Can you age a mead too long?

[Seamonkey84]

Thanks for your awesome post!

If I'm reading you right, using TOSNA may save a lot of time and is all upside and no downside.

I’m a newbie to this, but as I understand it, it’s stressed yeast (or wrong choice of yeast) that causes a certain brew to need to be aged longer. The off flavors and aromas are produced when the yeast aren’t performing at their prime. So step feeding nutrients and degassing using which ever protocol you go by, is going to reduce stress on the yeast. The traditional set it and forget it approach, using the same amounts of nutrients up front (or none at all), does of course work, but then you need to age it.
Since I started this hobby in April, I’ve made 7 various batches. Two set it and forget it, and now on my 5th BOMM style. The first two gallons started in April (a cyser and a juice wine) I can’t even think about trying based on smell alone. The BOMMs (Melomel and others done with sugar in fruit wines) have mostly all been pleasant at sampling.

 

[Maylar]

Thanks for your awesome post!

If I'm reading you right, using TOSNA may save a lot of time and is all upside and no downside.

Modern protocols have drastically reduced the time required for a mead to be drinkable. I made a gallon batch of clover BOMM that never made it past 3 months. It was delicious.

 

[CKuhns]

Yes IMO TOSNA lots of upside for Higher ABV Mead.

I wouldn't say no downside. The trick is finding the TOSNA protocol and technique that works well with your recipe and ingredients and then perfecting it to promote ageing as quickly as practical. The downside is that when you change something with your recipe or experiment a bit TOSNA may not work as well until you again figure it out a bit.

Example - When I went to lower ABV Meads using TOSNA 3.0 protocol I initially had OK results but quickly realized by using some of the best (Not all) techniques from BernardSmiths posts and recipes, Denards BOMM, Groenfell Meadery and TOSNA 3.0 I achieved a very quick ferment and something very pleasant in a very short period of time.

To answer the TOSNA question for low ABV Mead my practice really is not a TOSNA per-say as there is no staggered additions the fermaid-O weight as calculated using TOSNA 3.0 criteria is added in the yeast starter and all up-front.

 

[mwilcox]

Does it still take that long if it's made using modern methods (e.g. TOSNA?).

as I've gotten better I generally plan to leave big sweet Polish meads alone for 2, preferably 3 years. The number was higher when I was less experienced.

 

[NeverDie]

as I've gotten better I generally plan to leave big sweet Polish meads alone for 2, preferably 3 years. The number was higher when I was less experienced.

What is it that you're doing that reduces it from 15 years down to 2 or 3?

 

[mwilcox]

What is it that you're doing that reduces it from 15 years down to 2 or 3?

well I never said 15, to be fair. I haven't even been doing this hobby quite 15 years yet. And I would simply say I got better at keeping my yeast happy, and the resulting product was smoother and more drinkable, more quickly.

 

[ItsHammerTime]

In the first week after my daughter was born, I brewed a mead, a case of which I plan to present to her on her 21st birthday. I have a number of extra bottles for annual or biannual tasting along the way. Two years in, it is aging very nicely - I am excited to see if it keeps improving or at least holds up as the years pass.

 

[SoberEwe]

Hope this thread isn't dead.

Just starting mead making and I'm making a mix of a melomel and and metheglin, or maybe it's just one or the other, not sure yet. Based off of a non-alcoholic recipe I have found, tweaked, bottled and it accidentally started fermenting on its own. It's delicious to drink as-is, or spiking with vodka or gin, and trying some of the mid-ferment stuff, it catapulted me down this path. Since then, I have been learning as much as I can about the process and think I've got a pretty good start. My recipe is fruit-heavy with oranges, lemons, apple juice, black and juniper berries, also with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.

I guess I'm really asking for guidance here. I'm using Wyeast 4184. Would my mead benefit from doing 2 fermentations? Or could I throw everything in and ferment? Planning on Back-sweetening, and would I need to provide nutrients? I'd like to get as high as an ABV as possible but want to simplify this process as much as possible. And then how do long would any of you think I should age it? I'm aware a lot of these questions I could answer through time, effort and learning curves, but I like to start out on things I've never done before with good information from people who've done the work already and have experience to help me get a good base.

 

[Johnny2]

I notice my country wines and mead to have aged some at about 9 months, at six months not much difference. 12 months is recommended, some people recommend 2 years or even higher.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I have a gallon a mead I made maybe 6 or 7 yrs ago untouched in a glass jug sealed with minimal head space in the back of my spare fridge. It was sweetened with Asian pear juice and still the same yellowish clear so does not appear oxidized. I need to check it and if still good will bottle and report back.

 

[Fixerman]

I had a cherry mead in a 5 gal glass carboy that sat for 2+ years before bottling in wine bottles. I drank them over the next couple of years. Every bottle was outstanding.

 

[Pogue mahone]

Hope this thread isn't dead.

Just starting mead making and I'm making a mix of a melomel and and metheglin, or maybe it's just one or the other, not sure yet. Based off of a non-alcoholic recipe I have found, tweaked, bottled and it accidentally started fermenting on its own. It's delicious to drink as-is, or spiking with vodka or gin, and trying some of the mid-ferment stuff, it catapulted me down this path. Since then, I have been learning as much as I can about the process and think I've got a pretty good start. My recipe is fruit-heavy with oranges, lemons, apple juice, black and juniper berries, also with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.

I guess I'm really asking for guidance here. I'm using Wyeast 4184. Would my mead benefit from doing 2 fermentations? Or could I throw everything in and ferment? Planning on Back-sweetening, and would I need to provide nutrients? I'd like to get as high as an ABV as possible but want to simplify this process as much as possible. And then how do long would any of you think I should age it? I'm aware a lot of these questions I could answer through time, effort and learning curves, but I like to start out on things I've never done before with good information from people who've done the work already and have experience to help me get a good base.

Not dead, just well aged.

Sorry!

I couldn't resist

I am two weeks beyond where you are now, lol. I have a Mango-Ginger Mead that I have put down. We are in the same boat. I did do a mead in the distant past. It served as some experience with the process. It sat in the 5 gallon carboy for a year, every time I moved the carboy to rack it, fermentation would reactivate. After a year, we moved and I had to bottle. I bottled in beer bottles and would sample about monthly. The mead definitely got better over time, the final bottle was consumed several years later.

I have to say that following the proper sanitary practices is probably the most important step! Sanitize everything that may come in contact with the must and, later, the mead. Honey is so concentrated and acidic that mold will not survive. It does not require sterilization. Just dump it into your sterilized primary with bottled water to volume with all other ingredients, add yeast and cover with an airlock.

I recommend that you research the process and assemble equipment before you start. You will need a way to test specific gravity https://www.walmart.com/ip/Specific...-Jar/662270548?classType=REGULAR&from=/search

and a way of testing pH https://www.walmart.com/ip/5-1-Wate...riu/3417986221?classType=REGULAR&from=/search

 

[Johnny2]

I have a gallon a mead I made maybe 6 or 7 yrs ago untouched in a glass jug sealed still the same yellowish clear so does not appear oxidized.

Someone had forgotten mead on a soda bottle for 5 years. Soda bottles are oxygen permeable and by everything I have read, the mead should have been oxidized, but the mead was good.

 

[HVCBrewing]

Mead when made with reasonable processes (Sanitation and O2 management) will last for a very long time. In my experience the weak link to aging meads tend to be how the bottle is sealed (can the cork or cap last 15 years). Oxygen exposure is a problem, but nothing like wine or beer. I have left half consumed meads (closed in some fashion) on the counter for month or more with no real decline.