Dump the mead or keep it?

[14ABV]

My first two batches (a melomel and a cyser) have been bottled for about 3 months now. The cyser has a really bad metallic taste that I'm guessing is because I left way too much head space. The melomel I think I bottled too early. It has a really strong yeast taste and a half inch of what I think is left over yeast at the bottom (or an infection?). Is it worth continuing to age either one? I hate to get rid of mead but both are pretty bad.

[ChadK]

Originally Posted by 14ABV

My first two batches (a melomel and a cyser) have been bottled for about 3 months now. The cyser has a really bad metallic taste that I'm guessing is because I left way too much head space. The melomel I think I bottled too early. It has a really strong yeast taste and a half inch of what I think is left over yeast at the bottom (or an infection?). Is it worth continuing to age either one? I hate to get rid of mead but both are pretty bad.

I'm not sure about the metallic taste on the cyser, but the yeasty taste and sediment in the melomel sounds like you got some of the lees in there to me. If you are really careful about sanitation and not getting oxygen in it, you could probably re bottle it and just siphon it a bit better. Or, and I may be wrong about mead here, but the general thing about beer in this situation for both of them is: Time. They're in bottles so just shove em in the back of a closet or a cellar somewhere and forget about them. You'll be surprised what time will do. And if they don't improve in a year or two, just reclaim the bottles then.

P.S. By way of disclaimer, I'm still new enough to mead making that I have a hard time saying "lees" instead of "trub." So take my advice with a grain of salt and looking at the old timer's advice.

[fatbloke]

metallic taste ? too much sulphite ?

yeasty taste ? sediment/lees ? rack it off the sediment, preferably into containers that leave little or no head space .

[wayneb]

Metallic flavors generally do not come from oxidation (which is what could happen if you leave the cyser in a container with too much headspace for too long). They can come from an interaction of the acids in apple juice and reactive metals. While stainless steel is mostly inert to the concentration of acid in apple juice, aluminum and regular steel or iron are not. Metallic tastes can also be a byproduct of some yeast autolysis, so if you have a lot of lees in your cyser, too, that could be the issue. It is also possible to get a slightly metallic flavor from sorbic acid at high enough concentrations, so if you treated your cyser with potassium sorbate - that could be the problem.

The yeasty flavors in your mead are undoubtedly from the yeast lees that you see in your bottles. Re-bottling, taking care to only rack off the clear mead and leave the lees behind, could solve that problem with time. But it will take some time for the yeast autolysis byproducts to age and mellow.

[14ABV]

Thanks for all the help. I re-bottled the melomel and you guys were right about the potassium sorbate. I went back and checked my notes, turns out I added way too much. All part of the learning process I guess.

[Undead]

Sorry. I posted in the wrong area.