Swamp Water Mead

[Whattawort]

Back in December my neighbor brought me 9lbs of honey that came from the AL gulf coast (Mobile area). I have never seen honey this dark and create crystals so quickly. I swear it looked like a porter or stout LME. She asked me to make a batch of mead for her late summer party with it. So I did. As with any new local honey I get, I tasted it and it tasted exactly like the aforementioned LME. Not good at all. I asked her if she knew what the bees were collecting from and all she could tell me was "wildflower". I predicted that it was goldenrod and said she's not going to like the result. Here we are after 4+ months and the only thing this mead has going for it is the color. I gave her a taste and reminded her that it's not close to its finished state, but that it probably won't get a lot better. Naturally, she doesn't want it and now I'm stuck with a case of what I have lovingly named Swamp Water. Can anyone think of a way to salvage this stuff? Any suggestions on a way to blend it with something in the glass to make it palatable. It's the perfect dryness, but it has a hosewater aftertaste and not much of any flavor before that other than a hint of cinnamon and clove.

 

[fatbloke]

Ferment it dry, back sweeten it to "medium" (somewhere between 1.005 and 1.015), clear it, then just jug it up and put away under the stairs or wherever and forget about it for a few years.......

 

[Whattawort]

They're already bottled and in storage. I'd hate to uncap them all potentially introduce something worse than it already is. Can you think of something I can blend it with (in the glass) that might make it more palatable? Might try some cherry or blackberry juice. This stuff was only honey in the academic sense to start with.

 

[IJesusChrist]

hmmmmm. Well, yeah you can always just make a mixer out of it. That would be up to you and easy enough to experiment with. Perhaps a summer tea or lemonade or something?

Otherwise if you really wanted to save it I Would get a good quality honey and backsweeten to +.01 higher than it is, so that honey will dominate the flavor.

Likely the honey you got was old and contaminated, not taken care of before hand.

 

[WVMJ]

Put it in the bottom of a closet for a couple of years, some of the darker honeys take a while to mellow out, they have a lot more flavor than clover, it could turn out to be one of the best meads you made if you give it time, people even like buchwheat mead WVMJ

 

[T Murph]

I agree with above suggestions to let it age. This time last year I made 3 batches with Gall Berry Honey. Gall Berry is a common wild Berry that grows along the Coast of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. That honey was terrible when tasted raw. Dart in color with an astringent finish. It was literally unpalatable. So I made 3 different melomels with it by adding black berries, raspberries and one with mixed berries. At 5 months I killed off any remaining yeast and back sweetened them with orange blossom honey. Each month they got better. They are now a full year old and have completely transformed into very good sparkling semi dry melomels. I don't bottle so all three are in corny kegs aging further. I keep them chilled and serve from the kegs as the continue to bulk age.
You said you made the mead in December. It is no where near finished. What is the volume made? And what were your gravity readings?

 

[Ty520]

What's your final gravity?

from your description of it, sounds more like Avocado blossom (or, god forbid, buckwheat) - goldenrod honey produces lighter amber honey.

If all she could tell you was that it's wildflower, then who really knows where or how she got it.

But, if worse comes to worst and you don't notice an improvement by 6 months...


Given the profile of the honey/mead...and If you absolutely refuse to uncork and fine tune again, a few mixers i think would work well with it:
-kirsch
-luxardo
-amaretto
-maple syrup
-creme de mure
-creme de cassis

now I've got cocktail ideas fluttering around in my mind...


But If you do opt to uncork and fine tune-in bulk, i would suggest one or a combo of the following:

-sweeten it
-barrel age it/sit it on wood
- blend it with a cherry melomel or sit it on cherries (or another dark berry)
-sit it on vanilla

 

[madscientist451]

I agree with above suggestions to let it age.

I'm wondering if they have any left after 7+years and how it came out......

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Once again, another necro thread has arisen from the dead.