So i had my mead aging in the secondary for 5 months or so and I haven't checked on it for about 2 weeks since i've been out of town. I checked on it yesturday when i bottled all 6 gallons of it and the air lock was not completly dry but enough to allow air to flow in. I tasted the mead as i bottled and it tasted a little more tart than i had expected (since it did bulk age for 3 months). I doubt its vinegary since it was already fully fermented. Agin in a secondary at 12% alcohol will help fight off any new yeast/vinegar causin organism? Its a dry mead with 11-12% alcahol i did use D-47 chardenay yeast, vietnamese cinamon and orange peels. I know the orange peel was a big mistake because it caused cetric acid to leech into the mead and belive me 3 months ago when i first tasted it i thought it was vinager and after three months its just very tart. I'm calling this mead my birth day mead since my bday is in December i hope that letting it sitt in a bottle for the next 3 months will help mellow out the tart. Rating this mead from 1-10 on the bitter scale i'd give it a 3. Seems like it might need time to mature...hope those few days to weeks of letting it come in contact with air didn't ruin it.
Aging mead air lock was dry
- Thread starter tenchu_11
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Often a mead can tolerate air exposure that would destroy a white wine. Although 12% ABV will not stop acetic acid bacteria (they can tolerate up to 17% ABV in some cases), the fact that it doesn't smell like nail polish (and vinegar) means you probably don't have a significant acetic acid bacteria population in there. By the way, the orange peel doesn't contain that much citric acid - that's mostly in the juice. It sounds like it just needs another 6-12 months of aging.
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