I have a batch of mead that finished fermentation about 2 months ago starting at 28 brix down to 11.5. The problem is it is very hot and alcoholic tasting still. Is there a fix for this, say adding oak staves, or time and patience, or do I have to blend it with another batch?
hot / alcoholic mead fix
- Thread starter benjaminmeadery
- Start date
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Most of what I've seen on here indicates that time is the best healer for hot alcohol tastes, they need to mellow. Oaking it will also (usually) require ageing, (although there is research being done on that currently by one of the forum members.)
Time and patience is likely to the answer to your issue, but there are many far smarter people than on this forum.
Tony.
Add yeast hulls. They should soak up some of the off flavors. What is left will require age. You can cover it up with oak, but you will have nasty headaches if you drink it too young!
Hum? to understand your post, I had to do a brix to gravity conversion.
You're saying that 1.120 (or thereabouts) to 1.045 (roughly) is finished ?
With that sort of resulting gravity, it's only a 75 point drop (approximately), which translates to about the 10% ABV area.
And while yes, 1.045 or a bit less would be firmly in the "dessert" mead range, to my thinking, that's a stuck ferment for most wine yeasts and not finished.
Perhaps you made it as a "show mead" ? and didn't use any nutrients ? or did you use nutrients, so that it would then be a "traditional" mead ?
The alcohol hot flavour is the least of your worries. Of course, a full recipe/ingredient listing would help us point you in the right direction, because "alcohol hot" is sometimes just the way a batch comes out and it needs to be aged or maybe have something else done.
Equally, depending on how you made the batch and which yeast was used, it might be fusels. Which still reduce with ageing, though sometimes not. Further additives can help smooth or mask (some of) the flavour you're having issues with.
Or of course, if it's just a stuck ferment, then ideally that needs sorting out as it's entirely possible that the yeast can restart fermentation and unless you've sterile filtered to guarantee that all the yeast cells are removed, you have a recipe for potential bottle bombs.......
There's a local contest of sorts in a couple of weeks, going to blend this batch with another older one that was super sweet. This batch could use more fermentation but for now the yeast hulls are added, will rack with a .1 filter if needed and blend a couple days before to make a few bottles for the contest.
Recipe:
- Enough orange blossom honey and spring water to make 18 gallons of 28 brix at 70F in 26 gal stainless variable top fermenter.
- Pectic enzyme added 1 hour before yeast pitch.
- LalvinDV10 with go-ferm, 105F, waited 20 minutes for rehydration and pitched.
- Stir and oxygenate every day for 8 days.
- Fermiad K 13.5g added incrementally per SNA (no extra DAP).
- After 18 days brix stopped at 11 and fermentation ceased.
Recipe:
- Enough orange blossom honey and spring water to make 18 gallons of 28 brix at 70F in 26 gal stainless variable top fermenter.
- Pectic enzyme added 1 hour before yeast pitch.
- LalvinDV10 with go-ferm, 105F, waited 20 minutes for rehydration and pitched.
- Stir and oxygenate every day for 8 days.
- Fermiad K 13.5g added incrementally per SNA (no extra DAP).
- After 18 days brix stopped at 11 and fermentation ceased.
Hey Benjamin, you only need to worry about adding pectinase if you're using fruit in your must, honey doesn't have an appreciable amount of pectin iteself.
And be careful about this one, the yeast hulls could cause it to kick up again and please make sure whatever you put in a bottle for this contest has been stabilized or run through a filter that renders it sterile, otherwise you run the risk of bottle bombs if the older batch still has viable yeast that decide they're interested in all the sugars from the sweet batch...
And be careful about this one, the yeast hulls could cause it to kick up again and please make sure whatever you put in a bottle for this contest has been stabilized or run through a filter that renders it sterile, otherwise you run the risk of bottle bombs if the older batch still has viable yeast that decide they're interested in all the sugars from the sweet batch...
Re-fermentation would actually be helpful in this batch but i've got plenty potassium sorbate to throw into the contest bottles just in case =)
