Why do my meads always come out wrong?

[8gallonalchemy]

I thought mead was supposed to be the easy one. Water, honey, yeast, let it rot for a couple of months and bottle it. But for some reason my beers always come out fine while my meads are always these weird sour things with nothing to them but an % alcohol content. What am I doing wrong here?

 

[Lampy]

I understand! My first fermentations were meads and my failures pushed me into ciders, then beer. I have gathered that I failed because 1) I didn't let it age properly, 2) I didn't provide proper yeast nutrients, 3) I shot for high ABVs without any experience.
Fortunately this is a good place to learn! I decided to make mead again and did it with nutrients, mid alcohol, longer aging. Still haven't tried it yet though...

 

[8gallonalchemy]

I understand! My first fermentations were meads and my failures pushed me into ciders, then beer. I have gathered that I failed because 1) I didn't let it age properly, 2) I didn't provide proper yeast nutrients, 3) I shot for high ABVs without any experience.
Fortunately this is a good place to learn! I decided to make mead again and did it with nutrients, mid alcohol, longer aging. Still haven't tried it yet though...

By "longer aging" do you mean leaving it in the bottle or do you mean fermenting it longer?

 

[Lampy]

Once it finishes fermenting you can transfer it to a secondary vessel to let any residual sediments settle. It can either age in the secondary vessel or in bottles. I opted for bottles.

 

[Bobby_M]

Making mead is easy. Making good mead in a year is a little harder. Making good mead that is ready sooner than later, is pretty challenging.

Good yeast pitch, nutrient feeding, colder fermentation temps and getting the honey/water ratio and yeast strain worked out to leave a sweetness you want... All things that can go wrong, or less than perfect.

 

[fluketamer]

what bobby said is very true. temp control nutrients. ill add, a good honey definatley makes a difference. dont use cheap honey. and try turbo ciders , they are much easier to make palatable / enjoyable in less than a year.

.

 

[amber-ale]

I thought mead was supposed to be the easy one. Water, honey, yeast, let it rot for a couple of months and bottle it. But for some reason my beers always come out fine while my meads are always these weird sour things with nothing to them but an % alcohol content. What am I doing wrong here?

So what ARE you doing
Exactly

 

[MightyMosin]

I have gathered that I failed because 1) I didn't let it age properly, 2) I didn't provide proper yeast nutrients, 3) I shot for high ABVs without any experience.

There is a lot of truth right here.

What has your process been? People here might be able to help you troubleshoot if we know what you are doing.

 

[8gallonalchemy]

There is a lot of truth right here.

What has your process been? People here might be able to help you troubleshoot if we know what you are doing.

Generally, I cold mix a gallon of honey, 5-6 gallons of water, and whatever else I want to put in. Pitch 2 packets of yeast and wait.

 

[MightyMosin]

Your honey amounts seem good and will get you in the ~10% range.

The two easiest things you can do to improve your mead it to hydrate your yeast first outside of your must. Ideally you use some kind of yeast energizer like one of the various Go-Ferm products. I prefer the Go-Ferm Sterol Flash product for its ease of use. This will help your yeast start out health and ready to tackle the fermentation.

The next would be to add some yeast nutrients such as Fermaid-O or Fermaid-K. These could all be thrown in with the must at the beginning, but at your targeted ABV it may be better to stagger them in over a few days. There are a few different nutrient calculators that you can find online but the TOSNA one works well for most at determining how much you need.
https://www.meadmaderight.com/tosna-calculator

As far as mixing the honey and water. I would use a stirrer attached to a drill to really mix it well and get oxygen in there as the yeast need it when they are first creating the colony. A second heavy stirring to get oxygen in there again in another 12 hours will help it along as well.

The last thing is to try and keep your fermentation temperatures in the lower range of their tolerance. That's going to be different based on which yeast you choose to use. I've frozen water bottles, sanitized them and added to the fermenter if the temperature is getting above what I want. It's not proper temperature control, but it helps.

There are a myriad of other things that can be done, but those basics will vastly improve your results.

 

[Kickass]

and whatever else I want to put in

What are the “whatever else” ingredients? One of the things a frequently see from novice mead makers is an abundance of unnecessary or odds ingredients. Honey, yeast, nutrients and time have been the best ingredients for me.