mead tastes like bad honey

[tom_gamer]

I was wondering if I did something wrong or I bought bad honey. First off I bought cheap honey at my LHBS, but it tasted good. I let it ferment out and aged it for about 8 month. So yesterday I tried some and I wasn't a big fan. It didnt taste hot anymore so I wasn't sure what happened.

Does anybody else ever get that from their mead that it tastes like bad honey?

I will probably rack onto some raspberries to cover that taste.

 

[Insomniac]

What do you mean by bad honey? Honey doesn't really go off, is it just not sweet?

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

You will have to be more specific about what it tasted like and it would be really helpful if you include your original recipe with quantities including the brand/strain of yeast you used. Sounds like you may have made something dry and were expecting sweeter.

 

[roadymi]

honey doesn't spoil

 

[DisturbdChemist]

It's not hot anymore? Are you thinking its bad because of no alcohol burn? I made two meads so far and love both of them though they are not traditional meads but with fruit and spices added. If its the sweetness you can always add more honey to make it sweeter. There should be little to no live yeast in there so you can back sweeten to taste

 

[tom_gamer]

I know its not spoiled. I used white labs sweet mead yeast. 3 lbs of "local" honey per gallon. Added oranges and raisens.

Part of this batch I back sweetened in the bottle, I couldn't drink it.

About 1 gallon got a raspberries, Freaking amazing, very sour though and dry. I blamed the fact that it laid on the raspberries for too long (like two month)

And now I sampled the untouched mead.

I am thinking its the yeast because the cider I made with the same yeast (used the yeast cake) had the same "bad honey" taste.

What is a "bad honey" taste? Well it tastes like unsweet honey that almost makes you gag. I have had several commercial meads and non even had a hint of this flavor. I have made meads with different yeast and they didn't have this taste.

I am not worried that light or oxygen got to it and added these flavors. I use the same sanitation practices I use with my beer and never had an issue. I also brewed beer around the same time and they liked the fermentation temps.

So any ideas? Is that maybe I just don't like this yeast? Has anybody used it?

 

[DisturbdChemist]

I used that yeast for the first mead i had. It took forever to ferment out (like 2 months) but i didnt get any off flavors with that yeast though i had orange and cinnamon and other spices in it and it came out awesome. I used one vile for basically 1 gal so a little over kill. That batch made me wanting to make more mead because it was the first mead i have tried. The latest batch I used EC-1118 and that yeast was a beast. It was clear and done with in a few weeks with an over flow sadly but it left it dry and very strong (og 1.142 fg .998) but i back sweetened it to it wont be too dry and another winner lol. I say try with that yeast (at <$1 you cant go wrong) and im sticking with that yeast for my mead form here on out.

I say it's probably he yeast to get those off flavors. I dont see what else might of given those off flavors.

 

[Alphazombieelite]

I really hate to burst everyone's bubble buuuut, although highly unlikely raw honey CAN spoil, IF, the moisture content is not right in the container

Source: my grandfather is a beekeeper, and a few of the jars he first bottled spoiled due to too much moisture, tasted terrible.