Edit: Please see my thrid post in this thread (seven overall) for a much more detailed account of my recipe and procedure.
Having received little to no help from my local homebrewing community, I decided I needed to seek out some expert advice. In 2006, I made my first batch of mead. Like many newbies, I used the basic recipe from "The Compleat Meadmaker" with only two changes: Instead of using 15 lbs. of orange blossom honey, I used 10 lbs. of orange blossom and 5 lbs. of basswood honey. I made the substitution because the honey seller at the local farmer's market (who said he was a meadmaker himself) only had 10 lbs. of orange blossom on hand and told me the basswood would be a good substitute. The other change was that I bottled the mead in smaller bottles with attached rubber stoppers instead of in wine bottles. My rough timeline would be as follows:
Mid-June 2006: Prepared the must and started fermentation.
Early July 2006 (ca. two weeks later): racked off to a glass carboy. I had quite a bit of additional fermentation afer I racked it over, like 3-4 weeks of weak fermentation.
October 2006: Bottled the mead.
After I had aged it a few months, I checked the the mead and it tasted pretty bad, almost as if it had been improperly distilled. I consulted with the owner of the local homebrew store, who told me not to worry. He said that mead really needed a year or so to mellow out and taste good. So I let it age. At one year, it still tasted bad, but a different kind of bad from before. It had a bit of what I'd call a mouthwash quality to it. Not the "rocket fuel" taste I've heard described for oxidized mead, but certainly not pleasant. It's aged almost two years now, and the mouthwash flavor hasn't gone away. It certainly doesn't taste like professional meads I've had, and the homebrew store owner is stumped. After trying to find the answer on my own, I keep coming back to oxidation, even though it doesn't really have the qualities of oxidation when it's described (the color looks good, and the flavor is not nearly as harsh as the flavor that oxidized mead is supposed to have). So I basically have two questions: 1) What went wrong? and 2) Can I fix it, or should I just dump it all and start again?
Thanks very much for your help!
Having received little to no help from my local homebrewing community, I decided I needed to seek out some expert advice. In 2006, I made my first batch of mead. Like many newbies, I used the basic recipe from "The Compleat Meadmaker" with only two changes: Instead of using 15 lbs. of orange blossom honey, I used 10 lbs. of orange blossom and 5 lbs. of basswood honey. I made the substitution because the honey seller at the local farmer's market (who said he was a meadmaker himself) only had 10 lbs. of orange blossom on hand and told me the basswood would be a good substitute. The other change was that I bottled the mead in smaller bottles with attached rubber stoppers instead of in wine bottles. My rough timeline would be as follows:
Mid-June 2006: Prepared the must and started fermentation.
Early July 2006 (ca. two weeks later): racked off to a glass carboy. I had quite a bit of additional fermentation afer I racked it over, like 3-4 weeks of weak fermentation.
October 2006: Bottled the mead.
After I had aged it a few months, I checked the the mead and it tasted pretty bad, almost as if it had been improperly distilled. I consulted with the owner of the local homebrew store, who told me not to worry. He said that mead really needed a year or so to mellow out and taste good. So I let it age. At one year, it still tasted bad, but a different kind of bad from before. It had a bit of what I'd call a mouthwash quality to it. Not the "rocket fuel" taste I've heard described for oxidized mead, but certainly not pleasant. It's aged almost two years now, and the mouthwash flavor hasn't gone away. It certainly doesn't taste like professional meads I've had, and the homebrew store owner is stumped. After trying to find the answer on my own, I keep coming back to oxidation, even though it doesn't really have the qualities of oxidation when it's described (the color looks good, and the flavor is not nearly as harsh as the flavor that oxidized mead is supposed to have). So I basically have two questions: 1) What went wrong? and 2) Can I fix it, or should I just dump it all and start again?
Thanks very much for your help!
