To much oak,

[MFSHEPARD]

Asking a question that I think I know the answer to.
I don’t have much experience with oak but wanted to try using it. First time I put 1/4 oz oak cubes in a gallon of bochet, at two weeks I could taste the oak, at three it was better but I thought it needed a little more, at four weeks i think it’s to much but not bad. I hope it ages out a little but worse case a little dilution will fix it.
Second try, I had a 6 gallons of traditional, this time I was going to be cautious, I soaked 1 1/2 oz of cubes (1 oz am medium + and 1/2 oz french med +), in 2 oz of vodka for 48 hour, I meant to do so for 24 hours but forgot about it. Added oak and vodka to the 6 gallons. Came back for a taste at 2 weeks and it is waaaaay to much oak, that’s all I can taste, Smokey wood. I think soaking in vodka for that long extracted a lot of flavor and I shouldn’t have soaked that long or added the vodka with the oak.
I diluted 1 oz of the oaked mead with 3 oz of another traditional un-oaked mead and tasted, there is still to much oak flavor for my taste but decreasing it to 15-20% might be getting close to good.
Will this age out significantly?
Or should I use it for marinade? A Smokey oak vinegar?
I would need at least an additional 24 gallons of mead to dilute this and I simply don’t drink/make that much and if I did, I like a variety, not all needing oak.
I think I made a irredeemable mistake but hope someone, or better still, everyone will tell me it will get better in a year or two

 

[Squatchy]

It most likely won't make it to where you want it to go. It softens a tiny bit over time. And some will drop out over time. I would forget adding this to Vodka unless you like the taste of the added ABV to your mead. You made the mistake of just adding the whole amount in without checking it along the way. Letting the cubes soak on their own will never move so fast that you end up adding this much too much. Unless you just don't taste it for months.

 

[MFSHEPARD]

Thanks, thought that was the case, just hoping I was wrong or that someone had a fix.

 

[MFSHEPARD]

What flavors would meld with or compliment a strong oak flavor? Most fruits seem to be out, any spices? Strong acid like citrus? Would high SG tame it a bit? Any suggestions on salvaging the batch.
what’s your favorite mead that needs a good strong oak flavor?

 

[MightyMosin]

You always have the option of making a new mead and blending the over oaked mead into it to get the mead to a level that you like.
I would do very small increments in a smaller scalable volume that you can multiply up to your full volume. I would shoot under your bench test values when doing your full volume and creep up to the flavor you like while taking time to renew you palate along the way.