Mead has stopped fermenting, need advice.

[thrall]

Hello

Started my mead about 5 weeks ago. I made 1 gallon using 600g of honey, handful of raisins, yeast nutrient and a pack of cider yeast.

Now i know its not going to be the best mead but I swapped it into a secondary demijohn as the raisins didn't look very nice and thought it would clear better if i took all the sediment out.

While doing so the smell was the first thing to hit me, it was almost a liqueur smell and the taste is very liqueur like, also it burns the throat. I only tried a very little bit in case it was a bit iffy.

I have only ever had mead once and it didn't taste or smell like this. Has it gone wrong or does this seem right?

 

[fatbloke]

Hello

Started my mead about 5 weeks ago. I made 1 gallon using 600g of honey, handful of raisins, yeast nutrient and a pack of cider yeast.

Now i know its not going to be the best mead but I swapped it into a secondary demijohn as the raisins didn't look very nice and thought it would clear better if i took all the sediment out.

While doing so the smell was the first thing to hit me, it was almost a liqueur smell and the taste is very liqueur like, also it burns the throat. I only tried a very little bit in case it was a bit iffy.

I have only ever had mead once and it didn't taste or smell like this. Has it gone wrong or does this seem right?

Well, from your description, I'd guess that it's stopped fermenting because it's finished.

Why? Well, you state 600g of honey to the gallon. I use between 1300 and 1600 grammes of honey in a gallon.

You've got some nutrient in there as well as raisins, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Cider yeast ? A generic description, so I'm gonna presume "Youngs Cider Yeast" ? That will ferment to like 12 or 14% ABV, so with only 600 grammes of honey, it's gonna be dry and lower than might be normal alcohol.

Meads, when young, often taste quite strange (often bloody horrible). You also don't list any starting gravity so there's not an easy way of working out the % ABV.

regards

fatbloke

 

[thrall]

My mistake I only made 2 litres. And unfortunately I don't have a hydrometer ( on my to buy list )

 

[fatbloke]

My mistake I only made 2 litres. And unfortunately I don't have a hydrometer ( on my to buy list )

Well it's not wasted.... you could try making it up to a full gallon (4.55 litres) and then adding more honey and some nutrients (maybe some wine yeast - either Lalvin K1V-1116 or Gervin Varietal E) - then stir the hell out of it.

Or you can just leave it to do it's thing

It's up to you....

Though I'd suggest that if you want to try something that's straight forward, easy to make, you can use easily available ingredients (cheap honey, fruit and any active dry bread yeast), then have a look at the recipe for Joe's Ancient Orange Spiced Mead. If you follow the recipe, then it's pretty hard to mess it up.

Yes, the fruit can look a bit dodgy during the ferment, but honestly, it produces a good brew. You literally mix it up and let it go, once it's stopped foaming, then top it up and just leave it. Once the fruit has dropped to the bottom of the fermenter, you can rack it off etc.

It's not bad to drink straight away, but if you leave it for 6 months, it's usually excellent.......

regards

fatbloke

 

[biochemedic]

You know, I might be missing something in translation (y'all being from the UK and talking in metric and all...), but the description of "liquor like" and "burning the throat" sounds like perhaps there's some higher 'fusel' alcohols in there? Perhaps the fermentation temperature was on the high side? As the others mentioned, you could age this a while, but if it's fusel alcohols causing that first impression, it can take a *long* time (a year or more) to mellow out.

600 grams (~ 1.3 lbs) honey in 2 liters (~ 1/2 gallon) volume sounds like an average strength mead, so you may just be done (after 5 weeks, you should be). I think having a gravity reading will go a long way towards determining whether or not this is stuck or done...if the gravity is < 1.010, you're done.... Definitely get yourself a hydrometer...it's an indispensable brewing tool, and one of the less expensive ones (at least in the US...)