Just racked my basic mead into secondary tonight and took a sample. Right now the ABV is @ about 14% with quite a bit of residual sweetness. The thing I'm most concerned about is that it has ALOT of smokey flavor in it and I don't know where it came from. The honey maybe??? The EC-1118??? Or do I have a contamination problem? Has anyone experienced this before? If not, any thoughts?
Smokey flavor in first batch...
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SpamDog
Well-Known Member
What kind of honey was it??
Can you lay out your recipie for us?
If the honey was cheaper store brand there is a decent chance that it was heated up to promote flowing into the plastic containers.. that then scorches the plastic containers and give a burnt-ish flavor somtimes
SpamDog
Can you lay out your recipie for us?
If the honey was cheaper store brand there is a decent chance that it was heated up to promote flowing into the plastic containers.. that then scorches the plastic containers and give a burnt-ish flavor somtimes
SpamDog
As far as the honey goes, I bought some from a local bee keeper...but he said it was a mixture from about 4 different locations around the county and wasn't sure what kind was in there. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly except for steps 2, 3 and 4 in the bottom section (sounded optional to me).
Here's the recipe:
Basic Mead
Mead making is very similar to winemaking. A basic mead recipe is as follows- For 5 US gallons:
For a medium sweet mead-
15 lbs Orange Blossom or Clover Honey, 4 Gallons Water, 2 tsp yeast nutrient or Diammonium Phosphate or Wyeast Nutrient, 1 tsp yeast energizer, 10 grams dried wine yeast or 150 ml liquid, 4 tsp acid blend (optional)
Warm the honey in hot water to make it less viscous. Pour it into the fermenter along with the four gallons of water, yeast nutrient, yeast energizer and acid blend. Check the temperature and when it is between 70-80 deg. F, add the yeast. Ferment until the gravity reaches approximately 1.020. Then, rack to secondary fermenter for an additional 1-3 months. Top up and bulk age. When the mead is clear and stable, it may be bottled.
Fermenting honey can be more difficult than grape must and may require additional techniques as outlined below. This information was derived from an hbd post by Dr. Clayton Cone.
1) Be sure to add a balanced yeast nutrient (such as Wyeast yeast nutrient) and diammonium phosphate. Research has shown that adding the yeast nutrient prior to fermentation and the diammonium phosphate over the first half of the fermentation is best.
2) Adding a small amount of sodium or potassium carbonate before the 12th hour of fermentation can help reduce the drop in pH which can stress the yeast. A pH drop below 3.2 can have detrimental effects and result in a long, drawn out fermentation.
3) There is often a deficiency of oxygen in the must during the growth phase of the yeast. Leave the airlock off the primary fermenter and agitate the must several times for the first 24-36 hours of fermentation. After the first 24-36 hours, attach the airlock for the remainder of fermentation.
4) Add some yeast hulls at the beginning of fermentation. Stir the must vigorously at the beginning of fermentation and as the fermentation comes to a close. This will help insure that the yeast stay in suspension long enough to finish out the fermentation.
Here's the recipe:
Basic Mead
Mead making is very similar to winemaking. A basic mead recipe is as follows- For 5 US gallons:
For a medium sweet mead-
15 lbs Orange Blossom or Clover Honey, 4 Gallons Water, 2 tsp yeast nutrient or Diammonium Phosphate or Wyeast Nutrient, 1 tsp yeast energizer, 10 grams dried wine yeast or 150 ml liquid, 4 tsp acid blend (optional)
Warm the honey in hot water to make it less viscous. Pour it into the fermenter along with the four gallons of water, yeast nutrient, yeast energizer and acid blend. Check the temperature and when it is between 70-80 deg. F, add the yeast. Ferment until the gravity reaches approximately 1.020. Then, rack to secondary fermenter for an additional 1-3 months. Top up and bulk age. When the mead is clear and stable, it may be bottled.
Fermenting honey can be more difficult than grape must and may require additional techniques as outlined below. This information was derived from an hbd post by Dr. Clayton Cone.
1) Be sure to add a balanced yeast nutrient (such as Wyeast yeast nutrient) and diammonium phosphate. Research has shown that adding the yeast nutrient prior to fermentation and the diammonium phosphate over the first half of the fermentation is best.
2) Adding a small amount of sodium or potassium carbonate before the 12th hour of fermentation can help reduce the drop in pH which can stress the yeast. A pH drop below 3.2 can have detrimental effects and result in a long, drawn out fermentation.
3) There is often a deficiency of oxygen in the must during the growth phase of the yeast. Leave the airlock off the primary fermenter and agitate the must several times for the first 24-36 hours of fermentation. After the first 24-36 hours, attach the airlock for the remainder of fermentation.
4) Add some yeast hulls at the beginning of fermentation. Stir the must vigorously at the beginning of fermentation and as the fermentation comes to a close. This will help insure that the yeast stay in suspension long enough to finish out the fermentation.
MikeRLynch
Well-Known Member
I can only think of two explainations, the yeast you used threw some weird esters off during fermentation, either due to temperature, too much oxygenation, or nutrient deficiency. The other is that what you're detecting as "smoky" might be described differently by someone else. Describing taste is a difficult thing, particuarly because we all taste slightly differently, and our vocabulary isn't up to speed. Other than that, I'm not sure.
mike
mike
I don't know much about mead, but in the context of beer brewing, "smokey" can be a yeast byproduct (that's how Scottish ales got their traditional reputation for having a smokey character).
cgenebrewer
Well-Known Member
could the bee keeper have used a lot of smoke when collecting the honey and thus imparted it to the honey?
