Taste issue?

[Twofox]

Hi all!

Been awhile since I've posted here, so I suppose I'm due.

The mead this thread is about has been aging for 8 months since I killed fermentation. Here's a recap.

8.25 lbs honey
3.5 lbs strawberries in primary.

Not knowing enough I racked onto 9 lbs of strawberries and (OMG!!!) it started fermenting again. Ok, lesson learned there, so I let it ferment out (per Medsens's sage advice) then killed fermentation.

I let it age about 7 months and finally back sweetened, using 1 part honey to 2 parts mead. I let it age for another month.

So currently:

I used the gotmead calc and it turns out it's all of 17% abv (wahoo!)

After aging 8 months and backsweetening... I'ts pretty darned smooth! Can taste the strawberries, and whatnot.

Only one issue. It still smells rubbery! Funny thing is tho, after it airs for a bit, that rubbery smell goes away and you can smell strawberry. What is that all about?

So that's my main question, should that rubbery smell go away with more aging you think? I'm also considering adding some juiced frozen strawberries to back flavor it a bit more. Thoughts?

 

[Chevette Girl]

It might age out, or it might just be a wine that needs to be aired a little before you drink it... I've got one batch that smells like rubber stopper and I don't think it's aged out yet, and another batch that smells like diesel and it takes some work with a vacuum pump, but once it's aired out it's awesome... I hope others can be more helpful, I'll certainly be interested in their responses too!

 

[Medsen Fey]

Sometimes a wine or mead does well to be decanted prior to serving.

You can try the copper penny test on a glass to see if that rubbery smell is a sulfur odor in which case you may be able to remove it prior to bottling.

 

[Twofox]

Thanks for the replies.

Is there a method to "air it out" such as leaving it open for awhile? Maybe rack to another carboy and do the same thing? Not talking about areating tho.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Racking it back and forth a couple times could do it, what I ended up doing with my stinky pumpkin mead after racking it and letting it splash around a bit and THEN leaving the airlock off for a day or two was agitation in the carboy without too much splashing, and not putting the airlock back on till it didn't stink after stirring... then do it again after the stink has returned, did it once or twice a day for a week or two... and with that batch, the stink has diminished significantly.

With my bottled diesel-scented red currant wine, I remove a few ounces from the bottle, shake the hell out of it, and pump all the air out with a vacuum-stopper system, then let the air back in, shake it, pump it out, repeat 3 times about 5 times a day for a couple days until it no longer smells like diesel... I think this way does limit the oxygen exposure because you pump the right air back out of it along with some of the stink, I left the vacuum cork on a bottle I de-stinkified six months ago and drank it last week and if it had oxidized at all even after some quite vigorous shaking while de-stinking it, I couldn't taste it. I kind of wish I could get an attachment so I could use the vacuum stoppers in a carboy.

 

[Medsen Fey]

Sometimes just decanting 0.5-1 hour prior to serving will allow some odors to clear.

 

[Oldonehundredth]

In my experience, rubbery smells -- while alarming to detect in my young mead at first --, have always aged out quite nicely, and I guess yours will too. Thing is, with your recipe, it will probably take a lot more time than with some other recipes, given the high gravity (17%) you have taken this one up to. I say, try the copper or whatever, but mainly what it needs is time --another year at least, before bottling. Then lay it up for a year after that before tasting it again.

 

[THawk]

I'm not sure if this would mean anything but you did mention that you used vanilla extract in the original recipe. Will from the stormthecastle site mentioned doing something similar and ended up pouring his must down the sink. Apparently commercial extract has preservatives in it (even if unlisted) that may play havoc with the ferment.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/mead-recipes.htm

His recipe is about more than halfway down...