Beer Forum

So I brewed a 11.5 Gal batch of my porter base last Sunday with about 500ml yeast cake from stepping up starters. fermentation took off and was slowing and the gravity was 1.022 by Tuesday, so on Wednesday I split it up. 5.5 went in with 10lbs of cherries pureed with 10oz of coco and a vanilla bean. this one is started up going strong. the other 5gal i put in with 3 vanilla beans about 1cup of bourbon and .5lbs of honey. This is the one im having trouble with. there is a little activity but not what i want. i know honey is difficult to ferment and takes a while, but im worried that the bourbon overstressed the yeast that was still suspension. im planing on ageing these for a good while, at least a month.
-What does everyone think. Should I add in some more of the yeast cake i saved.
-along with the yeast should i add some boiled and prepared DME for better fermentables.
-or should i just leave it
I'm not exactly sure what I should do hopefullyI can get some advise from everyone.

1 cup of bourbon probably won't overstress the yeast.
1 cup is 8oz. at 80proof, that is 40% ethanol. .4 x 8 oz = 3.2 oz.
3.2 oz spread out into 5.5 gallons = 3.2/(128*5.5) = 0.004545 or in other words you added about .45 % ABV (give or take).

Most likely, the honey is not all that mixed in, and it's kind of sitting there in a blob on the bottom. You should probably try to rouse it up if you can, both the free it from sitting underneath the falling yeast, but also to get tihngs to speed up.

THat said, if you originally did stir up the honey, then it's just taking a while, so give it the time it needs.

HTH-

I agree with bdawg, I've done 4 honey beers, and only 1 fermented fast, the others took an extra week or so of slow fermentation. I think if you give it time, you'll be just fine.

try rocking the fermenter to rouse the yeast a bit, and maybe ramp up the tempreature a bit, not sure it this will help but I doubt it would hurt

thanks everyone. I swirled the carboy but i wont be able to bring up the temp. I have my ferm wrap on a sour right now. but the basement stays at 68-70 right now. Thanks for the advise