High gravity must: acclimatizing yeast to avoid osmotic shock

[choosybeggar]

I'm making a mead with OG 1.160, using 71B-1122 (dry yeast). After rehydration (using Goferm), I pitched directly into the must. 48 hours later, no action, no drop in OG.

So I made a starter. Same yeast strain and rehydration protocol but I fed it a little must diluted in water, then an hour later, a little more (with a slightly higher must/water ratio), and so on and so on, each time increasing the proportion of and volume of must until I had about 1.5 liters of rocking fermentation in the starter at close to the OG. I just pitched this starter. We'll see tomorrow whether this changes my luck.

My question is, do people do this routinely for such a high gravity must? Or was I just not patient enough after my initial pitch?

 

[choosybeggar]

12-15 hours later and the fermentation is burping along

 

[CBMbrewer]

I've always heard/read that the starter should have a low gravity (1.02-1.04) so they yeast don't get stressed. But I have also wondered if it is good to acclimate them to the environment that you will be throwing them in. After all, we use malt extract in starters instead of corn or cane sugar. Yeast will happily eat both, but I've seen it chalked up to acclimating them.
Wait, your talking about mead...
Still interested in any thoughts.

 

[stpug]

I think that's a legitimate way of doing it. I've also _heard_ of adding more must as the fermentation progresses so you're pitching yeast into a lower gravity / lower volume must, and over the next few days you add high strength (low volume) must eventually reaching the volume and original gravity you were initially aiming for. I've also _heard_ of this method for getting good attenuation on high gravity beers (barleywines, wee heavy, etc).

 

[choosybeggar]

I found this which suggests that just using a rehydration protector (like GoFerm) is enough to protect against osmotic shock. But it pertains to grape musts which are what, up to 1.110? Mead musts may manifest much more monosaccaharide-try saying that five times fast