2 year old mead. What to do?

[adamdillabo]

It's just been sitting in my closet on the yeast. I think it's ok but my wife and roommate say it should go in the trash. Should I put it in a fliptop bottle and hang on to it or has anyone cooked with mead? Or toilet it goes.

 

[adamranders]

I would rack it off the yeast, and give it a taste before doing anything drastic like dumping it

 

[hunter_le five]

"Thank you adam."

"You're welcome adam."

 

[blackbeer]

what is wrong with it? too dry, too sweet, funky, etc?

 

[MaxStout]

Taste it. It might have off-flavors due to it having sat on the yeast cake for 2 years. But don't dump it until you try it.

 

[ChefRex]

It's just been sitting in my closet on the yeast. I think it's ok but my wife and roommate say it should go in the trash. Should I put it in a fliptop bottle and hang on to it or has anyone cooked with mead? Or toilet it goes.

Adamdillado, did you taste it?

 

[adamdillabo]

We tried it. None of us have much experience with mead. Making or drinking. I wouldn't know where to start describing it. It's alittle sweet at first. A bit of a bite in the middle then drys out. I thought it was ok. Interesting but don't know how much I could drink at once. Probably a bit oxidized. Opened a yeah ago to share with friends. Airlock is dried up.

 

[Frognostic]

Even if it tasted bad I'd struggle through it, unless it's harboring nasties that is.

 

[ChefRex]

Adamdillado, bottle it, what do you have to lose? A few bottle caps? Meads can take years to come around.
Cheers

 

[Frognostic]

I read somewhere that autolysis, although often a source of faults, can on occasion impart desirable characteristics.

However, this may be autolysis from a small amount of lees in a bottle rather than a thick bed of lees in a fermentor.

I'm thinking, of course, of champagne. Not sure how that translates to mead.

 

[adamdillabo]

Might as well bottle. Are pop top bottles better for storage or should I use O2 absorbing caps?

 

[ChefRex]

Might as well bottle. Are pop top bottles better for storage or should I use O2 absorbing caps?

I'd use the O2 caps if you have them, depends on how quick you plan on consuming

 

[adamdillabo]

O2 caps it is. I'll put them next to my 120 minute and forget about them for another year. I wish I took better care of this mead. Racking it once at least, keeping the airlock full, and not opening it up. Maybe I just need to find something to mix it with. I tried orange juice today. Wife said I should call it toothpaste and OJ. Maybe cranberry of pineapple juice to make a mixer.

 

[phil74501]

I've found that when I tested for gravity on the batches I've made, I would put what I had taken out to test into a glass, place it in the fridge overnight, the yeast would fall too the bottom, making the mead much clearer, and it would taste much better. Might give that a try.

 

[ChefRex]

A hibiscus mead to entice you

 

[gratus fermentatio]

We tried it. None of us have much experience with mead. Making or drinking. I wouldn't know where to start describing it. It's alittle sweet at first. A bit of a bite in the middle then drys out. I thought it was ok. Interesting but don't know how much I could drink at once. Probably a bit oxidized. Opened a yeah ago to share with friends. Airlock is dried up.

If it was oxidized, you'd know it. Oxidized mead tastes like wet cardboard, sometimes with a sort of soggy wheaties taste mixed in.
Regards, GF.

 

[fuelish]

If it was oxidized, you'd know it. Oxidized mead tastes like wet cardboard, sometimes with a sort of soggy wheaties taste mixed in.
Regards, GF.

I think I can say, in all honesty, that in all my years of brewing/meadmaking, I have never had an oxidized batch, in spite of my sometimes lackadaisical methods over the years....just can't relate to the "wet cardboard" flavor profile, or....maybe my mind percieves it as something different/desirable and I HAVE been oxidizing meads and beers and LIKE it....dunno?

 

[adamranders]

Hey if it tastes good, then it can't really be bad

 

[adamdillabo]

Thanks for the encouragement. Just bottled. Only got 9 12oz bottles. Could have gotten 1 or 2 more but I couldn't see where the yeast stopped though all the gunk stuck on the sides. It's crystal clear. Would make a nice magnifying glass.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426987656.953262.jpg

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Thanks for the encouragement. Just bottled. Only got 9 12oz bottles. Could have gotten 1 or 2 more but I couldn't see where the yeast stopped though all the gunk stuck on the sides. It's crystal clear. Would make a nice magnifying glass.
View attachment 265548

Im glad you bottled it... Would've been a shame to not to. There is a thread on here about people who have left their beer/mead/etc sit a long time and how it turned out. It would be good to contribute to that.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=466153