Mead tastes nasty, how can I salvage it?

[PsychoBrahe]

So I've recently gotten into brewing with minimal supplies, knowledge, or experience. I'm basically fumbling around with yeast and random stuff and seeing how far I can go.

Right now, I just finished a "mead", which equates to "I took some honey, some water, and some bread yeast and put them in a milk jug, then left them alone for a month".

Right now, me and my friend tried it 1 month after adding the yeast. It's nice on the first sip, bad on the second, and downright rancid on the third. It's just really, really strong -- it has this awful sickly sweet flavor to it.

I'm not sure if I should try to salvage the thing or not. Will it get better with age? Is there some spice or something like cinnamon or nutmeg I can try adding? Should I keep it in the same milk jug as the yeast or move it to some other container? Or should I accept that my first attempt at mead is a failure and move on?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi PsychoBrahe, Welcome. Not enough information. How much honey? What kind? How much water? By milk jug do you mean a bottle to which you have added an airlock to prevent the mead oxidizing but allow the carbon dioxide that the yeast produces to escape?
Bread yeast has very limited tolerance for alcohol - that's why it is used to make bread - rather than used in beer, cider, mead and wine making except under very limited situations (as a "trick" in making one specific kind of mead (JAOM) , or by those incarcerated or living in societies where alcohol consumption is banned). For less than two bucks you can buy excellent wine yeast that is good to make 6 gallons of wine.

 

[Arpolis]

It's just really, really strong -- it has this awful sickly sweet flavor to it.

I'm not sure if I should try to salvage the thing or not. Will it get better with age? Is there some spice or something like cinnamon or nutmeg I can try adding? Should I keep it in the same milk jug as the yeast or move it to some other container? Or should I accept that my first attempt at mead is a failure and move on?

All mead is worth saving! But not all mead will be a fine wine. I have a few meads that literally made me puke but after 2+ years of aging they are drinkable.

If it is sickly sweet then I imagine you added too much honey, no nutrients to help the yeast and they ended up stalling out. Overly stressed yeast can cause some funky flavors.

I suggest getting some yeast nutrients/energizer, a packet of lalvin K1v-1116 and a glass gallon jug with a bung and airlock. Oh and a siphon if you do not have it. Take about a cup of water and place that in your new carboy and add another cup of your mead into it. Add a pinch of yeast nutrient and shake te heck out of it and then sprinkle your new yeast on top. Let that sit for a few hours for the yeast to wake up then siphon "rack" the mead into the gallon jug, add your yeast nutrients and let her go. Check it again in another month or two.


During that time read up all over this sight and see what you can do differently. Bottle this batch in small bottles and in 6 months to a year start comparing this batch to other ones where you made changes. Would be a great learning experience.

 

[Cyclman]

Give it time, mead needs lots of patience.

 

[PsychoBrahe]

Wow, thanks everyone! I'm currently on a really tight budget so I can't necessarily afford *everything* I need for a perfect mead, but I'll try to take some of this to heart.

Basically, this is one step up from a prison brew :cross: . By milk jug, I mean a literal gallon water jug I emptied out and filled. By honey I mean some amount I didn't actually measure, and the cheapest kind I could find at Safeway. And by bread yeast I mean whatever bread yeast I bought at the supermarket.

I do actually have Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast from my previous exploits with doing wine in a similar, fashion -- that was actually my first attempt, and I was pretty proud with coming up with something that actually tasted like wine.

I think I'll leave this specific brew alone to age like some people have said.

However, for my next brew I'll definitely do a lot more research and try to get an actual airlock rather than a balloon with a hole in it, an actual carboy rather than a plastic 1$ jug, and use a full recipe rather than follow a sketchy blog post on making mead in the middle east.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Pick up a copy of this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381802/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
You MIGHT find it at the public library too. It will explain a lot & answer questions you haven't even thought to ask yet. It'll also give you some good, solid recipes.

Here's another resource: http://www.gotmead.com/
And remember, mead takes time. Don't think of mead in weeks or months; think of it in years.
Regards, GF.