So I have been making a batch of mead lately. It’s my first batch of mead so far so I had high hopes for it. Yup, that was past tense. I still reserve a little hope for it, but I have my doubts. So here’s the story.
I started my mead around July 15th. Don’t remember the actual date. I decided to do a basic batch for my first time. I had gotten a bunch of clover honey…the generic stuff you can get just about anywhere. This particular stuff came from Costco and Safeway I think. About 14.5 lbs all together. I did a 5 gallon batch. The batch was actually a little lighter than the recipe I was following because we had managed to use some of the honey in the mean time. I think I was down to about 12.5 lbs of honey at that point.
So I followed the directions out of The Complete Meadmaker by Ken Schramm. (ISBN-10: 0-937381-80-2) It’s been a great book so far. Easy to read and pretty well complete on the basics of mead making. Check it out! Ok, back to the making of my first batch of mead. I did all the steps and got the mead into the carboy for the first fermentation. Woohoo!
So at that point, I had to wait. Yup, wine making in general is a waiting game. There’s not really that much effort involved when you get down to it, just time. So I waited the obligatory 2-3 weeks before I decided it was time to rack the mead into a secondary carboy for its secondary fermentation. I had bought a brand new racking cane since I didn’t have one. It is a nice and easy one, a push start style. Basically, if you haven’t seen one, it’s a tube and racking cane and the cane goes in the tube. You submerge the tube and then push the cane in, pull it up to bring wine into the tube and then push down to start the flow. Simple as that. Well, I started racking and it was going beautifully. I had taken a sample to check the specific gravity and then taste. About 2/3 the way down, that’s when things went wrong. The racking cane started pulling a ton of air. Not good! From what I know, it’s not good to aerate the mead…especially during racking!
So I was extremely worried that I had ruined the batch. I went ahead and continued the process and finished racking and put the stopper back on. Within the day it started bubbling again which told me the yeast was doing it’s thing. I tasted the sample after checking the specific gravity and it tasted great! So I laid my hesitations to rest for the time being and again had to wait. This time I was waiting for a month or so. I could have waited longer, but I had a feeling that I shouldn’t wait too long.
Well, I think I waited too long. I waited approximately a month and decided to bottle tonight. It all went smoothly though washing all those bottles was a pain…but it had to be done. I took a sample like usual. 16 750ml bottles and 9 beer bottles later, I was done and could check the specific gravity and have my taste of a nearly finished mead. The mead ended with a 12.5% alcohol by volume. A little higher than expected but just about right. As for the taste…
YUCK! Well, not the worst thing in the world. Nice aroma. Bad taste. Tasted a bit vinegry, or like it was turning to a hard alcohol. Not what I was going for. So far my assumption is that the aeration during the racking is what caused the vinegry taste and I’m waiting for confirmation. Regardless, I may have just bottled a ton of bad mead. I am hoping I can do something to bring it out of the vinegry side, but I don’t know that I can at this point. Hence my small ray of hope.
I can say I’m happy to have finished my first batch. I wanted it to go right, but live and learn. That’s what life is about…nothing else. I’ve learned some good things this first time around and I plan to have many more in the future. I like mead and I will brew a nice batch. Just gotta find me some cheap, good honey to use…not the clover stuff.
Tags: clover honey, honey, mead, meadmaking
