My mead status...

[thorson138]

My batch that was started on 12-24-09 is still fermenting, it's down to a gravity of 1.010 and still going. It started at a gravity of 1.122 so it's come a long way pretty quickly.

When I took the gravity reading today I sampled it and it tasted pretty dry to me. It also had a flat almost sour taste to it. It has a little bite to it but more flat taste to it. It's around 15.5abv. I'm having trouble explaining the taste... I don't want to say it tastes like vinegar, but it has almost a vinegar like flatness to it???

Do I have a problem here? Anyone understand what I mean???

I went ahead and added cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the batch tonite. I guess we'll see where it goes.

If you all have any insight I would love to here it.

 

[jezter6]

At 2-3 weeks, any taste you have now is premature to diagnose unless it makes you gag or want to puke.

Vinegar taste should have a highly acidic taste, so "flat" isn't something I would imagine you would say in conjunction with vinegar.

In any case, until this thing hits a few months, I wouldn't try to diagnose much in the way of slightly odd tastes, as this thing is extremely young and hasn't had any chance for the flavors to meld and merge and become the great mead it will probably be in 6-12 months.

 

[thorson138]

Right on Jezter. Those were my thoughts as well. I just didn't recognize the taste from any previous batches I have made. I'll just put it up and let it go for a good while. I am not planning on bottling this batch until probably the fall of the year, so no hurry. Thanks for the reply! I always appreciate you input.

 

[thorson138]

Just another quick update on this batch... It has dropped in gravity down to 1.006 and has been there steady for a couple weeks. There is no airlock activity and no bubbles coming up to the surface. I think it's done with ferment at this point. As I mentioned, I did add spices to the batch. I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to the batch on 1-10 so it had been on the spice for 20 days before I racked off the spices yesterday. The spices come through very well. I can clearly taste the cinnamon and cloves. The nutmeg comes through fairly well too. It has quite a bite to it at this point. ABV is about 16.5%. I think with aging this one is going to be a good one. The spice amounts I used were 3 cinnamon sticks, 10 cloves, and 1tbs of nutmeg in an empty tea bag. I know that sounds like a ton of cloves but they're really not overpowering in the taste. They come through very well but don't cause any problems.

One question, since I added the spices what effect will this have on clearing? It is not dropping lees any more but it's not clear either. Also, if I add sparkalloid will it strip out some of the flavor from the spices? Thanks folks!