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Is it supposed to taste like that?

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Dr. Scott

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 25, 2009
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0
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So, this will be an odd confession for someone brewing his first melomel, but I have never tried any form of mead. What I have is a raspberry melmomel that by SG was at about 11.5% ABV when I racked it to the secondary after just under one month in the primary. I transferred the sample in the thief to a glass for a sample.

It tasted more-or-less exactly like cough syrup. Smelled like it, too.

Is this normal? I have no idea. I've never made this before, never tried it before. If my brewing expereience has taught me anything, it's "relax, everything will work out fine." I suspect that's the case here, and in a year I will be loving this stuff.
 

wayneb

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Well, normally I'd be asking for more recipe and process details, but in this case I see that this is the same batch you started a little while back, and have posted about in other threads.

In your specific case, RDWHAH is definitely applicable. Your mead is far too young to predict how it will taste after a few months of aging, so I'd let it develop gracefully in the secondary, racking perhaps after it clears to get it off of any lees that fall out in the next several weeks, and taste it again after 3 to 6 months have elapsed. Meads can take time to integrate and mellow, and especially one with raspberries as an addition will take extra time to fully mature. Specifically, the phenolic compounds that were extracted from your berries have nowhere to hide, so they will require some aging to undergo the chemical changes necessary for that cough syrup character to fade.

No worries - just grab something else to drink in the interim!
 

Dr. Scott

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 25, 2009
5
0
0
My primary fermenting room is a northeast corner room. During the time my thermostat kicks up it'll get to 65, usually several degrees cooler than that. Since it was early fall it may have gotten up towards 70 on a day or two, but never any higher than that.
 

Brad Dahlhofer

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 20, 2007
508
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0
Ferndale, MI
www.bnektar.com
In a nutshell, No. While its possible that your mead will taste great in a year, you'll find that if you follow the advice of the Mentors on this site, and read The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm, then your meads can be much better than what you're now experiencing. Don't worry. My first meads sucked. Stick with it, and read the posts here. It'll help tremendously.

Cheers!
 
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