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Blew the corks - Mead ruined?

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Danny C

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 20, 2013
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Hello everyone. I am new to mead (and this forum) but have been doing wine for a little while now. I made a blueberry mead 9 months ago and was told it was best to let it age for at least a year. I added Camden tablets after fermentation but then added some more honey to taste before bottling. I put the bottles in the basement and did my best to forget about them. I just went to check them and every single bottle blew its cork. doesn't look like any mead foamed out or anything but they are all just sitting there without corks.

I have not done the obvious taste test yet, but I am worried the whole batch is ruined. Any advice on a way to salvage anything or do I need to Dump and start over. I made this batch for my wedding and was planning on popping a bottle every year for out anniversary so it is extra disappointing.

Thanks for your help,
-Dan
 
Welcome to Got Mead!

Well, I hate to say it but you're probably looking at a total loss. Retrieve one of your bottles and take a good smell of the contents. Also give it a good look over. If it looks reasonably clear and doesn't smell off, then you might consider giving it a taste. If there is a sherry-like taste or wet cardboard taste, then your mead is damaged goods. In all likelihood, the whole batch has gone off.

If you want to make lemonade from the lemons, then you could try your hand at using letting this go to vinegar. Otherwise, dump it. There is no way that I know of to restore the mead.

Oh, and be sure to thoroughly clean and sanitize your bottles before reusing. You don't want any possible spoilage microbes to carry over to your next batch.

I am curious about your process, starting with the recipe all the way to bottling. If you describe it in detail, I or another might be able to identify nature of the problem and how it might be avoided in the future. If I were to guess, the fermentation process still ongoing when you bottled.
 
It might be fine, depends a bit on how long the bottles have been open. If you do have a sherry flavor instead of the dreaded wet cardboard, you can always call it a sherry mead and go from there.

In the future, you should add both sulfite (campden) and sorbate to stabilize the mead prior to sweetening.
 
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