How do you know if your mead should be dumped?

[decoleur]

So I got a great deal on Snowberry honey and made my first basic mead as a 5 gallon batch.
It has fermented down to 1.004 in about 2 months and has a strange honey+tang thing going.I am not sure how to describe what it is but it is not very pleasant.
What other info should I provide to help diagnose the nature of the sub awesome experience this provides and when do I know that it is a wash and I can reclaim the carboy?

Thanks in Advance!

-decoleur

 

[bernardsmith]

What yeast did you use? What was the starting gravity? Did you feed the yeast nutrient? What was the feeding regime? At what temperature did the fermentation take place? Answers to these questions might point to stressed yeast and stressed yeast can produce some off aromas. But the mead may just be green and need to be aged...

 

[rlmiller10]

But on a more general note, my mead tasted like paint stripper smells at two months. At six months the melomels are all all quite good. The traditional mead is still a little harsh but getting better. Short answer, give it time. Chances are good it will become good, or you will end up with honey vinegar.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

/\ What that guy said

 

[fatbloke]

Mead is only dumpworthy if it is very vinegary as mentioned above, tastes sulphurous like rotten cabbage or if it smells like geraniums......

if none of those, get it cleared and bulk store it (maybe with some oak chips/cubes) for a y3ar or two.......

time heals a lot of poor technique.......

 

[decoleur]

thanks for your feedback.

here was the basic recipe I used:
on 2/3/14
2L starter with 10g of 71B-1122 and 7.8 oz SnowBerry Honey

on 2/4/14
in 6G Carboy
the rest of the 12lb Snowberry Honey
1 tsp tannin
3 tsp acid
in 4 gallons water with that had been treated with 4 camden tablets
mixed with mix stir on drill for 30 seconds
aerated with oxygen stone on fish pump for 15 minutes
SG 1.092
fermentation temp 62-64
on 3/23 racked to 5G carboy secondary SG.1.004
on 4/22 racked to 1x 3G carboy 1x 1G carboy and 2x 1/2G carboys to reduce head space. still SG of 1.004.

The smell/taste is kind of hot and almost a waxy honey smell. no cabbage or vinegar but maybe geranium.

Thanks for the input!

 

[fuelish]

When your positive it's done fermenting, bottle it up and stash it away for a year....chances are you'll be pleasantly surprised

 

[decoleur]

How long do you bulk ferment before bottling? Do wait for it to clear first or clear in the bottles?

 

[hunter_le five]

Young mead = paint thinner. Taste it again at 12 months.


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[fatbloke]

How long do you bulk ferment before bottling? Do wait for it to clear first or clear in the bottles?

Personally I don't bottle cloudy meads period. I know some do but to me, sediment in a glass isn't right........

A little bit of miscellaneous sediment, tannin etc, may drop out while aging anyway so I filter before bottling.

 

[Beernik]

For sure, mead is an excecise in patience.

There are a couple things you could be tasting. Fusel alcohols taste hot and burny. Yeast bite tastes gaggy.

 

[fuelish]

Personally I don't bottle cloudy meads period. I know some do but to me, sediment in a glass isn't right........

I typically don't either....I bottle in 12 oz'ers, so if there eventually is a bit of sediment, I'll first decant into a pint glass or wine decanter and pour a couple of wine glasses from that.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I always bulk age my meads/melomels at least a year, often longer. I NEVER bottle anything cloudy, it should be crystal clear IMHO.
Regards, GF.

 

[galexior]

The only time I dumped a mead was when it grew moldy, and I know exactly what went so horribly wrong, and I should have know it would do that. I still cringe at that mistake.

I had started two 4 liter jugs of mead with about 3.5 pounds of honey each, let those go for a few weeks (probably too long, and the yeasties died off most likely). I then added several pounds (I was lax in my record keeping back then) of frozen mango and strawberries to a 3 gallon carboy and racked the mead from both jugs over the fruit. Then, noting there was a GREAT deal of headspace, instead of doing what a normal person should do and add glass beads, I tried topping it off with water. No extra honey. A few weeks went by and fermentation hadn't started again. Then I forgot about it. And it grew mold.

 

[ostensibly]

Dunno if it adds to the discussion, but I made a batch using basswood honey last year. The honey has an interesting minty flavor which I thought would be neat, but after fermentation was complete the mead just tasted grassy. After sitting for nearly a year, the vegetal flavor has faded considerably - it almost tastes good now.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

If it tastes like wet cardboard, it's oxidized. I once had to dump 9 gallons of oxidized mead, that was a sad, sad day for me. The whole back lot reeked of booze for a week! I avoid that now by using a campden tablet when I rack 1/6 gallons.

If you're getting "paint thinner" or "rubber stopper" type flavours, it's likely fusel alcohols, these will eventually age out. If it just tastes "hot" it's likely just young & should mellow with age. The higher the ABV, the longer it'll need to age. Patience & time are your friends when it comes to mead.
Regards, GF.

 

[biochemedic]

Young mead = paint thinner. Taste it again at 12 months.


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I would say that more accurately, poorly fermented mead = paint thinner (fuesel alcohols), but time indeed does heal a lot of wounds... So does backsweetening! I would consider stabilizing your mead before you put it to sleep, and eventually consider adding back a little honey to bring the FG/sweetness up and you will be surprised how much more palatable it may be. It may not take much...even bringing up the FG to 1.010 or 1.012 makes a big difference.