First Mead

[ClownPrince]

Hi, had my first attempt at making mead this weekend.
Followed a simple guide i found online:
1.6kg of honey dissolved in boiling water.
One orange
1 stick of cinnamon
3 cloves (meant to be two, but two cloves got stuck together).
topped the water up to about 4l.
Mangroves Jack's Mead yeast.

Made in a 5l Demi John
I put all the 'solids' into a hop sock which is held in place by the bung with a blow off tube in it.
The recipe called for bread yeast, but i'd already bought the mead yeast so that got used. I put about half the sachet in.
I may have pitched the yeast when the water was a little warm, but i was rushing out and hoped i'd see activity by the time i got back.
The recipe called for raisins, but i forgot to buy them and figured they weren't the most important part of the recipe.

24 hours and no activity except what look like maybe yeast islands. I was expecting it to take off like a rocket.
Should i be worried?
I still have half a sachet of yeast i could make a starter with and top it up.

 

[steveinUS]

I am not familiar with that yeast, but I think it's too soon to start fretting over it. Mead fermentations look a lot different than beer. And if your bung is also holding onto a hop sack, it might not be creating a sufficient seal to be able to see CO2 coming out of your blowoff. I would avoid fussing with it by adding more yeast unless you pitched it hot. That yeast's description says it's good up to 86F, which sounds pretty crazy for mead but, if you pitched much warmer than that perhaps it damaged the poor little bugs.

I have become a fan of a protocol that degasses the fermenting must and adding a staggered yeast nutrient addition every other day, as described in this article. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/improve-mead-staggered-nutrient-additions/

Good luck!

 

[ClownPrince]

Thanks for the reply.
Seems reasonable enough. I'll invest in some new yeast nutrient and if i haven't seen any activity by the end of the week i'll pitch the rest of the yeast.
I don't think it was *that* hot when i pitched, just hotter than i would have liked (it'd been sat in cold water for over an hour).