watered down mead .. does it still have a chance?

I have a 5 galloon batch of blueberry melomel going and recently found out tht my 24 yo daughter and her friends 'sampled' it and then filled water back up to there it was.

So my question is ... is this batch ruined? It tastes smooth enough .. but doesn't have the body that I expected.

Can I add more fruit, yeast and nutrients to it at this point ?

If its still actively fermenting, just add more honey. Should even itself out...

Body isn't something I associate with mead, even a sweet one. Any idea what the dilution ration was?

24 is not too old to spank, you know.

Personally, I would be concerned about contamination. Anybody stupid enough to do what you described would be suspect of not following sanitation protocols. How far along was the mead when it happened? If there was already a fair amount of alcohol present, you might be OK. If not, you might want to keep your eye out for unusual growths or odors.

I sure hope she's learned her lesson . . .

As for where to go next, that really depends on the stage of your mead. Since the water added probably diluted your must down some, your yeast should have some room to grow still. Adding honey and blueberries (or juice) might allow the fermentation to kick in again and get you closer to where you were originally. If the mead had already pretty much finished clarification, you might need to pitch some fresh yeast, as there might not be enough left in suspension to get things going again. If you can give people more details about where things were at, I'm sure some of the more senior board members can give you some best guess options.

JetSmooth said:

24 is not too old to spank, you know.

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yeah, send her over here. I'll give her a good spanking.

Wow, where to begin... Your 24 yo daughter sounds like a real prize. I hope you make the most of every opportunity to bring this up, holidays, family reunions, any encounter with her friends, or a thursday to mention the booze hound and her escapades.

As far as the mead do you have any idea how much they sampled? I imagine they just poured right from the carboy and topped it up with some tap water. As said in a previous post contamination is an issue.

Since it's already topped up unless you have a bigger vessel and want to transfer and wait longer adding more fermentables may be a problem. If your og was already on the high side and the sampled amount was relatively small it might be ok as is, barring any beasties. If the og wasn't too high to begin with you could take a sample for yourself and top it up with honey but that will start the clock over again. If it tastes ok as it sits it might be best to leave it and torture her with it daily.

Cheers

She used bottled water, so I'm really not worried about the contamination. I'm not sure about the dilution ration .. but I would guess probably 1 - 1/2 gallon of water was added. I had racked it 3 times, was not actively fermenting and had been aging for about 6 months. I haven't checked the alcohol content since the last racking - at that time it was around 17%. It just tastes watery to me .. so the word "body" may not be the right word to use. And maybe it's my imagination because I know about the added water.

txseamonkey said:

I have a 5 galloon batch of blueberry melomel going and recently found out tht my 24 yo daughter and her friends 'sampled' it and then filled water back up to there it was.

So my question is ... is this batch ruined? It tastes smooth enough .. but doesn't have the body that I expected.

Can I add more fruit, yeast and nutrients to it at this point ?

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break out the holy hand grenade!!!!! and add some more pure honey, as suggested. another 2 lbs , and another 2 months, wouldn't hurt

lumpher said:

break out the holy hand grenade!!!!! and add some more pure honey, as suggested. another 2 lbs , and another 2 months, wouldn't hurt

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I added the 2 lbs of honey and now there's activity again - bubbling away. After 3 rackings and the added water I really didn't think there would be enough live yeast to start up again.

This is only my second batch - so, is this a good thing?

Is it a good thing? That might depend what your definition of is is.

Your time clock is starting over with the introduction of more honey. That's too bad because it sounds like the mead already had some aging on it. With the renewed ferment some of the fruit flavor may eaten as well. On the good side it's still there, it's not contaminated and YOU will hopefully be the one sampling in the future.

So yeah, good but not optimal.

Cheers

brewingmeister said:

Is it a good thing? That might depend what your definition of is is.

Your time clock is starting over with the introduction of more honey. That's too bad because it sounds like the mead already had some aging on it. With the renewed ferment some of the fruit flavor may eaten as well. On the good side it's still there, it's not contaminated and YOU will hopefully be the one sampling in the future.

So yeah, good but not optimal.

Cheers

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Yes, it has quite a bit of aging on it. March will be 2 years actually. ::sigh::

The carboy it's in has been relocated to my closet and not as readily accessible as before when it was in the kitchen wrapped in towels.