My mead smells sour

[Alina]

This is day 20 in primary fermentation of my first Mead.
About a week ago I added some fruit for nutrition and now my Mead smells musty and sour.
Would that smell go away by ageing?

 

[Yooper]

No, not musty and sour. That sounds like a problem, but I'd be guessing at the cause.

 

[Alina]

No, not musty and sour. That sounds like a problem, but I'd be guessing at the cause.

Thank you for answering.
Do you know what can I do?

 

[dwhite60]

What kind of fruit did you add? How much to how much mead?

Time is the mead maker's best friend.

I have an apricot melomel I put together December 6, 2019. It has been cleared, degassed, and stabilized but, it's still in bulk storage. Guess you could call it tertiary. When this went into secondary it smelled of moth balls (no smartass comments required). I'll let this sit at least six months before bottling then it will probably sit another six months. My point being, twenty days is nothing. Don't even begin to worry. Probably enough alcohol there to prevent anything growing anyway.

GOOD mead is not something you hurry.

 

[Alina]

What kind of fruit did you add? How much to how much mead?

Time is the mead maker's best friend.

I have an apricot melomel I put together December 6, 2019. It has been cleared, degassed, and stabilized but, it's still in bulk storage. Guess you could call it tertiary. When this went into secondary it smelled of moth balls (no smartass comments required). I'll let this sit at least six months before bottling then it will probably sit another six months. My point being, twenty days is nothing. Don't even begin to worry. Probably enough alcohol there to prevent anything growing anyway.

GOOD mead is not something you hurry.

Well that's a relief thank you.
I added 5 Apricot to 1 liter of Mead and I'm looking forward to see how it turns out.

 

[PantherEnjoyer]

A couple of questions.

You say you added fruit for nutrients at day 20. Did you add nutrients before this? DAP (Diamonium phosphate) or fermaid? Even some boiled bakers yeast.

Also is it a 1 litre batch? That's pretty tiny. What size and type of fermenter are you using? How was your sanitation?

Was the fruit fresh or dried? Did you pasturize them using campden or Potassium Metabisulphate?

Musty and sour can be a variety of things but usually either oxidation (exposing to air post fermentation) or bacterial infection. It could also be from stressed yeast. What strain did you use and how much?

 

[Alina]

A couple of questions.

You say you added fruit for nutrients at day 20. Did you add nutrients before this? DAP (Diamonium phosphate) or fermaid? Even some boiled bakers yeast.

Also is it a 1 litre batch? That's pretty tiny. What size and type of fermenter are you using? How was your sanitation?

Was the fruit fresh or dried? Did you pasturize them using campden or Potassium Metabisulphate?

Musty and sour can be a variety of things but usually either oxidation (exposing to air post fermentation) or bacterial infection. It could also be from stressed yeast. What strain did you use and how much?

Thanks for answering
I added fruits at day 12.

Home brewing isn't really legal in my country so I had to use water bottle as fermenter, balloon airlock and baker's yeast. I don't have access to DAP or other nutrients or energizer.

I used fresh fruit and I sanitized it with normal products for fruit sanitizing I don't know what they're made of.

I used about 2 grams of baker's yeast.

This is a small batch for experiencing and learn from my mistakes for next batch.

 

[PantherEnjoyer]

I'm not sure what the rules are related to legality but I take it by not really you mean it's frowned upon but not outright illegal. In which case happy to advise.

Sanitation is your main key. If you can't get access to acid based sanitiser like starting then you can use a bleach and water solution to sanitise, followed by a good rinse.

However if you use say a fresh opened bottle, it will be pretty sterile.

My suggestion would be to make Cyser which is apple juice and honey. Buy a bottle of preservative free apple juice. The cheap stuff made from concentrate will be more then fine.

Pour out some, and add honey. Drink the apple juice you poured out. You deserve a treat!

I would boil some bakers yeast in a little bit of the juice. Like 1/4 teaspoon or less for a 1L batch. Often though you can find 2L or more juices and its actually easier to do slightly larger than smaller.

So, you have juice (or water) in a fresh bottle that came from the shops. You added honey and your boiled yeast. (They will provide nutrients to the live yeast you add)

Put the lid on and shake like crazy to oxygenate. Pitch your non boiled yeast and let it go.

If you can't get an airlock, a balloon will work in a pinch otherwise drill a hole in the cap, and insert a blow off tube. Which is a piece of tube that runs to a jug of bleach water. Make sure the end is submerged. It will need to be a TIGHT fit into the hole. Perhaps try and fine a rubber or silicone bung you can use.