Forgotten Beginner Mead Batch's - what to do?

[Turbine]

Hello folks,

About 2 years ago I began getting pretty interested in Mead making. I bought all the books, I read everything I could get my hands on, and as a result I made some mead. The first batch was the raisin/orange melomel I see on here referred to as the JAOM, the second was just local honey/water/yeast concoction, the recipe of which I have no idea. My notebook was lost in a move, I opened my own consulting business, what remains is one page of some SG readings in the primary (pictured) and two one gallon carboys on my work bench in my basement. I have EC-1118 and D47 still in my fridge so I assume I used one of them or one of each of them, I really don't know. The melomel is still very cloudy, I remember thinking maybe time would clear it. The "show mead?" is quite clear save for 1/2" at the bottom. The melomel tasted like battery acid when I racked it to secondary originally, the show mead was quite sweet and pleasant.

My question is I guess, and sparked by a comment I read on here just now about throwing out batches being a last resort, what to do with these batch's? They are from Fall 2018, re-racked into a secondary carboy. I have stopped by in my limited free time and when I thought about it and re-filled the air-locks with bottled water, but until today and the cabin fever of being stuck at home the last 9 weeks, I have never thought to do anything with them. I cannot swear the air-locks were always a barrier and full of water is what I mean, but I have had another friend who home brews beer tell me not to worry the alcohol content is high enough it should be fine.

Should I waste time bottling and seeing where this goes or start over again? I am really a novice at this and I don't want any ill effects to myself or anyone else. Just trying to re-kindle the hobby and interest.

Many thanks for any responses for sure.

T

 

[Seamonkey84]

Taste and see. Mead is more forgiving when it comes to Oxidation, but once you start adding fruit, you need to be more careful. It doesn’t need to be crystal clear, as long as the yeast and particles have settled your fine.

 

[hcarter004]

Most mead, in my experience does well with aging. That's part of our problem, we are impatient...lol

 

[Turbine]

Most mead, in my experience does well with aging. That's part of our problem, we are impatient...lol

Boy is this a truer statement than realized. @Seamonkey I decided to take your advice it just took me another week to get around to it.

Batch 1 the melomel tasted horrible when I racked it to the secondary in 2018, I remember the taste made me a bit sick even though I only tasted a drop of it. Flash forward to today and much to my shock no hint of the rocket fuel/battery acid taste of 2018. It was light and a bit sweet, with just a hint of a "vinegar" taste which I guess was a concern. Overall though it reminded me a bit tangy type of champagne. It was still very cloudy so I hydrated some bentonite over night and added two tablespoons and stirred it, to my surprise it kind of gassed a bit. Not overflowing but some pronounced bubble rise to it. I refilled the airlock and left it, check back in a week I suppose and see the difference?

Batch 2 the "traditional" was a bit disappointing, but maybe someone here will tell me otherwise. When I racked it to the secondary in 2018 I remember thinking this is great the way it is. Light sweet, ready to go. Today it was a bit more sour and tangy than batch 1. Very clear, smelled fine, but tart and tangy not like I remember it. I refilled the airlock and left it be.

I have a high end digital specific gravity meter at work, bringing it home over the weekend to check SG as they both had a subtle but noticeable "alcohol" flavor there, just curious where I neglected and left them off. Should I be concerned about PH and back sweetening or some other method to get that tart/sour/vinegar flavor to smooth out? I am not set up to do that, but the interwebs provides.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

 

[Seamonkey84]

As to vinigary, anything with citric acid in primary might come out tasting a bit like that. I recently was told that citric acid is converted to acetic acid (vinegar) during a ferment.

 

[Turbine]

Updates, well maybe back dates, I am not really sure what I hope to accomplish here. But after some reading I thought perhaps more information might be more helpful so here goes.

Batch 1 recipe was roughly this:

Primary - 1 whole orange, 10-12 raisons, small bit of black tea. I skipped the cinnamon/star anise/all spice I just did not know about that flavor. I also did not know about yeast energizer or yeast nutrients at this time. 3 lbs of local clover honey, 1 gallon-ish water, (5 grams) Lalvin D47 yeast. OG was 1.210. Racked it off the fruit at 17 days into a secondary glass carboy, SG was at 1.076. Sat in my basement which has HVAC so over the last few weeks it has stayed right at 68 deg F pretty consistently. Just took another SG reading, batch 1 was at 1.055 after 18 months in my basement (or so).

Batch 2 recipe was roughly this:

Primary - 3 lbs of local honey, not sure on the variety. I used 1/2 tsp of LD Carlson yeast energizer with the yeast. Pitched (5 grams) Lalvin EC-1118 after the recommended time, OG was 1.201. I was not too knowledgeable about sugar breaks so I am guessing I was adding 1 teaspoon LD Carlson yeast nutrient periodically throughout the first 3 weeks to 30 days, what I have of a notebook is fairly poor. When I racked it to the secondary the SG was at 1.103 at it looks like 30 days. Checked it today it was at SG 1.066. Storage was right beside batch 1 on the same workbench in the basement. All I remember about this batch was reading about hot yeast meads and thinking I was going to make something hopped up with a lot of alcohol, but by SG it seems to have actually finished with less than the first batch.

Aside from just dropping the ball here and leaving this stuff so long. What caused the "vinegar" flavor that seems noticeable in the Batch 1 and semi-pronounced in batch 2? Can I do anything at this point to mellow them out or should I just bottle them both and wait and taste them later?

Also it seems I did fall victim to impatience, reading here I am not sure I left them both alone long enough in the primary to have the same SG reading 5-7 days apart as to indicate they were done fermenting.

Just rambling now, thanks for your thoughts and the feedback here.

T