Advise on 1st hot mead.

[peachcarmelsoda]

Hi
My first mead is almost done fermenting. It's at 1.001 and i think it should be done in a about a week. I've calculated the gravity to be around 16 pecent abv. And I've let it run dry.

Basically i was wondering if there is anything I could do to "cool" the hotness down a peg. I used oranges and apparently too many as it tastes very acidic. It has very little smell other than oranges. It's just very acidic and hot right now.

Also I would like to know what would happen if i bottled it as soon as it's done fermenting. Would the flavor be affected if not allowed to clear?

thanks

oh and also there is a thin little bit of white stuff on the neck of the top of bottle and on the raisins. I wonder if it's mold or something. Is it normal?

 

[fatbloke]

A little hard what to suggest without the recipe, quantities, gravity readings, etc etc.......

Yet meads often finish hideous tasting (there's many levels of hideous) when young. Its mead not beer. It will likely need ageing too mellow.

The "hot" taste you allude to could just be the pretty standard alcohol hot taste of many young meads so the mellowing suggestion is where that comes in........

As for bottling ? Sure, if you want inconsistency between bottles. Its pretty much routine to bulk age as most of us don't have temp and humidity controlled environments for bottle ageing.......

 

[huesmann]

Well, you definitely want to clear before bottling, if you plan to give any bottles away. Most people don't care for visible sediment in their wine.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

yeah, if you bottle right when fermentation is done (as opposed to 4-6 + months later), you will get a lot of sediment on the bottom. Som need even more than 6 months to really clear.

 

[choosybeggar]

As for bottling ? Sure, if you want inconsistency between bottles. Its pretty much routine to bulk age as most of us don't have temp and humidity controlled environments for bottle ageing.......

After the primary, how important is temp control? What temp ranges?

 

[fatbloke]

After the primary, how important is temp control? What temp ranges?

In truth, bulk storage is the home brewers compromise. It gives consistency across the whole batch.

The stereotypical wine cellar or cave is in the low 50's F and has low humidity. Which is the kind of facility that's out of the home brewers price range.

Hence once its cleared and ready to go, I just get it into whichever storage container I'm gonna use, fill it to the max level possible (limiting air space) stopper it and store in as cool and dark as I can manage. If just cool I do the dark with cooking foil round the glass...

 

[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

AGe, Age, and oh, age! I have a 16.7% med-dry orange blossom at a year and a half in the bottle and while it's calmed down some it is still very "hot" (boozy) in the vernacular. No quick way to chill things down. Vanilla, MAYBE, but it is still very evident regardless. Make a weaker mead next time, stabilize/backsweeten/whatever for less heat. I give bottles of my high octane stuff to folks lacking a palate because they usually drink liquor from plastic handles, they LOVE IT, CAN'T GET ENOUGH. I usually call it "ye olde firewater" when I hand it over for the cretinous Bast***s to guzzle. Good luck as always.

 

[Bitty]

Most of my meads are prickly hot right at the end of fermentation. Once it falls clear, just gently rack it off to another carboy, top it off with some sterile water and let it sit for a few months. When you come back to it you'll wonder why you were ever concerned.