I had never brewed anything until a few months ago. A few years ago, I discovered there are some types of beer I like, when I had before hated all beer I tried. I really dislike anything more bitter than dark chocolate. 70% cacao is perfect; anything more bitter than that is pushing it. More recently, I've been enjoying branching out and trying many different beers. BTW, I love the Untappd app that tells you the IBUs of beers before you buy. With my growing interest, I thought it might be fun to try brewing something, but making beer sounded complicated. I really wanted to try something I could do with the equipment I already had in my kitchen and with ingredients from the local grocery store, just to get a taste for the hobby and see if it was any fun. There are several recipes for mead online that sounded really simple, so I went with that. I combined attributes of many different recipes, but what I came up with is most similar to JAOM (but no cinnamon or clove).
Fast forward to now, and I just tried my first (half) bottle last night. The first thing I noticed was that it was flat. I had added conditioning honey when I bottled it, but I don't think it fermented. I wonder if I killed off all the yeast. The second thing I noticed was the alcohol smell and taste is much stronger than I expected. My wife said it had a vague mold smell to it. I couldn't smell mold, but her nose is more sensitive than mine. I had read from many sources that bread yeast wasn't very alcohol tolerant, so I expected it to be pretty weak, which is just fine with me; I'm a lightweight. I don't have a way to measure the specific gravity, but I can make a comparison. On an empty stomach, even a single beer can go straight to my head. Last night, with food in my stomach and only drinking half the bottle (reused Grolsch bottle), I still felt it. Taste wise, I still prefer beer, but it's alright. I'd say it's closer to a dry wine in flavor. It did turn out very clear with no discernable stuff floating or sitting at the bottom.
So, all things considered, I'm wondering if maybe there's more than just ethanol in my mead. Maybe something else is contributing to how I felt it so quickly? Or is it normal for Fleischmann's dry bread yeast to sometimes produce high alcohol content? Should I be worried about the (alleged) mold smell? At least I don't feel sick at all today.
Fast forward to now, and I just tried my first (half) bottle last night. The first thing I noticed was that it was flat. I had added conditioning honey when I bottled it, but I don't think it fermented. I wonder if I killed off all the yeast. The second thing I noticed was the alcohol smell and taste is much stronger than I expected. My wife said it had a vague mold smell to it. I couldn't smell mold, but her nose is more sensitive than mine. I had read from many sources that bread yeast wasn't very alcohol tolerant, so I expected it to be pretty weak, which is just fine with me; I'm a lightweight. I don't have a way to measure the specific gravity, but I can make a comparison. On an empty stomach, even a single beer can go straight to my head. Last night, with food in my stomach and only drinking half the bottle (reused Grolsch bottle), I still felt it. Taste wise, I still prefer beer, but it's alright. I'd say it's closer to a dry wine in flavor. It did turn out very clear with no discernable stuff floating or sitting at the bottom.
So, all things considered, I'm wondering if maybe there's more than just ethanol in my mead. Maybe something else is contributing to how I felt it so quickly? Or is it normal for Fleischmann's dry bread yeast to sometimes produce high alcohol content? Should I be worried about the (alleged) mold smell? At least I don't feel sick at all today.
