Waste of time ? Waste of money ?

[bergen]

Hi

I really need your experience to know if my first gallon of mead is ruined...
I was supposed to bottling my mead this weekend... but the taste is... not ok.

During the first fermentation I think I did a mistake. After 3 days the airlock had no activity, so I used another bag of yeast, and no result... So I tried another lid. The new one was sealed with rubber, not the first one... I found the reason of "no activity".

So I waited until the first fermentation, and I did the other one. One month later, tonight, I tasted and I don't taste the honey, the alcool is super high and the taste has a really strong yeast taste and its super dry.

So what I have to do ? Begin again and forget this one or can do something to save it ?

 

[HB_in_Subic]

You won't know if it is done until you take a gravity reading. Without details on your recipe and temperatures, I would guess that the yeast have ran their course (super dry) and you have some alcohol byproducts (taste super high). Is it clear? Or cloudy (hence the yeast taste)?

I would rack it off of the lees (yeast cake) into another container with minimal head space and do one of the following depending on your preference;

In the secondary container, you could step feed some more honey (4oz at a time) and wait to see if the yeast will stop (taking gravity readings) having reached their alcohol tolerance level. This will result in a higher ABV Mead but you can sweeten the Mead to your desired level without chemical additions.

The other route is to add some Potassium Sorbate and Potassium Meta-Bisulphite https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=122765 wait until the mead has cleared (can read a newspaper thru the glass) and then add honey to desired taste/sweetness and bottle.

 

[IslandLizard]

You really want to control your fermentation temps and keep them low. The higher they get, the more byproducts the yeast creates, such as fusel alcohols which give it a harsh taste, and possibly headaches later if you drink enough.

I've had a delicious high alcohol mead where a few sticks of cinnamon were added and allowed to extract for a few weeks. Not saying that mead was flawed, it wasn't, it was perfect, but cinnamon, or spice in general, can certainly help to mask some off flavors if need be.

 

[madscientist451]

What kind of honey did you use? Which yeast and any yeast nutrient? My first few attempts at mead produced a drink I really didn't like. Too much of a sharp alcohol taste for me. I'm going to try a "craft mead" with a beer strength ABV about 7%. Check out this podcast from Basic Brewing radio featuring Groennfell meadery for information:

http://ec.libsyn.com/p/3/9/2/392aa1...ce3dae902ea1d06cf8f34d4ca5ea45a&c_id=12694426

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi bergen - and welcome.
I guess my question is what was your recipe and what exactly was your process? You may have unintentionally designed a mead that would ferment bone dry, and without any sweetness you may not recognize the flavor of the honey as when honey is full of sugar what you may be tasting is not so much the flavor of the honey as the taste of its sweetness. You also may be one of the millions of folk who don't like dry mead (or dry wine)... but if that was what your recipe created it is not necessarily bad. It is simply a recipe that perhaps is not one that you would make a second time.
You may also have fermented the wine at too high a temperature. That will bring out flavors that may take months and months to improve. You may also have chosen to make a mead with too high an alcohol content for the lack of sweetness. But that said....
One possible solution is to back sweeten the mead. To do that you will need to add K-meta and K-sorbate and then you can add whatever sweetener you prefer. The two chemicals will have the effect of preventing any remaining yeast from fermenting the sweetener. This will have the effect perhaps of bringing the flavor of the honey more to the front and also of reducing the impact of a possible too high level of alcohol (again - that depends on the recipe you used).

 

[On-target]

You probably just need to rack it off the yeast cake and let it age for a few months and taste then. Time can do great things to mead. An addtion of oak (tanins), can also help smooth things too. Good luck

 

[bergen]

I used wildflower honey from Good Flow. I used 1 gallon of water for 4 lb of honey, some raisins and a bag of black tea. Used also yeast nutrients during the first fermentation. First fermentation was 3 weeks at the end, the mixture had no activity, I mean no bubbles into the airlock. After that I waited 1 month.

I think I will rack, add some honey and see if the yeast is still active. Or I will do another one... with your advices. I really appreciate your help. About the temperature my house was 77/78 all the time.

 

[bernardsmith]

Four pounds of honey to make a gallon will give you a starting gravity (by calculation not measurement - your REALLY want to buy an hydrometer. They cost about $12 and are indispensable) of about 1.140. That is a potential ABV of about 18%. A tad high for a wine or mead, IMO. We don't know what yeast you used but I am guessing 18% ABV is a little beyond the tolerance of most yeasts. So I would guess that the mead will taste hot (because of the level of alcohol) and sweet (because the yeast may have given up the ghost in the presence of so much alcohol).
If the mead tastes "hot" then it will take many months for it to become more drinkable. Heat in a mead or wine is not considered desirable.
Activity in the airlock provides you with no useful information beyond the pleasant music the CO2 bubbling through a liquid might provide. Measurement of the changing gravity with your hydrometer provides you with almost all the key information that a maker of mead needs. what I would do is get hold of an hydrometer and measure the gravity and see if it continues to drop. If it is "high" and is stable and the mead tastes slightly sweet you might experiment with the addition of more honey (or sugar) to increase the sweetness to balance the level of alcohol with sweetness (much like a liqueur). This added sweetness may neutralize the hot sensation that a high ABV wine can create. If the gravity is not stable (but still dropping - no matter how slowly, do not add any sugars. The yeast is still alive and working its way through residual sugars.