Infected mead?

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Last night, I made a 5 gallon batch of pretty simple mead (15 lbs grocery store honey, topped up with Deer Park spring water, yeast nutrient, white wine yeast). This morning I saw what I feared to be the beginnings of a pellicle, and after 24 hours, this is what it looks like: http://imgur.com/a/QaFOE

I've been brewing beer for over a year, but I'm still pretty new at mead (ie, don't really know what it should smell like at this point). Is this typical or a sign of infection? If it's infected, my plan is to pasteurize the must and repitch, maybe with some fruit to cover up the off flavors. However, I'd obviously much rather not do this if everything is fine.
 
Looks ok to me. Looks alone don't tell the whole story, but 24 hrs seems a little early to worry about infection.

If your fermentation hasn't begun in earnest after 48 hrs, I'd add some yeast nutrients and energizer.

You might want to do that regardless. Honey is low on nitrogen, which yeast needs for healthy fermentation (not as much of a concern in beer and wine). It'll help kick you're fermentation into higher gear and hopefully outcompete a possible infection.

There are some great stickies on this forum that have helped me a lot. Check those out, too. (And check out gotmead.com)

Beyond that, what yeast did you use? Some yeasts that are labelled as "mead" yeasts can be a pain in the rear.
 
Thanks. I used cotes de blanc white wine yeast from Red Star. Probably a good call on the additional yeast nutrient.

I tried my best to mix the honey and water, but there is still a very solid mass of honey at the bottom of the carboy. Really hoping that once the yeast go into high gear, they'll be able to eat into that.
 
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