Stuck maple mead

[owlhawk]

2 gallons maple syrup
15 lbs honey
ec1118 yeast
top with water
yeast nutrient as per directions

Primary in glass carboy
sept 10 gravity 1135

thurs oct 27 gravity 1060
-difference is did not boil maple syrup and did not stir as well as maple syrup no 2

dec 20
gravity 1060
racked off lees as I was getting nervous

jan 16
gravity 1060
-repitched yeast. k1v 1116


feb 18
1 litre boiled maple syrup added to try and jump start. also 1.5 litres water. wrapped carboy in blanket
also boiled bread yeast that was stitting around

feb 25
gravity 1060


The house temp is 68 degrees. I tried raising to 72 for 2 weeks, did not change anything. Do I have a PH problem or should I use an acclimated starter? I don't know what to do with this one. I don't have PH strips for testing.

Thanks,

Owlhawk

[akueck]

Can you give us more details about "yeast nutrient per directions"? Which nutrients, how much, when, etc. Also, did you aerate at all?

We can't guess about the pH without having you take a reading. If you want you can add a small amount of potassium carbonate and see what happens, but without knowing the pH ahead of time it's just a black box.

[owlhawk]

yes I did aerate, just forgot to include that with my notes. The yeast nutrient I used was Spagnols. It seems to be all that is available in my area. I added 2 teaspoons of it for a 5 gallon.

[chams]

I second adding some K2CO3 if you can't test pH.

[akueck]

So I'm guessing this is a 5 gallon (19 L) batch?

Some googling has led me to think that 2 tsp of your Spagnols nutrient is about 8 g and the recommended amount to add to 36 L of grape juice for wine. I would guess that would be either about right or maybe a little light for your volume of mead, though considering your rather high starting gravity it might be too low. [it seems like nutrient suggestions for wine amount to about 75-100 ppm YAN, so yours is about 140-190.] Personally for an OG that high I'd want at least 250 ppm in there, probably 300.

The yeast repitch you did sounded like it was not an acclimated starter, correct? If so, those yeast probably didn't make it. So you've added some more nutrients in the form of dead yeast as well. I'm not sure if more nutrients at this stage would do you any good. I'm inclined to say no, but perhaps we can get some other opinions.

If you can check the pH, that would be helpful. Barring that, adding 1/2 tsp of K-carbonate won't hurt and it could be enough to get things moving again. Otherwise, if you want to see this ferment out, you might want to consider doing a restart with an acclimated starter. Search for "restart protocol" and you should get some good advice on that.

If restarting doesn't work out, you can still blend this mead with a dry mead to get a less sweet result. Or fortify it with some distilled spirits and make a winter warmer type drink to be sipped out of tiny glasses while watching it snow.

[Chevette Girl]

My maple meads made with EC1118 in a carboy start at 1.125 and usually poop out around 1.030 (repeated at least 4 times now), using nutrients and lemon juice (like you're not supposed to :P) and the time I tried making it "properly" by using nutrients, energizer and a proper aeration schedule, got a batch down to 1.025... next time I'm gonna try using a primary bucket with lots of headspace for even better aeration and a staggered nutrient addition. I did check the pH with strips and apparently that was NOT the problem. And Owlhawk, seeing as how we're practically neighbours if you pm me your mailing address I'll mail you a handful of pH strips, I'm never gonna use 'em all.

[owlhawk]

Well the gravity reading is down to 1.025 so I added bentonite to clear it and am considering stabilizing it before bottling.

[Chevette Girl]

Glad to hear it finished out to about as far as mine ever go, it should taste pretty good! And stabilizing it is a good idea.

Just for fun, what was the pH?