I am absolutely new to mead-making; just started this month. I decided to try a slightly modified version of BOMM, which I discovered on this website (and most of you are probably familiar with).
Basically, it was about 2.5 lbs of standard clover honey, a handful of organic raisins, made up to a gallon of filtered water. I added yeast nutrient to start, and again at 2 and 5 days post yeast-pitch. The yeast is Lalvin EC-1118. The gravity is now around 1.000, having started fermentation on Oct. 3rd.
I have no idea what mead is supposed to smell like, but it smells like a mixture of alcohol and faintly like olives and beer, maybe? It's hard to really assign a smell, because its not really like anything I've smelled before.
I tried racking it about 3 days ago after it had cleared somewhat, and I tasted it: tasted alcoholic, not sweet whatsoever, and pretty much awful.... but I expected that. I racked using mouth-siphon, because I read that many people have had success with it, likely because mead seems to be pretty tough to contaminate.
So... to the problem (I tried uploading a photo but the restriction is terribly small). After 3 or 4 days in the new carboy the mead still smells basically the same, but it has a "halo" of haziness that seems to be floating at the interface of the mead and the air. The mead is still not totally clear, but I can still distinguish this haziness from the rest of the cloudiness of the mead. There is no visible mold-like contamination, or colonies.... just this odd hazy halo.
Am I being paranoid, or should I be worried that this is contamination?
Thanks so much!
Basically, it was about 2.5 lbs of standard clover honey, a handful of organic raisins, made up to a gallon of filtered water. I added yeast nutrient to start, and again at 2 and 5 days post yeast-pitch. The yeast is Lalvin EC-1118. The gravity is now around 1.000, having started fermentation on Oct. 3rd.
I have no idea what mead is supposed to smell like, but it smells like a mixture of alcohol and faintly like olives and beer, maybe? It's hard to really assign a smell, because its not really like anything I've smelled before.
I tried racking it about 3 days ago after it had cleared somewhat, and I tasted it: tasted alcoholic, not sweet whatsoever, and pretty much awful.... but I expected that. I racked using mouth-siphon, because I read that many people have had success with it, likely because mead seems to be pretty tough to contaminate.
So... to the problem (I tried uploading a photo but the restriction is terribly small). After 3 or 4 days in the new carboy the mead still smells basically the same, but it has a "halo" of haziness that seems to be floating at the interface of the mead and the air. The mead is still not totally clear, but I can still distinguish this haziness from the rest of the cloudiness of the mead. There is no visible mold-like contamination, or colonies.... just this odd hazy halo.
Am I being paranoid, or should I be worried that this is contamination?
Thanks so much!