Taste when bottling

I've never tasted mead, but everyone said it was heaven in a bottle so I thought I'd make a 1 gallon experiment to see how it turned out.

After mixing with hot water, I fermented the must for about three weeks, then moved it to a secondary for 3 months. Last night I bottled with a little bit of corn sugar to carbonate it.

I tasted the little bit that was left - OHMYGOD it was horrible. Very strongly alcoholic, no sweetness at all. I couldn't take more than a couple swigs.

My question is, will it age and mellow out? Is it usually pretty nasty tasting coming out of the secondary?

How long should I let it condition? Hopefully, I just need to let it sit for awhile and it'll be as good as everyone says.

Let it age a year or two and will be nice and mellow.

<--------------- I bottled this back in March and it tasted like robitussin mixed with rubbing alcohol. It's getting better, and is drinkable now, but by next March it will be awesome

Fresh mead is rocket fuel. Give it at least a year in the bottle, 2-3 would be better.

as far as sweetness goes...OG? FG?
mead can be bone dry, dry, lightly sweet, sweet, or dessert sweet (pretty much the same as grape wines). you have to target your FG by using the right yeast (for alcohol attenuation) and the right amount of honey so you land at the right terminal gravity to have sweetness or dryness.

Of course you can stabilize the mead and then backsweeten it if you end up too dry.

Its still tricky though because the aging process is going to change the flavors. If you know your final gravity, post it. if its much over 1.005 you will have some sweetness show up as it ages and mellows (that hot alcohol flavor is going to overpower all the subtleties for a while)

It took my quickest mead a year & a half before it was palatable, at 2 yrs, it's quite tasty. Mead just takes time. Regards, GF.

I made a cranberry braggot..mead with malt and fresh cranberrys..6 months in secondary..bottle tasted really harsh..6 months in bottle..harsh but a bit less...12 more months in bottle..so almost 2 years later..holy crap this stuff is truley the drink of gods...so yes give it time..I love mead just hate waiting so if you learn to love this stuff buy 6 3 gallon carboys and start the mead making...

Jay