5 year old mead help........

So I have a batch of mead I made in Nov 2005,

From what I remember......I used a gallon of blackberry? raspberry? honey (maybe a little more), yeast nutrient, yeast energiser, and I oxygenated it. I used lavlin wine yeast (cant remember what strain).

Fermented it in a glass carboy, never used any additives. Always kept liquid in the airlock (sanitised water, or vodka). I check the airlock once or twice a year. It has moved with me to two different homes, each time going on a voyage across town.

It was in the primary, and never was removed to a secondary. It has spent it life in total darkness of my bedroom closet. It has been on the same yeast cake for over 4 years now. The only time it was ever disturbed or seen sunlight was when it was moved twice. And the occasional opening of my closet.

Im at a point now where I want to taste it, and see if its salvagable........ Or dump it.

The problem is if it is salvageable, what kinds of acid blends should I use to give it a good flavor? Or would I be able to rack it ontop of fruit? Basically I decided after I made this one and only batch of mead, that I was just going to stick with beer during my brewing career........ and the one batch of mead even though deep in the back of my mind......was long forgotten. I have never made wines or meads, so I dont know how to achieve the kinds of tases I like. I have tried many commericial meads, and homebrewed meads...... and I really like sweet meads.

Any advice for my 4 year old batch?????????

I believe it would be a sin to dump it...... Any advice would be appreciated.

What does it look like? Is it clear?

Taste it. You won't know what to do with it until then.

Yep its clear, pale yellow. Ha ha well it should be I havent looked at it in 6 months. Its buried behind all of my shoes and gun ammo.

For Pete's sake, man, put a racking cane in there and thief off a few drops to tell us what it's tastin' like. I'm gathering it is still on the fruit. You may need to rack it twice to get the fruit cleared out, and that could take a couple of weeks, given some time needed to settle and clear.

Let's hope you didn't add any O2 after about 50% attenuation. I'm betting it's fine, and you'll just need to backsweeten it to the desired level. You could sorbate it, but after five years, that's probably not necessary. If you bottle it, keep the head space to a minimum to avoid oxygenation. I'm a kegging kind of guy: purge w/CO2, blah, blah, blah.

You, sir, are built for mead making. Many of the rest of us struggle to wait the 6-12 months it really takes, and here you are wondering at 5 years if it's time to bottle.

Like everyone else says - taste it and find out where you're at.

Wow. So jealous. I doubt anything I ever make will make it 5 years.

James, you just have to start making more batches more quickly. Once production eclipses consumption, you'll wake up one morning and find you have 15 and 20 year old meads in your basement.

there's nothing saying you need to add ANY acid blend.
I never put any acid blends in my meads. It really depends on what you want in the finished product.

malkore said:

there's nothing saying you need to add ANY acid blend. I never put any acid blends in my meads. It really depends on what you want in the finished product.

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True. It is a personal preference. I also have not found the need to add acid to my meads...

I tend to think it comes down to the PH of the water you start with, as honey itself is rather acidic. I use my tap water, which is very acidic (sometimes as low as 5.6 when the evil copper mines upriver flush their junk) and hard but usually rather clean and unchlorinated and I never found the need to add acid to a mead (yet). They all turn out to have the acidity of a typical lower acid wine. Were I using water that was neutral or alkaline, that would be a significant difference, I imagine.

Thanks guys for the advice......


Yeah thanks guys for all of the advice. I think on my next non-lazy, non-xbox live playing, non-laying on the couch and vegging out drinking beer all day weekend........maybe I will dig it out and taste it. Im just worried of the funk flavors from sitting in the primary on the original yeast cake for so many years.

If it tastes groovy I'll leave it alone and corny keg it up. I dont really feel like bottling it. I'll just throw it in the kegerator next to my beers and call it good. It might be a nice change having cold mead on tap, although I'd rather drink most meads at room/cellar temp.

If it is not to my liking, what fruits or sugar ratios have you guys had success with to make a good flavor? And if i use fruit, im assuming I should let it sit in secondary for another year or two? And then rack, over a few times to clear fruit sediment???

Any advice would help......