I've made several (4) batches of honey mead in the past few years, and plenty of wine and beer, and never had a bad batch. This is the first one that's concerned me.
After so much delicious honey mead, I found frozen blueberries on sale, and made a 5 gal batch of Blueberry Melomel, as per the blueberry mead recipe I found here. 6kg honey, 3kg blueberries, plenty of nutrient, pectine, yeast energizer, and an orange.
A healthy starter of EC1118 pitched into the mashed blueberry and honey must. The recipe was very explicit about "stir everyday, the must needs lots of oxygen!" (this bothered me, as a wine maker, but having not used "fresh" fruit before, I followed the instructions)
Now, 2 weeks later, I rack it into the secondary, and it SMELLS like vinegar. It tastes tart, pungent even. I had been watching it the first few days, tasting, it was very sweet originally, and it was progressing very much like normal wine.
I've been reading about malic acid, and malolactic fermentation, but I'm not sure that this is the problem, or how to fix it.
I've racked into the secondary, airlocked, not sure whether it is salvageable? Has anyone experienced this before? Should I just wait and see, does it need to age for a few weeks / months? Should I add some malolactic bacteria? I'm at a loss at this point.
After so much delicious honey mead, I found frozen blueberries on sale, and made a 5 gal batch of Blueberry Melomel, as per the blueberry mead recipe I found here. 6kg honey, 3kg blueberries, plenty of nutrient, pectine, yeast energizer, and an orange.
A healthy starter of EC1118 pitched into the mashed blueberry and honey must. The recipe was very explicit about "stir everyday, the must needs lots of oxygen!" (this bothered me, as a wine maker, but having not used "fresh" fruit before, I followed the instructions)
Now, 2 weeks later, I rack it into the secondary, and it SMELLS like vinegar. It tastes tart, pungent even. I had been watching it the first few days, tasting, it was very sweet originally, and it was progressing very much like normal wine.
I've been reading about malic acid, and malolactic fermentation, but I'm not sure that this is the problem, or how to fix it.
I've racked into the secondary, airlocked, not sure whether it is salvageable? Has anyone experienced this before? Should I just wait and see, does it need to age for a few weeks / months? Should I add some malolactic bacteria? I'm at a loss at this point.