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Smelly blackberry mead

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irkman

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 23, 2017
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1 gallon blackberry Recipe:

3 lbs blackberry (frozen, thawed, mashed in cheese cloth in primary)
3 lbs orange blossom honey
water
D47 Lavlin yeast
starting gravity 1.010

This mead was accidentally fermented in summer heat for multiple days roughly 80+ degrees. Gravity was measured after 12 days of fermentation and the gravity as 1.00. The mead has a "funky" smell and taste about it. I don't think it smells like Sulphur or skunk, but it is hard to tell. The smell is sort of sour and I was wondering if the blackberries could have spoiled in the heat. overall it tastes okay, I taste strong alcohol, fermented blackberry and hints of the honey and I feel like if the bad smell/taste goes away then it will be quite good. I plan on waiting it out and racking off the blackberries after 3 weeks. What could the smell be and how would I know if the mead is infected or has spoiled fruit in it?

Any suggestions would be helpful!
 
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darigoni

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Jun 4, 2016
946
65
28
Brookline, NH
Did you mean a starting gravity of 1.100?

Did you do anything (Campden tablets) in regards to sanitizing the fruit before use?

Did you occasionally punch down the fruit, keeping it moist and cool, so that it wouldn't turn moldy?

Also, I believe, that D47 likes to stay in the range of 59-68F degrees. If you don't have temperature control, you should have used a different yeast. Actually, if you are seeing temperatures in the 80's, you need to come up with some sort of temperature control regardless.
 
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irkman

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 23, 2017
9
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Yes I did mean a starting gravity of 1.100.

No I did not metabisulfite the fruit, how should I have done this. In the past I have not done this step and as long as I punched the cap regularly it has not been a problem.

That being said, on this mead I did not punch the cap daily.

Mistakes are adding up on this one, assuming the fruit is bad, should the mead be thrown out?

What should I do at this point?
 
D

darigoni

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Jun 4, 2016
946
65
28
Brookline, NH
Last edited:
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Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
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Denver
Don't pitch it. That yeast will have made a lot of fussells at your temps. Some or most of that can age out over time. I always freeze my fruit first. And secondly, I wait until ferment is really going strong before I add it. Let it thaw first of course. If your ferment is vigorous and you have frozen your fruit. Any bad guys that might be left will get overtaken by the yeast.

There are better yeast to use that can handle summer heat. D47 is probably the most finicky and really needs to stay below 65 or so.
 
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irkman

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 23, 2017
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the video and guide were helpful! Thank you! What do fussells smell like, could I be smelling extreme fussells do to bad fermentation temperature instead of bad fruit?

Since my mead is close enough to done at 13.7 ABV my plan of attack is this:
1) Rack immediately off of the potentially bad fruit to stop the bleeding
2) inspect fruit for obvious mold or rotting
3) Allow fermentation to continue until complete, I was considering adding more honey to up the ABV to get closer to 15%

Does this approach make sense or should I add metabisulfite ASAP? If I did, I am close enough to done that I probably would not add more yeast to continue ferment.
 
Stasis

Stasis

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 10, 2014
1,123
13
38
Malta
Fusels smell like very strong alcohol. You can have slight fusels with vodka notes in your mead. I already consider this bad. Or you can have high fusels which burn your nostrils, make you cough and are more like surgical spirit
Too many things can be wrong. This is why we suggest the newbee guide and other guides plus I would suggest seeking a good recipe with detailed method for your first meads. You can also post your chosen recipe and method here before making the attempt so maybe we catch any flaws before it's too late.
Adding metabusulphite now is useless. Metabisulphite is only useful when there is no active fermentation going on. It affects both contaminants and your yeast. I don't know why you would take a perfectly respectable 13% abv mead and up it to 15% especially when you might end up tossing it away if it never turns out right
Maybe your best bet would be to leave everything as it is, age it for a year or two and cross your fingers it's drinkable in the end.
Read the guides
 
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