Unique "shaken baby" mead issue

[Lam]

Hi all,

I have a unique mead issue and haven't had much luck finding answers.

So my first ever gallon of pear mead fermented nicely to 17% and had been racked once with potassium sorbate added to stabilize. Because there was still a lot of sediment, I decided to rack again last night into a 3 liter jug. I tested for taste and added about 6 oz honey and a tbsp of vanilla extract. My well meaning but somewhat drunk boyfriend decided to shake it violently to mix the honey He removed the rubber stopper to degas, shook it again, removed the stopper a second time, and shook less hard the third time, at which point he put it in the refrigerator.

After 2 hours of fretting, I took it back out and hid it in my liquor cabinet (ambient temp is generally 70° ish).

Since I'm new to mead making and he's been doing it for years, I didn't question his methodology at the time but I'm very worried.

1) Could that much oxygenation damage a mead that's already done fermenting? I will keep an eye out for bubbles in case it starts to ferment again but I'm worried about foul tastes.
2) Did cooling it drastically for a few hours cause any reactions I should worry about?
3) We were discussing carbonation prior to the shaken baby incident, should I leave the stopper in place and let it age or switch back to an airlock?
4) Is a campden tablet necessary now?

Please don't be too harsh with the judgement, he meant well. Any answers are very much appreciated!

 

[JohnSand]

Welcome aboard!
I haven't made mead, nor shaken any of my beers intentionally. I do think that chilling for a while didn't hurt it. It may not have absorbed much oxygen if it was venting CO2. In any case, there's not much you can do now. Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[Barzahl]

1) Could that much oxygenation damage a mead that's already done fermenting? I will keep an eye out for bubbles in case it starts to ferment again but I'm worried about foul tastes.

Mead is quite resistant to oxidation and that was very little exposure so you should be fine if it was oxidized you'll pick up a wet cardboard taste

2) Did cooling it drastically for a few hours cause any reactions I should worry about?

No

3) We were discussing carbonation prior to the shaken baby incident, should I leave the stopper in place and let it age or switch back to an airlock?

Either is fine but if it seems like it's carbonated you might want to switch to an airlock so the stopper doesn't get pushed out

4) Is a campden tablet necessary now?

No, of I understand correctly it will help if added before oxygen exposure but after exposure the damage is done

Also you would have got answers much quicker if you had posted this in the mead forum instead of the mead recipes forum and happy brewing

 

[Miraculix]

I think you have damaged the mead. If it will be still nice afterwards time will tell but it certainly would have been better without the shaking. In my experience, oxidised mead does not taste like wet cardboard, only beer shows this flavour when oxidised. Oxidised mead is a weird and unpleasant flavour, hard to describe.

 

[madscientist451]

I’m not saying shaking it was the best thing, but I’m skeptical there’s going to be anything wrong with it either. How were you planning on getting the honey blended with the mead? It likely would have gone to the bottom of the jug and sat there. Perhaps next time add a 50-50 water and honey mixture. Heat the water to boiling to sanitize, then let it cool to about 100 degrees F and mix in the honey. Then it should be easier to incorporate that into your mead. Your mead will lose some ABV, but not too much.
Here’s more discussion on the subject:
https://gotmead.com/community/threads/how-to-back-sweeten-my-mead.25522/

 

[MightyMosin]

So my first ever gallon of pear mead fermented nicely to 17% and had been racked once with potassium sorbate added to stabilize.

Did you use and Potassium Metabisulfite?

Generally, you shouldn't use the K-Sorbate alone as there can be some bacteria that will use it as a food source and leave a nasty flavor.

The K-Meta is there to prevent that potential issue.