Mead problems (dealing with wild yeast?)

[Saturday]

Well, wasn't entirely sure where to put this but in the end I figured I'd stick it here since, although I've been at it a good few months, there's still learning to be done

Right - so the situation was that I recently got an enormous, ancient (4 years old) bucket of honey from a friend who used to be a beekeeper. I had a quick check but couldn't find anything saying I shouldn't use it for brewing, so of course I immediately did

Only problem is that now that the batches are done, they smell (and, from what I've been brave enough to try, taste) pretty foul. It's a sort of sickly, yeasty, chemical smell that so far general opinion is would be wild yeast or some other kind of contaminant. The yeast was also close to going off, but I don't think that was a problem; the specific gravity's changed, so there must have been fermentation. What do you guys think? Is the honey spoilt? Is there any way to save it? There's tons of the stuff, so it'd seem a shame to waste it, but if it's gotta go, I guess it's gotta go.

 

[a6ladd]

What is your FG reading? It may not be done fermenting yet which could result in some nasty flavors. If there is still sugar to be fremented you could try to make a yeast starter from some champagne yeast and pitch that into your fermentor(s) in an attempt to clean up some of the off flavors.

I brewed my first batch of mead several months ago, bottled it in May and its just now becoming something I would give to a friend or family member. It had very high levels of fusel alcohol and that have since mellowed out. I know of some mead makers that can very quickly turn out delicious mead but its quite an art form. There is an episode on BrewingTV about a home mead maker that was very good.

Last but not least there is a separate section of HBT that is devoted specifically to mead, they might have some better ideas over there. Hope this helps!