Help troubleshooting first mead - Recommendations for proposed solutions

[aramillio]

Hello all, this is my first post and my first mead.

I used a simple recipe:
champagne yeast (I don't recall the exact strain)
1 gallon purified water
3 lbs honey
2lbs of fresh, ripe pear, frozen then thawed before adding to the must
yeast energizer and food in appropriate amounts.

The problem I have is two-fold, the first, relatively minor problem is that the mead has sat in its secondary carboy for a ear and a half and has not cleared.

the proposed solution is Super-Kleer and re-racking.

The second, more major issue is that at the 1.5 year mark, the mead has a "rubbery" taste and smell. My wife described it as "Licking a fresh sneaker". I didn't ask her why she knows what that tastes like.

After sitting in a glass for 10-15 minutes, the smell seems to fade to a more robust honey scent.

after reading through the forums and researching, it would appear the problem is hydrogen sulfide and/or mercaptans in the brew.

the proposed solutions are:

splash racking
seems to be the easiest and quickest, but liable to cause oxidation and won necessarily fix the problem

stirring with copper tubing
there seems to be little agreement on this one. it seems to generally work, but there isn't a clear go to process whether to stir for a short period or to leave the copper in for a longer period of time and the rack 2-3 times to eliminate the precipitate.

Bocksin
seems to work well, but I'm a little gun shy with this one because by all accounts it seems like it is really easy to overdo it with this one

Treatment with copper sulfate pentahydrate
there seems to be some agreement that this is best used with batches of 5 gallons or more do to higher potential for copper poisoning in smaller batches.



I would greatly appreciate some advice on this as it seems like I might be able to salvage the brew, but I am unsure on how to proceed from here.

 

[fuelish]

A gallon batch??? I'd perhaps rack it again and let it sit, or maybe just proceed to bottling and let it sit...cannot comment on your ideas to "fix" it, as I have no suggestions, other than Father Time himself. I wish you luck/success, and be thankful it's not 5 gals, I guess Have never had a "licked sneaker" taste in any mead I've made....yet (probably just jinxed myself )

 

[aramillio]

The other reports I've seen indicate that the rubbery smell is a precursor to a skunk like odor. I very much would like to salvage the brew if i can.

I'm worried that if i try splash racking, and that doesn't help, then stirring with the copper pipe could easily oxidize the mead from all the aeration.

However, stirring with the copper pipe can affect the taste, but has a decent success rate for eliminating the odors/flavors

I am looking to start a new batch of mead, probably plain, but i wanted to see if for better or worse i can figure out what went wrong with this one first.

 

[Frognostic]

It is possible that the mead's failure to clear is the cause of any off notes. Those suspended particles clouding up the mead could be the primary cause of an undesirable taste and / or smell. Once it has cleared the problem could cease.

If the mead sat on its lees for the duration of its time in the secondary carboy this, too, could be the cause of off notes. Sometimes when a batch smells bad you can find that unpleasant odour in concentrated form at the bottom of the vessel after racking. If the gross lees reeks of rubber then that may be your number one culprit.

I have heard both good and bad things about plimsole-like rubbery aromas. Yes, I have heard that it is an undesirable effect of yeast autolysis but I have also heard it described as a desirable note in certain wines.

 

[aramillio]

thanks frognostic, clarifying is definitely on my list of things to do this weekend.

with fruit meads, have you ever forced clarification early to avoid bad flavors?

Ive been told the pectin from the pears is probably why it didnt clear up. it seems like it would make sense to treat it after the first racking to ensure that the second racking was clean

 

[Frognostic]

I have never really made any fruit meads, unless you consider adding a handful of raisins in primary as making it a fruit mead. Only done water and honey meads. In the future, when the Summer fruits are in season, I intend to.

I have had cloudiness issues with cider, though, and it smelled terrible until it clarified after racking into two litre bottles. I racked the clear cider off the sediment, which I guess was pectin, into new two litre bottles. Tasted like dry apple juice after that and the smell was much improved. Never force clarified, it did it by itself in the end.

I have cloudiness issues with two gallons of water and honey mead that I made at the end of January. I used Nottingham ale yeast and it's still fermenting in May. I'm going to wait and see with those ones but if the yeast in suspension doesn't drop I'll probably force clarify because I doubt that would make for a pleasant tipple.

 

[fuelish]

I always just automatically add pectic enzyme when using fruit in mead.....only one I'm having trouble with is a 1 gallon batch of bochet cyser (cyser bochet??), although it's getting there, perhaps another racking is due. Made a mango melomel that took longer than desired to clear, was mostly clear when eventually bottled and the rest settled out in the bottles....it's clear now....but this bochet, dunno - used organic unfiltered cider, it's taking it's good old time, but hey, waiting is the name of the game in this hobby, yes?