Mead question

[Iceman6409]

Hello all. I made a simple mead. 17lbs honey, water and yeast. Fermented for over a year. Bottled. Nothing more complicated than that. It has a slight to medium alcohol burn when drinking. I would like to learn why. Any thoughts?

 

[sheepcat]

Fermented over a year? That seems like a really long time. Was it sitting on lees the whole time? That can be an issue.

Generally though, any hot tastes are going to be the result of fermentation issues- temperature, nutrients, ph, leaving on lees, etc. If you post more information about the fermentation it would help! Seems like some meads that are fermented with a lot of fusels can take a year or more to age out. When did you make it and what wa syour process throughout? If it was just honey, water, yeast, with no nutrients or phosphates added, that might've stressed out your yeast.

 

[Arpolis]

Hello all. I made a simple mead. 17lbs honey, water and yeast. Fermented for over a year. Bottled. Nothing more complicated than that. It has a slight to medium alcohol burn when drinking. I would like to learn why. Any thoughts?

What is considered "Show" meads, basically just honey water and yeast can do very well and be very tasty depending on proper yeast and honey selection. But the caviat is that they take a long time to come to maturity. You had a lot of honey in your batch to boot. 17lb of honey with the proper yeast can get around the 18% range but if your mead is still sweet more likely it is in the 12-14% range. Knowing gravity readings before yeast pitch and after fermentation is over would help.

A good rule of thumb is that after the first 90 days in the main fermentation cycle you age the mead 1 month per ABV percent in order for that alcohol hot to subside. So that may be part of your issue.

So if you have the notes let us know the yeast selection used and any gravity readings of you have it and we may be able to diagnose even further.

Hope this helps.

 

[Iceman6409]

Good thoughts so far. I appreciate them. I literally mixed 17 pounds clover honey with enough water for 5 gallons and used a White Labs Sweet Mead yeast. No other ingredients or chemicals. Racked 3-4 times over the 15 months. Other than that I did not take any readings. I will moving forward though.

Now here is another question. I did exactly the same thing about a month or so ago on another 5 gallon batch. If chemicals are needed is it too late?

 

[Arpolis]

It depends on the yeast and if it is actively fermenting or so. "Chemicals" is a harsh word I think. The most important thing to add is yeast nutrients. Honey unlike wine ingredients has very little trace nutrients and very little amino acids for protean building. Yeast in a strait mead must with no nutrients is like you and 10 other people in your home only eating lettuce and watermellon every day. Crowded conditions and lack of proper nutrients makes for angry yeast.

Commercial yeast nutrients like DAP and others like LD Carlson yeast nutrient/energizer or Fermaid K all help tremendously. If the yeast are still fermenting you can add these at the package recommended dosage and it can help. Other sources of "do it yourself" nutrients could be raisins, boiled or microwaved bakers yeast and/or crushed B complex vitamins.

If you do not want to add other items then the next best thing to do is to step feed your honey. 17lb of honey in a 5 gallon carboy creates a lot of osmotic pressure on your yeast. So adding let's say 10lb and then waiting for 80% - 90% of your sugars to be fermented through and then adding a pound or two of honey, letting it ferment down to the same level and repeating the process until the yeast stop. That is the next best thing to reducing off flavors and fusel alcohols that cause that hot alcohol taste.

Then there is fine tuning your process for the best results which have you adding stuff to buffer PH swings and adding nutrients at certain times and using specific yeasts for best results. Look up the thread about the "BOMM method". That method of mead making will make some fine mead that needs little to no aging time really.

Good luck with your current batch and hope you enjoy your bottled mead.

 

[Matrix4b]

Oaking really smooths out some of those issues. I would think about it in future batches.

Matrix