2nd Mead: i think i screwed something up...

[sonicvalley]

Well I made a delicious batch of JAOM and i thought i would try i bigger batch and did 5 gallons of Ken Scramm's basic mead. I tried to follow the recipe to the letter but ended up racking after about a month and a half. here were my measurements: OG on 3/30 of 1.106. Gravity on 5/16 when racked was 1.01. Well I was going to bottle it today and it is REALLY cloudy and does not taste good at all, NOTHING like the JAOM and nothing that I would want to really drink. The gravity today was 1.0.

Any idea what happened? Can I salvage this batch?

any help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[mccann51]

Can you list your exact recipe and procedure? Hard to diagnose anything without knowing what went into it.

That said, age is your best bet. Young, dry meads are often fairly harsh, usually due to fusels. With age, these mellow out a lot. I would give it at least 6 months, and if it still is rough, then maybe consider backsweetening.

 

[calicojack]

cold crash it and rack it again. let it sit for a month, maybe two. worse case scenario use a clearing agent.

my last batch was very cloudy as well, and the taste was different that my first batch. what was the difference between the two for me? this batch i didn't rack and i bottled it at 3 months. my first batch i racked and let sit for damn near 7 months.

 

[sonicvalley]

I will post the exact recipe tomorrow, I gotta go find the book, but as far as time goes I started in on March 30th... should it not be at least part way there after 7 months?

Calico, what do you mean by cold crash it?

 

[ExoticMeadMaker]

Cold crashing refers to placing the carboy in a cold environment, like a refrigerator, for a couple of days. This will cause the suspended material to drop and settle. Kinda difficult to do in a 5 gallon carboy. So you would need a large dedicated refrigerator,or rack it to 1 gallon jugs, or place the carboy in a large trashcan filled with cold water. when everything has settled, rack it of the lees(settled material) before it warms back to room temp. Ive never cold crashed or filtered anything. Another option would be clarifying agents(bentonite or super kleer) or filtering(Boun vino mini jet)
JAOM was designed to be a tasty "quick" mead. I would not expect most other meads to taste good young, some of my meads weren't even palatable for 2 years.

 

[sonicvalley]

What about the gravity and the alcohol content (0%)? is that going to change?

 

[Insomniac]

A gravity of 1.0 doesnt mean 0% ABV, it means it has pretty much fully fermented. And will have a pretty high % and be "dry". In your case you should expect it to be about 14% at this point.

 

[sonicvalley]

So basically there isnt anything wrong, it just needs to sit a while...?

 

[MedsenFey]

It needs to sit until it is clear enough to read newspaper through before your bottle it, and even then, you may want to treat it with Bentonite or Sparkolloid (or other fining agents) to make sure it doesn't drop sediment in your bottles. After it has aged for a year or 2 you'll probably be amazed at the difference in the flavor. Traditional meads take time to mature.

 

[ExoticMeadMaker]

If you can sacrifice the carboy, I'd recommend bulk aging (aging in the carboy) because even a clear mead that you "can read a newspaper through" will still drop a significant amount of sediment. Although the sediment in the bottles wont hurt anything other then aesthetics .