EPIC FAIL MEAD... smells like smoked ham

That's right! I made a simple dry mead about 13 months ago, 1 gallon, 3.5#'s honey, spring water, staggered nutrient additions ala Ken Schramm... a dash of cinnamon, racked twice to get it off the lees.....

and it smells like smoked ham.


weirdest thing I've ever made. Shame too, it tastes halfway decent and looks brilliant.

I made a cyser around that time that is flipping delicious, and tastes not of pork product.

All I can think is that it got some sort of weird infection via suck back through the airlock during the extended aging.



So gross.

Would that make is a porkomel?

Sorry for your loss...

maybe it would pair well with some kielbasa.

Maybe too much cinnamon?? I'd age it and see what happens...

haha, I suppose that's possible. though I can't really imagine how cinnamon could end up all hammy. plus I added about an 1/8th of a teaspoon. Too late for aging, already bottled it. womp womp. I just want to know what sort of infection brings out the smokey rauchbier notes.

Yeah, never heard of that off flavor...

Age it in the bottles. It may turn out amazing.

I am disgusted by you people. We are this much closer to Bacon Yeast and you all scoff at this incredible advancement in bacon brewing technology.

OP, you better send a bottle to the labs right away to isolate that amazing bacteria.

Which yeast at what temp? Some ale yeasts can actually produce a bit of smokiness at cool temps.

az_ipa said:

yeah, never heard of that off flavor...

Age it in the bottles. It may turn out amazing.

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+1

I can't really imagine bottle aging is going to help, my guess is; if any thing it will just make it worse, ( the smell that is),. IIRC, I used D-47 on this batch. it sat in my basement from the beginning of last november until last week when I bottled it, ( it was racked twice in the basement, and I sanitize well),. As I said earlier, I fermented a cyser at the same time, with the same yeast, in the same environment, using the same approach and it turned out fine. Both had S-shape airlocks as well, so I'm guessing they both experienced some degree or another of suck back as the temps swung through the seasons. The smoked ham mead is tasted great at both racking times and I don't recall it having that aroma then.


!%$^#&#&!!!!!

13 months would put your brew time near Thanksgiving, wouldn't it? Did you, by any chance, have ham for Thanksgiving?

PaddyMurphy said:

Did you, by any chance, have ham for Thanksgiving?

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HAW

I'm not sure why you would (I'm not well experienced in meadery) but did you degas the mead? You say it tastes fine but it stinks of smokiness, so is it something you can 'blow out' of the glass when you're tasting it, e.g. pour a glass and wave your hand over it, does the smell go away?

Had a breadyeast Sahti I made with my brother that nobody else would drink. The gas suspended in it made it stink like someone ate a loaf of bread and then vomited it back up. Once it degassed (I'm told Sahti was traditionally drank still anyway) it was really quite neat. Just sayin. Maybe this is stuff you should drink still!

If this is anything like my rotten ham mead I made some time back then no this will not get any better. I did not identify the exact bacterial/chemical cause but I did find it turned out to be a particular source of blueberries that caused this. I believe its some sort of a sulfur compound that brings this out, just based on my experience with blueberries often being treated with sulfur (i think). I ended up dumping my batch as I could not get rid of the smell and though it tasted ok, the smell came out in the nose. So as long as you plugged your nose while drinking it, it was fine. The only thing I did not try was copper sulfate or racking it over some copper sheet. You may wish to try that, personally I'd try stirring some copper around in the glass first, make sure its clean of course. If the smell subsides then rack all of it over copper.

You can always use it as an overnight marinade for pork butts and/or ribs. Season with a dry rub in the morning and smoke slow and low for about 12 hours.

Maybe you could dry bacon it. 1 slice per bottle perhaps? Might turn out good. Probably would not.

On a more serious note..I might try taking some and aerating the hell out of it. Put it in a mason jar and shake the beejesus out of it and see what happens. You might be able to get through a bottle this way. Just decant into another vessel before your guests arrive, aerate and pretend that you are not serving them pig mead. Flying pig is the name of this drink BTW.

Maybe a wine aerator would work?

And if you still feel you need to discard of the swine mead, I can pm you my address.

I'm sorry for your loss OP, but this entire thread made me giggle like a schoolgirl. I'd just label the stuff Bootsy's Braisin' Brew and use it in all my long cooks. When life gives you lemons, eff the lemons and make delicious pork butt.

ashplub said:

On a more serious note..I might try taking some and aerating the hell out of it. Put it in a mason jar and shake the beejesus out of it and see what happens. You might be able to get through a bottle this way. Just decant into another vessel before your guests arrive, aerate and pretend that you are not serving them pig mead. Flying pig is the name of this drink BTW.

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Try this, and as one poster mentioned, it could be from sulfur. If it is try adding a small piece of copper to the mead in the jar after it's been aerated & let it sit for a day or so. Cheers!!!

Just don't dump it. Hide it and forget about it. I had a mead that tasted EXACTLY like olives for nearly a year. It was disgusting.

Then one day, it started to taste good. I'm so glad I didn't dump any of it

The same happen to me, in my case I used the rest of the yeast of a brewing beer to feed the new ones (sorry guys, I am not meticolous), so i put hot water to kill some yeast and I put the honey and the new yest (One for white wine). I just transfer it yesterday and was the same problem, with a smoked ham smell =(. I must decide if I keep it (I was thinking in made a pizza dought and some pork) or keep it and try luck. The chemicals related to the smell are differente for the olive smell so I want to know if someone get good resulto of keeping it.

BTW thanks to post your problems, good to know someone had been through the same.

And so it began the Bacon-Mead research thread...

So it smells like smoked ham.. but tastes well...
I fail to see a problem. If its too much of a bother use it to cook with [maybe glaze a ham with it].