Hello everyone,
I started my first mead in December using a general recipe for a medium dry mead found online for a 1 gallon batch. Now, 2 and a half months in, my mead tastes quite yeasty and acidic, is not sweet at all, and fermentation has been limited with ABV is only at 8.14% (SG of 1.075 and latest gravity reading at 1.010).
Am not really sure where I went wrong or whether the yeasty flavour and lack of sweetness means I just need to be patient and let it age for a while. Or maybe backsweeten a bit? I am beginning to wonder whether the honey I used was not sweet enough given the low SG.
I made the mead on the 1st of December, racked it after 2 weeks of what looked like fairly active fermentation (lots of bubbles) that slowed down significantly after about 4-5 days and collected a lot of lees at the bottom of the carboy (I didnt take a gravity reading which might have been a mistake). I then let it sit in secondary fermentation from mid December until mid February (after reading that secondary usually took about 1-3 months and it was still bubbling steadily). As a lot of lees formed at the bottom I decided to rack again in mid Feb. I am wondering whether topping up the demijon with water was also a mistake that also led to diluting the batch too much but otherwise I would have had too much head space in the demijon.
I am not sure where I went wrong. Is there a way to get the yeasty flavour toned down a little? should I attempt to re-start the fermentation? I am not sure how this would be done but it still seems quite far from being finished. Or is it just a case of ageing it now and accepting it wont be very alcoholic?
Any and all thoughts are welcome!
I started my first mead in December using a general recipe for a medium dry mead found online for a 1 gallon batch. Now, 2 and a half months in, my mead tastes quite yeasty and acidic, is not sweet at all, and fermentation has been limited with ABV is only at 8.14% (SG of 1.075 and latest gravity reading at 1.010).
Am not really sure where I went wrong or whether the yeasty flavour and lack of sweetness means I just need to be patient and let it age for a while. Or maybe backsweeten a bit? I am beginning to wonder whether the honey I used was not sweet enough given the low SG.
I made the mead on the 1st of December, racked it after 2 weeks of what looked like fairly active fermentation (lots of bubbles) that slowed down significantly after about 4-5 days and collected a lot of lees at the bottom of the carboy (I didnt take a gravity reading which might have been a mistake). I then let it sit in secondary fermentation from mid December until mid February (after reading that secondary usually took about 1-3 months and it was still bubbling steadily). As a lot of lees formed at the bottom I decided to rack again in mid Feb. I am wondering whether topping up the demijon with water was also a mistake that also led to diluting the batch too much but otherwise I would have had too much head space in the demijon.
I am not sure where I went wrong. Is there a way to get the yeasty flavour toned down a little? should I attempt to re-start the fermentation? I am not sure how this would be done but it still seems quite far from being finished. Or is it just a case of ageing it now and accepting it wont be very alcoholic?
Any and all thoughts are welcome!