First mead tasting like butter

[thisandthat]

Plain mead, just honey, water, fermaid k. 1 gallon.

We tasted it a couple days ago and it was good but a bit tart. I added wracked into a second jug and added potassium sorbate(half teaspoon) and potassium metabisulfite(1 campden tablet). Last night I filtered out the bits of campden that didn't want to dissolvel. I warmed up some honey and disolved a few table spoons into the mead and did a tasting.

I tastes quite strongly of butter.

I understand that that flavour can come from Diacetyl which can be from a bacteria problem. The mead is about 13-14%, is diacetyl able to grow at that high of alcohol? I did wash everything, but of course mistakes happen.

Any ideas.

Thanks

Jon

 

[bmwr75]

You used about 2X more k-sorbate than needed, but that doesn't result in a butter taste. Over-sorbating results in a bubble gum type flavor.

 

[thisandthat]

I got my info from this:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/winemaking/potassium-sorbate. In any case no bubble gum flavor.

Thanks

 

[thisandthat]

Any other ideas?

Thanks

 

[Sourz4life]

Diacetyl is produced by most yeast. It is just metabolized by the yeast during fermentation, just takes time. http://www.whitelabs.com/sites/default/files/Diacetyl_Time_Line.pdf
Just give it time and that should subside. I also don't generally even try my meads until 4-6 months out. I don't like how they taste young, at least traditional meads.

 

[thisandthat]

This mead is almost 6 months old. I'll leave it for a while and see if it goes away. I'd just like to figure out what I did wrong because it didn't have the taste till I added the chemicals and honey...Just not sure what did it, the honey, the chemicals, or something that got mixed in during the transfer process....O well may never know.

I guess it is time to try batch two.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

Depending on the yeast used, you could ramp up the temperature to near it's higher tolerance level and encourage them to get back to work at eating up the diacetyls (buttery taste). Similarly to the Diacetyl Rest accomplished when lagering http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/

 

[thisandthat]

I used QA23. Thanks, I'll look at the article.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

According to this http://www.lallemandyeast.com/company/products/lalvin-qa23 the temperature range is 15-32C. So you could let the temperature rise up to at least room temp if not warmer depending on where you are.