Mead tasted tangy out of primary fermenter

[Psychonought]

Here is a little background: I made ~5 gallons of mead with the following recipe...
12 lbs Minnesota Clover Honey
2 Limes
1 cup strong tea
Wyeast #4184 (Sweet Mead)
Priming Sugar (for yeast cultivator)
Yeast Nutrient

I left it in a 7-gallon primary and after two weeks I racked it into a couple of secondaries. When I was syphoning the mead, I tasted a bit and it was tangy, like yogurt when it has gone bad. Was I just tasting the live yeast?
Anyone else taste 2-week-old yeast?

 

[Insomniac]

2 week old mead tastes horrible even when it's going well, I wouldn't bother trying to form an opinion at least untill 3 or 4 months in. (By all means taste, its interesting to see how it changes with age) And even then it wont really be "ready" will 6 - 12 months.

 

[Arpolis]

I have a cool cucumber mead going and at one week I tasted it and it had the distinct taste of soured milk. Maybee soured yogurt is more accurate but I have never had that pleasure. After another week and a half and it clearing a bit, at least the smell is much better. I will not have the curage to taste again untill completly clear and off lees lol.

 

[Machalel]

I'd imagine that the limes + tea would give it a bit of a tang when it is still young. I wouldn't worry about it

 

[Psychonought]

Sweet, thanks for the votes of confidence. Just making sure my brew didn't go horribly wrong right off the bat. I'm guessing soured milk/yogurt is just what yeast tastes like.
I added a lot of different things into the batches (I split it into 5, 1-gallon secondaries), and some are taking off while others stay motionless. But amount of sugar added seems to correlate to amount of activity. I'm not used to this kind of patience!

 

[Machalel]

it seems to vary, i've never tasted sour milk/yoghurt - if anything mine has tasted like a bitter bready meat if that makes any sense at all?

Mead making is great at teaching patience... Especially considering that if you want the "best" end product, you're going to be bottle-conditioning it for about a year as well!

 

[fatbloke]

Meads of many flavours come as a surprise to the un/illinformed.

People just plain forget that the act of fermentation changes the sugars/sweetness levels once they're processed into alcohol.

Plus, because people are unfamiliar with many tastes if there's no sugars present, they worry...... ergo, "is this correct" ? type question.

The OP forgets that not only is the sweetness of the honey (which is already diluted), but also any sugars from the lime, will pretty much disappear.

So the descriptive "tangy" could be understatement of the year. Young mead with limes? I wouldn't be surprised to see a descriptive of "battery acid"..........

 

[huesmann]

It's not done yet; don't judge it yet.

 

[Psychonought]

@fatbloke; yeah, battery acid would be a better descriptor. It felt "prickly" on my tongue.

With beer I can taste out of the primary how the beer will turn out, with the exception of the subtle/complex flavors which develop in the bottle. I thought I could do the same with mead, but I guess I will wait until I bottle it to give it another go. I like being able to see what is going on during the process using my senses instead of depending on a hydrometer.
I could definitely taste the flavors I added, but it was masked by this "battery acid" taste, which I'm not going to worry about for now.