Has anyone tried Oak Aging or Malolactic Fermentation in their Mead?

[Sean75]

Im making a 14% abv traditional and was thinking of splitting the batch during secondary, 1/2 to put French Oak cubes into for a few days, the other half to do malolactic fermentation, and then blend them back together.

Has anyone tried either of these?

If so, what were the results like?

Is there enough Malic Acid in a traditional (non fruit) mead or would I have to add some?

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

I've done oak aging on some of my meads, but as yet haven't done a with/without comparison, so I can't really speak to whether the result was favorable. I should remedy that...

There's essentially no malic acid in a traditional mead to ferment. You'd have to add some.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Oak cubes into for a few days

You mean a few months? Oak takes a while to extract, and it is worth the wait.

the other half to do malolactic fermentation

As mentioned, honey doesn't have a significant amount of malic acid.
Furthermore, all meads with raw honey or any unpasteurized additives already have bacteria capable of performing malolactic fermentation if there's no sulfite. Lactic acid bacteria are ubiquitous.

Now onto the "why"...
This is definitely outside the box.
Why you would add malic acid only to have it converted to lactic acid is kind of a mystery to me. You can easily add lactic acid or any other type of acid you want.
If you want significant bacterial flavor and acid production (for whatever reason), add your preferred bacterial culture to the must before adding the yeast and give it a few days, holding whatever temperature the culture requires. No need to add malic acid. In fact, a buffer like potassium carbonate would help it become sour.

Cheers

 

[Sean75]

You mean a few months? Oak takes a while to extract, and it is worth the wait.


As mentioned, honey doesn't have a significant amount of malic acid.
Furthermore, all meads with raw honey or any unpasteurized additives already have bacteria capable of performing malolactic fermentation if there's no sulfite. Lactic acid bacteria are ubiquitous.

Now onto the "why"...
This is definitely outside the box.
Why you would add malic acid only to have it converted to lactic acid is kind of a mystery to me. You can easily add lactic acid or any other type of acid you want.
If you want significant bacterial flavor and acid production (for whatever reason), add your preferred bacterial culture to the must before adding the yeast and give it a few days, holding whatever temperature the culture requires. No need to add malic acid. In fact, a buffer like potassium carbonate would help it become sour.

Cheers

As for the why, malolactic fermentation adds body, softens, brings forward buttery notes which would compliment the honey notes. Oak aging rounds out the sharp edges, adds some vanilla, toasty woody notes and tannins which add body and help to balance sweetness.

 

[RPh_Guy]

malolactic fermentation adds body, softens, brings forward buttery notes

It would be interesting to taste a side-by-side, one with malic acid added and one without. If you try it, please report back.

All my natural ciders undergo MLF (naturally, I don't add bacterial cultures)... They do have good mouthfeel. I haven't gotten any buttery notes, but some batches do have dairy/yogurt notes.
Obviously the acid profile changes, but that's just because malic acid is more sharp than lactic acid. However since mead doesn't naturally contain malic acid, it's not sharp to begin with, so there's nothing to "soften".

It's easy to get body by adding tannins. For example FT Blanc Soft is great, and Scott Labs makes other good products like Booster Blanc and Opti-White. As you mentioned, oak helps with this too.

Sooo... What will MLF actually bring to the mead that we can't get through other means? Maybe some yogurt notes or maybe particular cultures give buttery notes? If you want those and you have a bacteria culture you like, you may as well try it and see how it performs in mead. It won't hurt anything.
Cheers

 

[Maylar]

Oak cubes take 3 months for full extraction. About 3 oz per 5 gallons is a good quantity.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Let me start by saying this is NOT a recomendation.

My step son took some oak (smaller pieces) out of the bag of chunks for my smoker. He stuck them in the oven for ? Don't know how long. Then dropped them in his gallon of mead. Left them for about two weeks. Not strong but noticeable. He used maybe 5-7 oz.
take note this is guesswork based on what I saw.
I won't say it was as good as it could have been, but it was tasty.
So +1 for oak.

 

[loveofrose]

Oak is one of the best ways to improve almost any mead. See references:

1. https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/oak-mead/

2. https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Barrel-mimic/