How long to age melomel

This is my first melomel. I based my recipe off the mambo in your mouth recipe in "the compleat mead maker" by ken schramm. The only difference in mine was the combination of berries. I have a total of 10lbs of berries in it. I used 12lbs of raw clover honey, ec1118 yeast and no heat. It is 9 months old and isn't bad but still has a bit of that tanginess in the cheek. Ken schramm says this mead has a solid dose of tannin when young from all the berries, he says it will mellow over the years. This mead is dry. Is likey this off flavor will age out?

Wow, you can only imagine how different your mead will change the longer you leave it. I made 5 gallons of pomegranate melomel and tasted it over a two year period, and wished I would have left it alone the entire time. The fruit and especially the honey really came out after two years. It was really dry at the beginning but then you could really taste the honey as it aged. I've made several batches in the last year and am going to leave it alone!

Thanks for the reply! Sounds like hoping it would be finished at 9 months was wishful thinking. Lol

1118 is a very, ummmm, "robust" yeast that will eat virtually anything available, sugar-wise (well, up to a point)....most anything made with it will end up dry unless you stepfeed several times (or add a ridiculous amount of fermentables up front....or treat it chemically and backsweeten). Good yeast if you want a sparkling mead, although it tends to blowout/strip more subtle flavors during ferment.
As far as aging, yeah, have never heard anyone say "Man, I wished I would've drank this up sooner!!!" You can make a drinkable mead without prolonged aging if you keep the fermentables/final abv on the low end, but....it ALL gets better with age, so I'm in the habit of immediately storing at least a half batch when bottled, taping up the boxes to hopefully remove some temptation. My wife enjoys the end results (not so much the buckets and carboys here and there fermenting), so we like to split a bottle or two now and again, even if only bulk aged for several months...she's my real evaluator, as I love it all - she has more mainstream taste regarding flavors/ingredients, recommends what we should serve to friends (or not, which is fine, leaves more for me )

Kool: let that puppy age as long as you can stand in the carboy. Then bottle it up and let it sit longer. YOU WILL BE HAPPY(er) YOU DID.. !!!!!!!

thanks so much for the replies. i am just going to have to be patient i guess. hopefully it doesnt take too long. lol. on a side note, i made a ginger mead recipe from charley papazians book. he says in his book this mead took a year and a half. mine was great at 9 months. any of you guys try that recipe? it's great if you like ginger.

I think it can be drinkable at 3-4 months, but gets a lot better at 9-12 months. I think half of someone's first batch should be comsumed early and half should be set aside. Once you taste the difference for yourself, it makes waiting easier. Also start the next batch. Once you have a pipeline, you are only drinking aged meads.

That's really good advice. That's how I realized it was much better to let it age. It's nice to put some of it in smaller bottles it makes it easier to sample.

Yeah, the secret to wine making is patience. Anyone can make a drinkable wine but it takes patience to allow a drinkable wine to become wonderful.

Yeah, Mambo can get much better as it ages... he also recommends oak, but I have never tried that with this recipe.

I've aged cyser & melomels as long as 4 years with truly AWESOME results. Time is your friend when it comes to mead/melomel.
regards, GF.