Vinegar Mead...YUK

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scott.foster

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 25, 2017
3
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My first batch of Mead was successful, this batch not so much. If you have any ideas on what to do with this I would appreciate it.

Recipe:

5lbs Clover
Lalvin D47
Fist full of Lemon Balm from the garden
Fist full of Mint from the garden
Yeast Nutrient as directed.
Initial Hydro 1.040

Fermentation started out nicely.

About ten days in I threw a couple of apples in, a banana and about eight strawberries.

For two days the yeast was kicking and then dead still.

I threw a second package of D47 in and more Yeast Nutrient.

It bubbled a bit but not much.


On day 25 I moved the mead to secondary in a carbouy and removed all of the fruit and herbs.

Hydro Reading 1.0

When I moved the stuff is tasted kind of like lemon windex and a bit vinegary. I can't tell if the vinegary tast is the lemon balm, the apples fermenting a bit or if it's gone south.

So I'm sitting here with four gallons of mead that is doing virtually nothing in the carbouy.

Should I throw another 5lbs of honey in there and pitch yeast or call it a day and make a new batch. Any suggestions appreciated...
 
This is my second Mead and it fermented quite different than the first Mead I made. The first one was blowing out of the bucket. I just read on storm the castle that if you do a dry mead with low alcohol you may get vinegar. I didn't know this before I made it. From the taste it may be just North of vinegar.

If you are thinking it's around 5% alcohol and tastes like mule pee then you would be correct.:o

So it's racked and tastes pretty bad any suggestions on improving the flavor. Maybe I'll just let it ride and see what comes out after bottlling.
 
So STC doesn't know much about vinegar. It happens when you get acetobacter in your mead. Nothing more or less. It can happen in a few different ways. Time to read up. It might not be that at all. It might be your recipe. Tell us how you pitched/rehydrated your yeast, and, your sanitizing protocol.