Issues with a honey mead I brewed recently...

[ThorH]

I did a 5 gallon batch of honey mead about 10 months ago that finished fermenting, spent a few months conditioning in the carboy then finally moved into bottles (no carbonating). The mead itself came out very much drinkable, had a decent alcohol content (I believe it was in the 12% range), but when i drink it I can't help but get the feeling that it's missing something flavor wise.

The alcohol is there, the mead itself is amber and you can see through the bottle and I can drink my fill and get plenty lit from drinking it, but I still think that I missed out on something when it was fermenting or conditioning. Below is the recipe I used, I had to repost it from memory as my brewing partner moved away and accidentally packed my brewing journal with his supplies:

10-12lbs. of local clover honey
8-10lbs. of organic light brown sugar
4ish gallons of natural spring water
somewhere in the ballpark of 30 raisins, lightly chopped
1 zested blood orange
1 packet of redstar champagne yeast


I believe that was the recipe, I kept it simple and took the recipe from a 1 gallon test batch I had done earlier on that came out full and delicious. As much as I like the outcome of this particular project of mine, I still feel that it is lacking something in the flavor department and your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Now, just as a little side note, I know a lot of people like making meads with different flavors and whatnot, I do the same with a bunch of different batches, I just want to know what you guys would do to this recipe to bring out more of the natural honey flavoring without adding fruits or anything like that.

Any and all opinions are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance guys!

 

[bob1852]

Simply, increase the honey and decrease the sugar. Almost half of your fermentables consisting of sugar won't result in much honey character.

 

[ThorH]

Do you think it would be too late to add more honey to the finished product, or would it just be best to try again with another batch?

 

[fatbloke]

You can back sweeten it with some honey, but if its already in bottles, it would mean a lot of faffing about.

Hence if you go a pound of a nice tastey honey, take a bottle, check the gravity, then add a teaspoon or two of the honey, carefully mix it in and taste. You can the do that a couple of times until it gets to your required taste/level of sweetness. The test the gravity again so you have start and finish numbers.

If it comes good, carefully remove the rest to a bucket or other appropriate sized fermenter, hit it with stabilising chems (sulphite then sorbate), then add honey carefully so as not too add much/any oxygen.

You may have to re-clear it as honey can cause a haze. How you do that, is your choice i.e. either getting it into glass fermenters to clear with age or to use finings.

Just remember, at this stage care and gentleness is needed to prevent oxidation etc.....

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Trying to change it now that it's bottled is going to be a lot of work and chances oxidation and contamination. Not impossible to do safely but definetely going to be quite a task as Fatbloke described.

I also agree with reducing (or eliminating) the brown sugar and increasing the honey so you get more of the true mead honey characteristics.

Another option is drink it as is with some additions. think of flavors you might enjoy in a mead, different fruit juices, even teas or spices, in essence making cocktails out of it with just small amounts of different flavoring components. You may find that you might just want a little acid in it to brighten it up for example. Then when you find the ones you like the most taylor your original recipe to include them in the next batch.

 

[Matrix4b]

Yes, Elminate the Brown Sugar in the next batch. What I would do is use 6 pounds more honey but only put it on the back end by stabalizing and back sweetening it. Also, Oaking can bring a lot of character and smoothness to the table. Consider in a 5 gal batch of adding 1 oz of medium toasted oak chips or cubes for a month while it is in the final stages of clearing. It will have an immediate effect and a long term effect. Something else to consider is just a touch of vanilla. Vanilla Extract about 2-3 tablespoons in a 5 gal batch will round out the flavors even more., or if you wish to use beans, 2-3 vanilla beans scraped and droped in would be fine in the secondary for a couple of months. If you must have the Brown Sugar in it, use only a pound or two and put it in at the end of the ferment after you stabalize it as a backsweetnening method.

Happy Mead Making.

Matrix

 

[huesmann]

Holy crap that's a lot of sugar!

 

[Matrix4b]

Holy crap that's a lot of sugar!

What a total of 18 pounds of honey in a 5 gallon batch? 12 for the primary and an additional 4-6 for after stablization? Ofcourse if adding the 1-2 pounds of brown sugar then subtract it from the honey, so about 3 pounds honey and 1-2 pounds brown sugar, as brown sugar is more dense than honey by about 20%-30% or so.

I see many recipies that use 18-20 pounds of honey. Now that is for a sweet desert mead. Oh, and usually this bulks up my meads to about 6 gal level too.

Ofcorse, I sometimes don't backsweeten if I am doing a dryer mead or using a LOT of fruit, like strawberries. But my blueberry always ferments dry no mater how well I do it, as do Raspberry. So backsweetening is a need.

Matrix

 

[roadymi]

I agree no sugar, more honey. What was your SG at bottling? I believe that sweeter meads have better mouthfeel and yield a better honey flavor. I have not yet tasted a dry mead that I was real fond of. ( I don't like dry ciders or wines either so that seems to be my personal preference.)

 

[ThorH]

I agree no sugar, more honey. What was your SG at bottling? I believe that sweeter meads have better mouthfeel and yield a better honey flavor. I have not yet tasted a dry mead that I was real fond of. ( I don't like dry ciders or wines either so that seems to be my personal preference.)

unfortunately, i don't have my technical notes handy as my brewing partner has my journal and he just moved to Kentucky, so i don't recall my exact readings/measurements

 

[huesmann]

I see many recipies that use 18-20 pounds of honey. Now that is for a sweet desert mead. Oh, and usually this bulks up my meads to about 6 gal level too.

You didn't say anything about 6 gallons.

18 lb of honey would put a 5-gal batch into the 1.17 SG range, which is quite high. Now, maybe if you started with 12-15 lb and step fed, it might work OK.

 

[Matrix4b]

You didn't say anything about 6 gallons.

18 lb of honey would put a 5-gal batch into the 1.17 SG range, which is quite high. Now, maybe if you started with 12-15 lb and step fed, it might work OK.

Actually I usually start with 4 gal water, 1 gal honey (12 pounds), then rack off of the primary, sometimes onto fruit or fruit juice, rendered from my fruit myself with a blender and a siv if I can, or puree and in a brew bucket if not.(about 1/2- 3/4 gal, puree is usually about a gallon) then rack off of the fruit juice and maybe one more racking on to the postasium sorbate for at least a week and THEN I back sweeten with 4-6 pounds of honey in 1/2 gal amount of water. This way I usually end up with about a 6 gal batch or so. Confused yet?

Basically I am racking it a few times losing some volume and adding back volume with the back swetening. And yes I sometimes don't add in the whole amount of honey/water solution that I make 1/2 water and 1/2 honey.

Matrix