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If the honey tastes good, it should be fine for making mead.

I racked my first 5 gallon batch to secondary today because it has not cleared at all 12 days after pitch. Didn't want to keg a very cloudy cider. Added 2.5 tsp of pectic enzyme dissolved in about 1/2 gallon of Musselman's Fresh Pressed apple cider (from Walmart) and will see how is clears up...

You used about 2X more k-sorbate than needed, but that doesn't result in a butter taste. Over-sorbating results in a bubble gum type flavor.

How does it taste?

I've heard a professional mead maker, forget which one, say that a certain yeast resulted in a minty overtone in meads. I am woefully short on details now due to fuzzy memory though.

My wife and I love lambics. Am watching this thread to see how it goes.

Going to be really sweet is my guess.

Using extra nutrients is not a current mead making best practice. That is why I've started using the TiOSNA protocol so the amount of nutrients is calculated based on SG and yeast nitrogen requirements.

I never have added yeast to secondary.

Read the last two articles at this link before making the next batch and you will save yourself a lot of future headaches. https://denardbrewing.com/blog/category/articles/

I stand corrected on how the abbreviation TA is used in the wine industry. Learn something new every day. My background is chemical engineering, so was putting forth how the TA abbreviation was used in the Bayer process to refine alumina from bauxite.

TA usually stands for Total Alkalinity, not total acidity. A liquid is alkaline if the pH is >7, it is acidic if the pH is <7.

The addition of ascorbic acid contributed to the tart taste you are experiencing. Might should have tasted it before you added the acid to see if the addition was needed.

Time mellows most meads in various ways. I use American medium toast oak cubes all the time......cause that is what I bought a big bag of months ago.

I'd go ahead and get it off the berries. You can oak it to try and smooth it out.

Has a lot of stuff settled out in the bottom of the carboy, say maybe 1" deep? If yes, you can rack to secondary. FYI, I usually don't rack to secondary until about 1 month has passed or the fermentation has completed, but that requires using a hydrometer to know.

And you might want to go buy some ice cream to consume along with it. :-) A little bit of habanero goes a long way. I use about 1/2 of one in a gallon batch for two weeks and it still turns out pretty spicy.

I've never made anything larger than a 3 gallon batch of mead. It just gets too expensive for my wallet to make 5 or 6 gallon batches that might not turn out as desired.

Am guessing this is a 1 gallon batch since you didn't state the batch size. To make a 1 gallon batch in secondary, I usually try to have 1.25-1.5 gallons in primary. That way you don't have to top up the secondary fermenter and avoid dilution. You didn't mention adding any nutrients. I've...

2.25 lb of cranberries is only about enough for a 1 gallon batch in my experience. Most meads use about 3 lb. of honey per gallon, but if fruit juice is used (no water), that amount can be cut by 50-60% typically. You need to use a hydrometer to measure the original Specific Gravity of your...