The5thHerring
New Member
Yes, this is my first mead, and yes, I'm fairly new to brewing, but this isn't one of those "oh no I think it's infected because it looks weird!" threads. A distant relative, maybe.
So: I made a "ginger beer" (cider? wine?) according to this recipe for 3 gallons:
1.5 lb honey
1.5 lb brown sugar
3 lemons - juice and zest
8 oz grated ginger
Safale US-05
Left in the primary for 8 days, final gravity .995, 6% abv. Racked to secondary, tasted it, and it was quite sour.
So ok, no big deal. I sprayed out the primary fermenter, one of those plastic "Better Bottles," and then rinsed a few times with water and then StarSan. Then used it for 5 gallons of mead; I pitched yeast for that about 4 hours ago.
I just realized the sour flavor of the ginger-whatever might have been lactobacillus, and I might not have gotten rid of it properly (i.e. didn't scrub with a bottlebrush before sanitizing, since there were no stains).
So first question: is a sour/tart flavor common (without infection) in very young ciders etc.? Or should I actually worry about infection? I'm keeping the brew around in any case, just to see what it does.
And second question: If there is reasonable suspicion that the mead is in an infected carboy, what should I do? Will a campden tablet or two fix things? (I'm using Red Star Champagne and also Montrachet yeasts; I've heard that wine yeasts are resilient in the face of SO2).
Many thanks.
So: I made a "ginger beer" (cider? wine?) according to this recipe for 3 gallons:
1.5 lb honey
1.5 lb brown sugar
3 lemons - juice and zest
8 oz grated ginger
Safale US-05
Left in the primary for 8 days, final gravity .995, 6% abv. Racked to secondary, tasted it, and it was quite sour.
So ok, no big deal. I sprayed out the primary fermenter, one of those plastic "Better Bottles," and then rinsed a few times with water and then StarSan. Then used it for 5 gallons of mead; I pitched yeast for that about 4 hours ago.
I just realized the sour flavor of the ginger-whatever might have been lactobacillus, and I might not have gotten rid of it properly (i.e. didn't scrub with a bottlebrush before sanitizing, since there were no stains).
So first question: is a sour/tart flavor common (without infection) in very young ciders etc.? Or should I actually worry about infection? I'm keeping the brew around in any case, just to see what it does.
And second question: If there is reasonable suspicion that the mead is in an infected carboy, what should I do? Will a campden tablet or two fix things? (I'm using Red Star Champagne and also Montrachet yeasts; I've heard that wine yeasts are resilient in the face of SO2).
Many thanks.