Mead disappointment

Started two meads in January that I split into four types. A metheglin. A blackberry essence mead. A green tea with Ginger mead. And a coffee mead. I bottled my green tea this last weekend and I had a cold so I couldn't smell or taste it. So I had my wife do so. This after she just praised my Irish red as one of the best beers she's ever tasted. After she nearly vomited and told me that she's had more favorable vomit. I'm wondering. What might have happened? Will this fix itself in a year? Ive been careful with yeasts and fermentation and temperature and nutrients. It has fermented out dry and I can't see any infection. Is my first mead attempt(s) doomed? It's a little depressing

What are the gravity readings?

Most mead needs a long time before it is drinkable, I normally let mine bulk age for several months or a year and then let it age in bottles for a good while.

Looking at my notes. 1.100 and 1.010 on this one. Haven't checked fg on the others yet

I guess a good question is. Should I expect the nasty flavor/smell at an early stage and then later it'll be fine or is this representative of something far worse?

It's still too young, like I suspected. A mead can be drinkable after only 3 months, but usually only of it is fairly low in alcohol (OG 1.065 or so), and even then it ought to be given some good ageing time.

An FG of 1.010 sounds like a pleasantly sweet mead, it should be much better after some more time.

Good luck!

As for the flavor/aroma, I can't tell much without a description...

FWIW the tea/ginger and coffee mead don't sound great to me.

Experimental really. I have about ten gallons worth. Two started batches and I knew it would take about a year so I split them. Saw some bizarre ideas. Thought. Why not? Now perhaps I should have had some more mead under my belt before I tried weird stuff but I'm inpatient. Hence smaller batches of odd experiments. As for smell. Wish I could tell you. My smell is just barely trying to come back from my cold so I'll let you know when I do.

My parents have a hive behind their house. I think my next try is a comb from that right after raspberry season....

The honey flavour tends to disappear almost entirely during fermentation, but it will return with time. If your mead is not infected or utterly over the top with some spices, you should be fine in the end.

Can you describe what was so unappealing about the mead? Was it sulfury, medicinal, rubbery, etc? There's a lot of stuff that could be going on, but it's hard to diagnose. Also, could you list your recipe and procedure? Yeast strain and nutrient additions would be extremely helpful here.

I disagree about the meads not sounding great. Both of those sound like they have a hell of a lot of potential. I made a black and green tea mead that was absolutely delicious, same with a ginger mead; I don't see why those flavors wouldn't work well together. Coffee and cocoa meads are not uncommon, so they must be good. It's probably a fermentation or aging issue more than an ingredient issue.

I would wait quite a few more months before passing judgment on your mead. If I were you I would not even taste it until 6 months old. If you do taste it, just keep in mind that it is not ready yet.