Mead tastes horrible! 1 month

Its been one month and it tastes aweful! Has like beer characteristics and a whiskey after taste that also feels like I'm actually take a shot. Still drinking it but it so bad!

Was it because I used old honey that was months old and unpasterized which became rock hard and crystallized? It also kinda smells like whiskey

or

Was it because I left blackberries for a month in there?

What yeast did you use? What temperature did you ferment at? Did you add yeast nutrient part way through? Information, please!

At 1 month I'm surprised its done fermenting, the few meads I've made I didn't drink till at least 6 months. Meads take awhile to ferment out if you don't add any kind of yeast nutrient. The last few I added nutrient to and they were done in the 6-7 month range.


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Ec-1118
75 to 70 after a week and a half
Yeast nutrient and k-meta 12-24hrs before yeast pitch

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/melomel-mead-blackberry-450843/

I'm actually ready to give this another shot, I'll buy store bought honey thats been pasteurized. If it turns out the same I'm the problem lol

Some of my meads have tasted horrible at one month. I then racked into bottles and put in the fridge for a cold-condensation. This crashed out a lot of stuff.

I then reracked again and repeated.
Finally, after the mead cleared up well it tasted pretty good, had a hint of funk in it, but was drinkable.

It tastes horrible because it hasn't aged. You need to wait at least 6 months before you even think about trying it. Many people I know won't even think about their mead until it's aged a year.



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You're drinking unfinished mead, that's why it tastes so bad. Bulk age that mead for a year & it'll be sooooo much better!
Regards, GF.

You can't judge a mead at only a month in. Give it time to mature and then be amazed at how much better the mead will get. Patience!

Wait 8 months and try it again. All those hot fussel alcohols will mellow out.

I cold stabilized it and it tastes smooth with that bad taste. I thought it would be like drinkable after a month or two, like red wine lol

I'll be back on this in 7 months

Sago said:

I cold stabilized it and it tastes smooth with that bad taste. I thought it would be like drinkable after a month or two, like red wine lol

I'll be back on this in 7 months

Click to expand...

Where did you get that idea ?

Red wines often havent finished extracting colour etc from the skins at that point (method/techniques and grape dependant).

Just because meads are made from honey why would they be any different ? How could they magically have any residual character of the original honey when most/all the sugars have fermented out and are now alcohol ?

A lot of young meads will indeed taste hideous for some time. 6 months aging is the very minimum.........

Yeah, um, kits wines maybe. Most red wine spends over a year aging in Oak barrels, that's after it's finished fermenting.