Pitching finnishing yeast stopped fermentation

[AlTheChemist]

I'm making a high gravity mead, hoping to reach 15-16%.

I started off with an OG of 1.128 and pitched white labs sweet mead yeast (15% tolerance).

At about 1.021 my fermentation started to choke up and the mead was still too sweet for my taste.
I pitched in White labs WLP099 (22% tolerance) hoping to kick things back up a notch and then stabilize when the sweetness was to my liking.

Pitching this yeast completely stopped the fermentation
I've already added yeast booster (2tsp) at around 1.050 when things slowed down and it help move things along.

I added another tsp to help a little without risking flavor but no change.

Acidity is 3.8
Temp is 74

My lees have turned chunky and the mead is starting to clear.
Any ideas what might be going on?

I'm still hoping to get this batch down to at least 1.015

 

[Masbustelo]

I've never used White Labs yeast so I can't comment on them, other than to say they are relatively uncommon yeasts for mead. It is relatively hard to reestablish fermentation at the FG your at. The easiest thing would be to do another dry fermentation and mix the two.If you want a dry mead drop your starting gravity to 1.095.

 

[AlTheChemist]

Thanks Masbustelo,

I've had very good results with white labs in the past, though adamantly, I've never tried them on a mead this big before.

I'm not a big fan of dry Meads, I was going for a more balanced semi-sweet. Though it seems that getting to that 1.015-ish on a high gravity fermentation is a bit challenging.

Would you think a strong EC-1118 starter has a chance at that FG?

I'll try blending with a dry batch.

 

[Masbustelo]

I sucessfully used EC-1118 to get a stuck mead going again a while back. I had put some dried apricots in a mead and they had sulphites that killed the initial ferment. You should get a strong side ferment going with the new yeast and then pitch it, or add a little of your current batch to the EC-1118 at a time until it is going again. You have nothing to lose, except $1.00. It is usually easier to ferment dry and then sweeten to your taste.

 

[AlTheChemist]

Pitched in a string started of EC-1118. Things are kicked up again.
Will try to stabilize at around 1.015 and let you guys know how it turned out.

Cheers!