Stuck fermentation or not?

1eightdevils · Apr 3, 2013

First off here is the Recipe I used.
15 lbs of orange blossom Honey
4 gal of water
3 tsp of yeast nutrient
2 tsp of yeast energizer
10 g of lalvin 71b-1122 yeast

One mistake I made was I did not get a og reading when must was made. I pitched the yeast on the 23 of march. Airlock active on the 27. about 1 bubble every 1-2 seconds for the first 4 days. March 30 to april 1, one bubble about every 5- 7 seconds. on the second it stopped. The airlock still has pressure on it but no bubbles. (side note) I added the nutrients and energizer when I heated the must.
Just wondering if I needed to take action and if so what.
Thanks for your time and help.

dingurth · Apr 3, 2013

What makes you think that it's stuck? Did you take an SG reading that you thought was high or did you expect there to be more bubbles in your airlock for a longer time?

Taking the current SG would be the only way to tell if it was stuck, and posting that (depending on what it is) could help us help you.

Marshmallow Blue · Apr 3, 2013

Ive had fermentations be wrapped up, airlock wise, in that amount of time. What is the gravity at now? This will be able to tell you if it's more likely stalled or pretty much finished. I think before you panic, you should take a reading to see where your at now, then plug your recipe into the GotMead Calculator which can at least get you close to what your starting gravity was.

Oh and Welcome to GOT MEAD!

1eightdevils · Apr 3, 2013

Okay I just took temp and reading.
Temp is at 64 degrees f
and gravity right now is at 1.000-1.001

Marshmallow Blue · Apr 3, 2013

Check it again next week, if it's the same. Your done! If it's gone down again, check it in another week and then you'll probably be done. The good news here is it's not stalled. You're looking at a finished fermentation here.

1eightdevils · Apr 3, 2013

Thanks for everyones great advice. This site is full of great people that are willing to help. Thanks again;D

fatbloke · Apr 3, 2013

15lb of honey is about 1 and a quafter gallons of honey. Plus the 4 gallons of water.

So just over 3 and a half pound of honey to a gallon of water.

Allowing for some concentration of sugar variation I'd guess something like the 1.100 to 1.110 sort of area for a starting gravity.

71B has a tolerance of about 14% ABV.

You say that the gravity currently measures 1.000 to 1.001 ?

Have a search and do the maths........stuck ? No........damn near finished.

The suggestions already made haven't elaborated but their advice is good. It may drop a bit further say as low as 0.990 but if you find it doesn't get any further thats fine and consider it finished.

Your guide should be 3 identical gravity readings taken across the period of a week i.e. each reading 2 or 3 days apart. Continued bubbling may be further fermentation but equally a finished batch off gassing with changes in atmospheric pressure.

1eightdevils · Apr 4, 2013

Thanks for the great advice. I will do that. Just wondering after I rack how long should Iwait
to bottle.

fatbloke · Apr 4, 2013

1eightdevils said:
Thanks for the great advice. I will do that. Just wondering after I rack how long should Iwait
to bottle.

The racking is carried out as many times as is necessary to remove all the sediment........

Or of course,

You can remove the sediment with finings.

How long before you bottle ?

You make your own mind up after researching the pro's and cons of bottle ageing Vs bulk ageing.

Bottle if you have temp/climate controlled storage to keep it in the low 50's F or bulk if you don't and need to compromise with reducing temp swings and want consistency.......

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Stuck fermentation or not?

1eightdevils

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dingurth

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Marshmallow Blue

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1eightdevils

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Marshmallow Blue

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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....

1eightdevils

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fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....