Heart burn

[Deafmeadmaker]

This is an odd question. Last month I opened a bottle of pumpkin spice mead for my in laws. Everyone was kind enough to say they liked it, but they noted it was a little syrupy. (It had aged for just over a year.) What I noticed was a bit of acid reflux after I drained my glass. Fast forward to today: I have a 5 gallon metheglin that was racked to secondary and beginning to clear nicely thanks to the bentonite I added the month before.. I took a sample to record FG. (SG was 1.13 on 08/09/21. Today it was down to 1.03) Like many brewers testing quality control, I drank the test sample. Almost immediately I felt the heart burn about to return. Since fermentation has stopped I doubt it will go below .99 Now I'm gonna leave it for another month to clear up on it's own, but what could be causing the heart burn? Someone suggested I add Irish Moss to it, but that's used in beer during the last 10 minutes of the boil. I should add that I use a no heat/boil during creation of the must. I've made several batches this way with no problem, but the last two batches make me wonder. For those who are going to ask,
Cinnamon/ Nutmeg mead
O.G. 1.13
3.5 gallons of spring water
17 pounds wildflower honey
2 sticks of cinnamon
2 tsp. of nutmeg
5 tsp. yeast nutrient
Lalvin D 47 in a cup of water and 1 tsp. sugar as a starter
Step fed the yeast over three days.
Moderate backwash into the airlock, but continued in primary for the month of August
racked to secondary on 9/11 after fermentation had stopped. Added Bentonite (4 tsp. 1 1/3 cups water)

Part of me says to put it back in a dark corner and wait. A little voice in my head wants to rack and filter even though it isn't 100% clear. Any suggestions?

 

[madscientist451]

MY suggestions:
17 lbs of honey is a fairly large investment in a batch, so get a small scale some Go-Ferm and Fermaid O and use the TONSA method next time.
I can't guarantee your heart burn issues will go away, but I can say my mead has gotten much better since I started using the TONSA method.
My other suggestion is that if you are having some issues with your mead, switch to 1 gallon batches until you get the problems resolved.
So are you thinking that the heat burn sensation is because the mead is somewhat acidic? Or is it a strong alcohol taste?

 

[Maylar]

Some red wines give me heartburn, some don't. My meads never do, but I make traditionals. Can you test pH and T.A. ?

 

[Ty520]

If others are not also causing it, my guess is a low pH.

High acid, high sugar content and carbonation are primary causes for heartburn

Otherwise, sometimes, your body just changes over time. I get heartburn frequently now from drinking, regardless of what type of alcohol it is

 

[curiousbrew]

Presumably everyone is a little different, but I've noticed that drinking sweet alcoholic beverages will quickly trigger heartburn for me. I can't for example drink sweet wine - particularly Moscato d'Asti. I tested an early batch of my first gallon of mead, and since it was still sweet it triggered heartburn pretty quickly. I don't know if your mead is sweet or dry, but I'm putting this out there in case it may be sweet.