Sour / Vinegar Blueberry Mead?

[robostill]

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.

 

[Inner10]

You probably caught a vinegar bacteria.

Bad news is unless you catch it early you can sulfite and repitch yeast...but its probably too late.

Good news is vinegar is quite delicious and this will make a massive amount of it...hope you like salad dressing!

 

[robostill]

Definitely disappointing. It was tasting so good up until now!

I still have some blind hope that perhaps the sour flavor is just bitter flavors from sitting on the fruit too long.

Racked into the secondary yesterday, today already the gross lees have started settling out. I think I'll rack it again in a few days, and see if it ages well. SG is down to 1.000, rather dry (although there wasn't a ton of honey to begin with)

I'd like to try this recipe again, although I will ignore any BS instructions on open-fermenting and stirring everyday. I'm sure this was the problem. Air-locked carboys from now on.

 

[fatbloke]

If it's just a bit sour then don't dump it. As it could be fruit related or yeast or just dry as hell, its a bit hard to tell without a full recipe list and method.

You'd know if it's acetobacter as there's little chance of mistaking vinegar....

Hence the "don't dump it idea". It may mellow with ageing........

 

[robostill]

Thanks fatbloke. I won't dump it, too stingy for that, it will either age well and become drinkable (fingers crossed!) or it won't age well, and I'll try to get some mother of vinegar to make 5 gal of salad dressing.

After the next racking, I'll tuck it into a corner and forget about it for a month or so.

 

[Inner10]

Thanks fatbloke. I won't dump it, too stingy for that, it will either age well and become drinkable (fingers crossed!) or it won't age well, and I'll try to get some mother of vinegar to make 5 gal of salad dressing.

After the next racking, I'll tuck it into a corner and forget about it for a month or so.

If it's just starting to vinegar you may be able to sulfite it and repitch yeast. But if it tastes and smells like a jug of vinegar...you made vinegar.

 

[robostill]

What would re-pitching the yeast do?

It seems from the SG (~1.000) that it is mostly fermented out? I suppose I could add more honey, EC1118 does well up to 18% IIRC.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I had an apple cider mead that smelled like vinegar after a few weeks, but it just needed to mellow out a lot more. Id say let it sit and make a decision in another few months. If you made vinegar... Just cook with it or something.

 

[Inner10]

What would re-pitching the yeast do?

It seems from the SG (~1.000) that it is mostly fermented out? I suppose I could add more honey, EC1118 does well up to 18% IIRC.

If you're at that point nothing, if you detect a slight hint of vinegar sulfiting can halt the conversion...but you could very well be beyond that point.

 

[robostill]

Racked this off the lees yesterday, it's quite clear.

The nose isn't great, very subtle, but the taste is not so sour anymore. More bitter, almost tannic. I suspect this comes from the pith of the orange, as I did not add any tannins. Perhaps the sour taste I previously noted was the yeast still in suspension? It is *very* different now than the last time I tasted it.

Right now it reminds me of a very dry, young red wine. High astringency. Subtle flavors of blueberry, with the expected mead mouthfeel from the honey. I really hope, like a young wine, it will improve with time, right now it is "drinkable" but the puckering astringency is almost overpowering.

I was planning to continue bulk aging in the carboy, however there is significant headspace (~4gal in 5.5 gal carboy) so I'm afraid of too much oxidizing. I always airlock my carboys, but it is a question of whether to bulk age or bottle age.

More than likely I'll bottle in a few weeks, when I've had time to collect enough clear bottles and design an appropriate label. I prefer my wines dry, but perhaps backsweetening a few bottles with some honey would be nice? Or boil some blueberries to make a syrup, and use that?