficult batches. Two good things will/can come from it. You will learn tons of what not to do. And mead is very resilient. A mantra around here is to never throw anything away. It seems as though time in a glass carboy, tucked away somewhere for many months can make seemingly undrinkable things into tolerable or hopefully even better.
Stick around here and learn. Ask questions. And most importantly have fun
Good luck
Ryan
