Stalled Mead Fermentation

[brianbrewed]

Made a Mead over a month ago with the Mangrove Jack's Mead Yeast.'
Simply tipped the dry yeast into honey/water solution (got the recipe online).
Seemed to ferment away until it stalled at 1040.
Tried rousing the yeast with no luck.
Tempted to throw in a sachet of White Wine yeast.

Anybody have any ideas???

[irish_goat]

What temperature is it at?

Do you know the original gravity as well? If it was quite high the yeast might have become stressed and stopped fermenting. Can also happen if you don't add extra nutrients as honey doesn't have enough nitrogen.

[brianbrewed]

The OG was 1086.
The mead was fermenting in a room with an average temp of 20degrees.
I was suspecting that it was something to do with the nutrition.

[irish_goat]

Nutrition could be it then, I'm not sure if adding the nutrients now will work or if you'll need to add extra yeast as well though. I'm sure someone else can chip in though. 

[molc]

Yeah honey isn't the most friendly of fermentation environments, with high alcohol and low nutrients. Usually you add nutrients at start, then at days 1 and day 3 to sustain the initial fermentation.

At this point, the yeast have probably bugged out, so nutrient wont really help them, unless you pitch another batch. However, the new yeast will be going into a high alcohol environment with not enough O2, so I'm not sure how they'll get on...

[brianbrewed]

Bugger.
Might try and throw in a pack of white wine yeast and see what happens.
Live and learn.

[Bubbles]

Hmm. 1.086 is not a very high OG for mead, so it should be fermenting out to dryness.

What nutrients did you use, and in what amounts?
Did you use a staggered nutrient addition?
Did you oxygenate the must well before pitching the yeast?

I'd suggest making a mini starter with your white wine yeast, or at the very least rehydrating it. As molc says, mead musts are pretty inhospitable to yeasts - acids, alcohol etc.

Be very careful before you bottle it. Meads have a habit of restarting fermentation when you don't expect it, due to changes in storage temperature, pH etc.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I'd suggest making a mini starter with your white wine yeast, or at the very least rehydrating it. As molc says, mead musts are pretty inhospitable to yeasts - acids, alcohol etc.

This is your best option. Build up robust healthy yeast starter and add it to the mead must.

[brianbrewed]

Just did a quick reading and it has r
dropped down to 1030.

Didn't add any nutrients just pitched the Mangrove Jack's Mead Yeast in.
I think I add a new yeast in as I was advised above.

Thanks guys.

[Bubbles]

Ooh.. Mead musts are literally nitrogen free. Doesn't sound like it's going to be a healthy fermentation. I doubt there's any point in adding nutrient now though.

[bachus]

Mead restart is not not easy (50/50). You can start second batch with nutrient and good oxygenation, wait for final gravity 1000 and blend. If you will start same volume, you should get  semi-dry ~1.0137 drinkable mead. What yeast you used? Lalvin 71B-1122 ?

[brianbrewed]

What yeast you used? Lalvin 71B-1122 ?

Used Mangrove Jack's Dried Mead Yeast
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/mangrove-jacks-yeast-m05-mead-yeast-10-g-p-3405.html

[Will_D]

Standard technique for stuck home wine fermentations:

Remove 500 ml, dilute with 250 ml water add nutrients and a sprinkle of fresh yeast (in a nutshell making a starter from the stuck batch)

When its going again add a bit more nutrient to the original and re-pitch the starter!

[brianbrewed]

Managed to get the Mead going again by adding some 'Tronozymol' yeast nutrient.

Took a gravity reading this morning and it's down to 1006.

[molc]

How long do these ferments usually take? Transferred mine to secondary after 4 weeks and it was only down to 1.012, from 1.089. Hoping it will keep working away but should have checked FG before transferring :/