Firstly I'd like to give a big shout out and THANK YOU to hightest as you are a wealth of knowledge and have put a lot of effort into creating and posting the FAQ (its perfect). Sorry that this is a bit of a novel but I'm trying to include as much info as possible.
Back story: Had some mead from a local brewery and loved it - decided to try making my own as I've been brewing beer for a while now and figured it could be a good time. At the time I didn't really want to put much effort into it (I'm now regretting it) and came across the JOAM recipe/thread - read through it and decided it was too easy not to try. I pretty much followed the recipe to a T other than deciding to omit the bread yeast (I thought to myself: why use bread yeast when I can buy something better/meant for alcohol) and use a yeast recommended by the lady at the brew shop I frequent. At the time I didn't really pay attention to what type of yeast it was (stupid me) but it was Red Star brand.
Process: I whipped up 2 batches, one with the regular recipe and the other I substituted about 25-30 blackberries for the raisins and orange. I ended up using about 1.5kg (3.3lbs of honey) per batch along with 3.5L of water. I warmed up the water on the stove in order to help dissolve the honey and added it to the 4L water jug followed by adding all other ingredients. I let it come to room temp (about 70F) shook the piss out of it then pitched the yeast after rehydrating it as per the yeast package instructions (basically just dissolved it in warm water for 15mins) and slapped an airlock on the jugs. I did take a OG reading but being the stupid person I am I didn't pay attention to the exact number but it was somewhere around 1.11
Issues: Since then they've been sitting for 6 days in my house which fluctuates in temp but is generally around 68-69ish. There is some visible signs of fermentation but compared to what I'm used to with beer its extremely low. As far as the airlock is concerned each batch is letting a bubble through the airlock at about 1 ever 20s. I decided to take a reading yesterday and it seems as though neither of them have really changed. I did end up sampling the mead/must that I used for the reading and it tasted like delicious syrup and didn't display any off/bad flavours which I think is a good sign. Also, I didn't notice a very strong yeasty flavour which I would have expected.
Over the course of the week while my must has supposedly been fermenting I've taken more interest into Mead and ended up reading through the FAQ's and the newbie guide on gotmead.com and have since wished I had read them first before proceeding with the JOAM.
In using the calculator (as best as I can figure out) with 3.3lbs of honey and 14.8 cups of water my OG should be around 1.097 (right around what my 1.11 reading that I took before pitching the yeast was). It has been 6 days since I pitched the yeast and neither batch has changed as per the reading I took last night. Is it possible my fermentation is stuck, or maybe my yeast died? Or is this just a relatively slow recipe/process. I know mead takes time and patience which I'm completely willing to give but I guess I'm just worried that I screwed up somewhere along the way and don't want to still have aged syrup in 2 months. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Rob
Back story: Had some mead from a local brewery and loved it - decided to try making my own as I've been brewing beer for a while now and figured it could be a good time. At the time I didn't really want to put much effort into it (I'm now regretting it) and came across the JOAM recipe/thread - read through it and decided it was too easy not to try. I pretty much followed the recipe to a T other than deciding to omit the bread yeast (I thought to myself: why use bread yeast when I can buy something better/meant for alcohol) and use a yeast recommended by the lady at the brew shop I frequent. At the time I didn't really pay attention to what type of yeast it was (stupid me) but it was Red Star brand.
Process: I whipped up 2 batches, one with the regular recipe and the other I substituted about 25-30 blackberries for the raisins and orange. I ended up using about 1.5kg (3.3lbs of honey) per batch along with 3.5L of water. I warmed up the water on the stove in order to help dissolve the honey and added it to the 4L water jug followed by adding all other ingredients. I let it come to room temp (about 70F) shook the piss out of it then pitched the yeast after rehydrating it as per the yeast package instructions (basically just dissolved it in warm water for 15mins) and slapped an airlock on the jugs. I did take a OG reading but being the stupid person I am I didn't pay attention to the exact number but it was somewhere around 1.11
Issues: Since then they've been sitting for 6 days in my house which fluctuates in temp but is generally around 68-69ish. There is some visible signs of fermentation but compared to what I'm used to with beer its extremely low. As far as the airlock is concerned each batch is letting a bubble through the airlock at about 1 ever 20s. I decided to take a reading yesterday and it seems as though neither of them have really changed. I did end up sampling the mead/must that I used for the reading and it tasted like delicious syrup and didn't display any off/bad flavours which I think is a good sign. Also, I didn't notice a very strong yeasty flavour which I would have expected.
Over the course of the week while my must has supposedly been fermenting I've taken more interest into Mead and ended up reading through the FAQ's and the newbie guide on gotmead.com and have since wished I had read them first before proceeding with the JOAM.
In using the calculator (as best as I can figure out) with 3.3lbs of honey and 14.8 cups of water my OG should be around 1.097 (right around what my 1.11 reading that I took before pitching the yeast was). It has been 6 days since I pitched the yeast and neither batch has changed as per the reading I took last night. Is it possible my fermentation is stuck, or maybe my yeast died? Or is this just a relatively slow recipe/process. I know mead takes time and patience which I'm completely willing to give but I guess I'm just worried that I screwed up somewhere along the way and don't want to still have aged syrup in 2 months. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Rob