ferment not started....

[Dec]

pitched the yeast on my orange and plum(1 gallon) wine yesterday (didnt make a starter for my yeast) and theres no sign of it fermenting yet, i know im being impatient and worrying but i used 1.5 litres of buxton natural mineral water that has 13mg of sulphate to the litre which i checked on they're website and they say theres no chemicals added so im not sure if its my mistake or not.

s.g. 1.070

 

[Turbotez]

did you disolve the sugar in boiling water and if so, did you let it cool down before pitching the yeasties??

 

[Dec]

yeah i did, and it was cool :S

 

[Dec]

could my yeast be dead?

 

[Turbotez]

give it 24hrs from when u pitched the first yeast, if still nothing, pitch again.

Search for Stuck fermenters on here, Moley did a cracking thread, will see if i can find it for you

EDIT; here it is

 

[Dec]

cool thanks:) its been 24hrs now but il wait another day or two. and il use starters from now on:) cheers!

 

[Moley]

Ok, hang on a bit, let's take this a step at a time.

What was your recipe? Can I assume you didn't use a campden tablet?

What yeast did you use, was it in date, has it been stored somewhere cool?

Is this in a bucket or some sort of demijohn?

Are you relying on lack of airlock activity or backing that up with nose and ears?

 

[Moley]

paitents is a verture

Patience is a virtue, numbskull :twisted:

 

[Turbotez]

paitents is a verture

Patience is a virtue, numbskull :twisted:

Sorry, just trying to remember what i was told when that Cheeky Vimto that got stuck. Guess im still to much of a noob and missing the important questions. Will remember for next time

 

[Dec]

my recipe was:

juice from 8 oranges and zest of 4 of them.

400g of plums.

700g sugar.

1 tsp nutrient.

1 tsp pectic enzyme.

water to 4.5 litres (1.5 mineral water)

and sorry turbotez i didnt invert the sugar what i did was: put the sugar in my bucket washed the fruit added the zest to the bucket, added boiling water and the plums to bucket and stired till sugar disolves add pectic enzyme then leave for the night. then i added the juice from the oranges and topped up with mineral water and added the nutrients and yeast. it was youngs super yeast packet with no date on it. i made a yeast starter with the same yeast today about 2 hours ago and still no action, its stored in a cool place and i didnt use campden tablets and im relying on airlock activity:)

 

[Samarith]

No action in the starter or no action after you added it to the must?

If the starter isn't fizzing after 2 hours the yeast is dud.

 

[Moley]

With 100% extraction you'd only have about 900g of sugar in 4.5 litres or 200g/litre, so your 1.070 sounds correct. That's not much fruit and your OG seems a bit low to me, you're heading for 10% alcohol maximum. I would give it about 400g of chopped raisins or sultanas to give 1.090-ish.

If it's in a bucket I wouldn't expect any airlock activity, they are rarely gas-tight.
Put your ear against the bucket, is it fizzing?

 

[Dec]

no fizzing.... i was gonna add more sugar when i transfer to dj but im not sure ill get that far. yeah the starter was fine. just dont know whats wrong. il just have to wait:)

thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Samarith]

I don't see anything that would kill the yeast in your recipe.

Try giving the the must/wine a really good stir, get some air into the liquid. It may fizz a little at this point, cover with a tea towel to allow more air to get to the yeast and leave for 24 hours. Another good stir and see if you get some fizz then, this was how I advised to unstick a slow starter and it worked a treat.

 

[Dec]

cool thanks im trying that right now:)

 

[Dec]

so after 4 days of still nothing i gave up and put the unfermenting juice in old juice bottles and i opend one today and as i was opening it, it exploded... as shocked as i was i thought, about time. its fermenting on and off now, a lot of bubbles and then nearly no bubles. when i put the juice in the botles there were no bubbles in the liquid at all, i guess it was just a very slow start.