Yeast smell and taste.

Hello to all in the forum.

Short intro, I have been making beer and wine now for about 2 years, so I "think" I have the basics down.

I'm still reading, but I have been unable to find this subject on the forum. I hope I am doing this right.

I have a still mead that is now 1 year old. After sitting for this long I didn't expect it to taste like ambrosia yet, but I did not expect it to taste and smill like yeast. My question is, will this age out or has something gone wrong with this batch. This is the first batch of mead I have made. Since making this batch I have learned a lot more about mead and have made a pyment and cyser both of which show much more promise than my first still mead.

I hopes that some of the experienced amoung you might be able to see what possibly went wrong, here is the log I kept.

Started 11-8-03
Recipe
12 lbs Star Thistle Honey
2 1/4 tsp grape seed tannin
8 1/2 tsp acid blend
2 3/4 tsp DAP
5 Campden tablets (crushed)
Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast

Boiled 2 gallons of water, removed from heat and added honey to desolve. Added enough water to bring total vol. to 5 gallons. Added tannin, acid blend, DAP, and Campden.
O.G. 1.090
Acid = 35%

Before adding Campden removed 1/2 cup of must and diluted this with 1 1/2 cups of clean boiled water and added Yeast to make a starter. After a few hours starter was bubbling away very nicely. After allowing the must to sit for 24 hours, added the yeast starter to must.

Fermentation did not start. Waited 5 days - nothing.

After talking with a technician at Wyeast, he recommended I use Wyeast 3242 Chablis.

11-15-03: Pitched Wyeast 3242 Chablis yeast. Fermenation active in 24 hours.

11-22-03:
SG = 1.060 Racked to carboy and put on fermenation lock.

Fermentation took place in a plastic 6 gallon food grade container in a room at a temperature of between 70 and 80 degrees F.

1-14-04:
SG = 1.016 Racked. Carboy moved to a room where temperatures range from 58 to 65 degrees F.

3-23-04:
Racked. Starting to clear but still very cloudy. Tastes and smells yeasty.

7-5-04:
SG = 1.004 Racked. Almost no lees.

8-3-04:
Racked. Still not clearing, no lees. Still strong yeast smell/taste.

8-17-04:
Stirred in Bentonite slurry to clear.

8-22-04:
Mead is sparkling clear. Racked. Still smells strong of yeast.

11-09-04:
Taste/smell is still of yeast. Would like to stablize and add sweetness, but will wait until/if yeast smell is gone.

OK, that is it. I have never used the Chablis yeast before and have not used it since in any of my wine making. Does this yeast have a problem, or did I create a problem for this yeast?

Gary

Joe,

Thanks for all your input. I did aerate the must twice a day giving it a vigorous stirring with a long plastic spoon. Sorry I forgot to mention this.

Your advice on the correct temperature range in which fermentation should take place runs contra to the recommendations I had received from the people at the brew shop where I bought the supplies. Going by memory, I believe I started the fermentation in a room where the temperature ranged from 65 to 70 degree F. But when nothing happened, and after calling the brew shop, I was advice the raise the temperature of the room. So I brought in an electric heater, sealed of the room and continually monitored the temperature until it came up to 75 degrees. Over the following 5 days the temperature ranged from 72 to 80 degrees. It appears the advice given was in error.

I have learned quite a bit about makeing mead since this initial try and will be trying again very soon. One thing I've learned it not to add acid blend until fermenation in complete. The pyment and cyser I have made since this first try of a still mead were done with no addition of acid and both fermented very well, cleared withing 1 month and even at their young age taste great!

Thanks for your advice. I will put it to use when I try making mead again in the near future. She who must be obeyed still wants her sweet mead.

Gary

Thanks for the advice that I have been given so far. This will go far towards my next attempt at making mead.

Joe has made a very good point which I agree with completely. Most likely the sweet mead yeast went through autolysis given the high temperature of the must along with the high PH. These dead yeast cells were left in the must for about 2 weeks which would impart the yeast taste and smell now prominent in this mead.

I wish that I could quantitative value to the extent of yeast taste imparted in the mead. It may be that some of you may have a remedy by simply adding something to the mead that will mask the taste as long and the flavor of yeast is not above a certain threshold. But the extent of yeast taste on my part would only be a subjective guess. Some people like a little yeast taste in their wine while others find the taste of yeast strongly repulsive.

However, the underlying question still stands. Can/will the yeast taste age out or is there something else besides aging that will diminish this flavor?

Thanks Joe for your words of encouragement. It is my intention to sweeten this mead (to dry for my wife). I just didn't want to go through the extra time/expense of sweetening and bottling it if all that I would end up with is sweet tasting yeasty mead that would never be servered. I will try sweetening a small amount and have my wife taste it to see if it will pass as drinkable.

Hello Joe,

I agree with your point about beer vs mead. I also have made several batches of fruit wines and only now after a year of waiting are some of these wines becoming something worth drinking.

This mead was not started Nov. 8 of this year. This was started Nov. 8 of 2003. It's a year old now. That's why I posted in the first place. I figured after a year of aging (in the carboy) that it shouldn't have this much yeast smell/taste.

I have sweetened it. It now has a F.G. of 1.025 I'll bottle next week and wait another 6 months before trying it again.

Thanks again for the help.

Gary