White foam on top of mead???

I have some mead that is done fermenting a long time ago, but there is this white foam on the top. It kind of looks like the soap bubbles in a sink of used dishwater.
Should I be concerned? Or only if it tastes like soap?
I am pretty sure I did not get soap in it.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

It stopped fermenting about a year ago and the sg is unknown.
It had 3.5 lbs of honey in it originally and is one gal.

 

it may be residual yeast kicking back into action. If you have a decent yeast cake in the bottom, some could have been hiding or dormant. As long as they are bubble and not furry, I think you might be okay. The king of all tests though is tasting. If it doesn't taste sour or funky, you're alright. If it does taste funky, then congrats, you've made the first lambic mead

mike

 

I'm assuming you've at least racked from primary to secondary at this point, and not sitting on the original yeast cake, simply to bulk age?

when are you planning on bottling or drinking this? mead doesn't have to age years...some types of honey do, but not all. clover honey or orange blossom mellow out in as little as 6 months.

 

Umm... your assumptions are incorrect. It is in the primary.

I guess I will taste it this weekend. I was planning on drinking it

 

how long did it sit in primary exactly? you don't really want to leave it sitting on the yeast for more than, oh I'd say 2 months max. yeast die and autolyze, which can impart off flavors to your mead (or beer).

it might not be too bad...it might be undrinkable. time will tell. racking to secondary and sometimes tertiary is how you bulk age while avoiding autolysis

 

Just for giggles. My mead, about 6 gallons, was in primary for three months. OG was 1.104. Racked it onto some oak cubes and tasted it as well. Delicious and not a single off flavor. I probably should have left it in primary longer because it is only down to 1.016. I used Wyeast dry mead so it should get down to at least 1.000, I am hoping for .998. IMHO I don't think autolysis is something that should be considered until it has been around six months to a year. Which is in your range. Beer is a different story. Maybe just one to three months there.

Just taste your mead, that should answer all of your concerns.

 

Mine got white bubbly foam on it after racking. It's my assumption that it's CO2 coming out of the mead.

It happened on 2 meads that I racked at the same time, so it's an assumption I'm sticking to for now.

 

If it disappeared after a day and the airlock went a little crazy, then that is a pretty safe assumption. Mine did the same.

 

You typically want to rack into a secondary 2 weeks to 2 months after pitching. Yeast die and form lees, and you need to get the must off the lees or it will produce bad flavors. If it spent its entire life in the primary, at the very least it will not taste as good as it could have.

 

Well, that's not necessarily always true. In fact some yeast strains will impart desirable flavor and aroma characteristics when allowed to autolyze. The traditional barrel technique for getting the most benefit from autolyzing yeast is called "batonnage," and it involves periodically stirring up the lees layer back into suspension in the must.

But, this isn't something that a relatively inexperienced meadmaker should try right off the bat, since too much lees exposure, or too much stirring, can do bad, rather than good, things to your mead.

 

Had this mead for three months now. It was just honey mead but the fermentation started to die off so I decided to add some peaches one to add flavor and two to add more natural sugars and restart fermentation. That part worked a week after fermentation and cold shock I racked it in to this plastic jug( only thing I had available) now a little over two months later it has this nasty film on it. The film showed up pretty much over night. It also has a sour smell. The stuff on the green spoon is some of the white film i scouted out for better inspection.