Mead smells sweet but tastes bitter/slight vinegar taste?

[Justanotherbrewer]

So this is my first mead, I used three pounds of honey chopped raisins and dried orange peels as well as a cup of black tea and I used bread yeast. It’s been a little over four weeks now. The first reading came out as 1.108 and I just took the second reading as the airlock is only bubbling once every minute and a half and the new reading is 1.013, with some math I was able to figure that this will be about 13%. When I tried a little out of the flask it was very bitter and slightly vinegary, but the smell is amazing like mead from Montana! I’m confused as to wether or not my batch is infected or just young? Or maybe it’s not done fermenting? A mix of reasons?

 

[CKuhns]

I would guess just young. With age 6 - 24 months it very likely will get much better! Raisins are a poor nutrient. I would encourage you to look into one of the TOSNA protocols. (I prefer TOSNA 3.0) but really any SNA (Staggered Nutrient Addition) protocol will do.