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Please convince me to not add anything to my first batch of mead!
I'm just working on my first batch of mead, and I'm having a hard time not adding something to the batch. Here's my recipe:
- 1 gallon distilled water
- 3 lbs. orange blossom honey
- Lalvin ICV D-47 Yeast
- Nutrient, pectic enzyme
It fermented for about 1 month. Yesterday I re-racked it into another carboy for another month or so of aging. However, I did a quick taste-test and am unsure of how I feel. It basically tastes like honey, water, and alcohol. Each flavor comes across very individually, with little blending. It's really flat and boring. It's fairly sour as well (pH = 3.2) which gives it a bad aftertaste.
Was it pointless of me to try an intermediate tasting? I know meads require more patience than beer or cider. Will this flavor mellow and blend as the months go by? At this point, I'm tempted to put some cherries or berries in to give it a more robust flavor. Thanks!
PS: Any thoughts on adding some calcium carbonate to reduce the acidity? That's what the local home-brew clerk recommended.
Based on your recipe, you're around 10%+ ABV, pretty high. You should have a pretty hot alcohol taste now.
I've made a couple that require close to a year to mellow out.
If you add cherries or whatever, you'll still have that heat, just covered up with something else.
If you want something fast, that tastes pretty good, use fruit and, and stay with the lower ABV stuff.
I'd say you've got a decent recipe there, bottle it and forget about it until sometime late this winter.
If you want a champagne-like mead, prime it with about .8 oz corn sugar, or 1 oz honey.
Brewski wrote:
Based on your recipe, you're around 10%+ ABV, pretty high. You should have a pretty hot alcohol taste now.
I've made a couple that require close to a year to mellow out.
If you add cherries or whatever, you'll still have that heat, just covered up with something else.
If you want something fast, that tastes pretty good, use fruit and, and stay with the lower ABV stuff.
I'd say you've got a decent recipe there, bottle it and forget about it until sometime late this winter.
If you want a champagne-like mead, prime it with about .8 oz corn sugar, or 1 oz honey.
Thanks, Brewski! Two questions:
1) What's a good low ABV mead yeast? I use Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast for my ciders with pretty good results, but I wasn't sure if this was suitable for a mead. I assume I'll have to use considerably less honey unless I'm aiming for a very sweet mead.
2) Any thoughts on the calcium carbonate question? If the pH is 3.2, should I be reducing acidity somewhat before bottling?
I use Lalvin D-47 on all my meads. Never really messed with water much, can't be a lot of help there.
Usually shoot for a 6-7% ABV w/ apple juice, or fresh squeezed citrus, something like that, maybe some spices.
Do you bottle or keg? Makes a difference what you can do, and how.
I bottle.
So you're saying you ferment honey in apple juice for your meads? How do you only get a 6-7% ABV? I would think that the apple juice by itself would bring it up to that alcohol content.
I sent you a recipe by PM.
Apple juice, honey, & water.
The apple juice is usually around 1.050, so about 5% all by itself.
Do you use any kind of brewing software?
Cyser — A blend of honey and apple juice fermented together.
Weldon, I think you'll be fine but in my experience it's going to take a few years for your mead to come around. Be patient...very patient!
Thanks everyone!
I just bottled yesterday. The mead is definitely mellowing already. It's a good bit sweeter than I'd intended. I'll probably try my next batch with only 2 lbs. of honey and see how that works out.
Andrew, will my mead last a few years in the bottle? I didn't cork it, I just used beer bottles that had been washed, thoroughly rinsed, and sanitized. I used those special "oxygen-absorbing" caps and capped them good and tight. If the mead is in a cool, dark place, how long will it last in bottles like that? I assumed that they would only stay good for 6 months - 1 year.
I have some that are 5+ years old that are finally starting to come around and I have tried a 10 year old that a fellow club member made that was excellent both of which were capped. I'm not saying that all meads need to be aged this extensively but it helps out a lot of them especially higher ABV examples. Flushing your bottles with CO2 prior to filling will greatly extend the shelf life as well.
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