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Bad Aftertaste Discovered While Racking

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FoxyGrandma3000

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 21, 2013
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Hi all! This is my first post, and as such, I hope that I chose the correct forum for this topic.

So I just racked my first batch of mead after a 1.5 month primary ferment. The mead tastes surprisingly okay for my first attempt. I can sense the honey aromas, but there is a strong orange flavor to it and I can faintly taste the raisins. There is also a very strong yeast flavor that reminds me of cheap wine, but I'm assuming that will go away as the yeast sediments and I continue racking. However, there is an unpleasant bitter aftertaste, and I think that either comes from the essential oils in the orange peel or I waited too long to rack it. I was warned that mead can get a soapy flavor from waiting too long to rack it. So I can't absolutely confirm where that aftertaste is coming from.

I'm guessing there's not much to do about it now, but will the aftertaste mellow after aging, and will the orange flavors become more subdued?

The ingredients are as follows for 1 gallon:

3 lb local wildflower honey
1/2 Gal water to dilute honey for pasteurizing
1 Orange in slices (maybe I used 2...I can't remember)
40-50 raisins
Lalvin D-47
Water to bring carboy to 1 gallon

Thank you for any suggestions you may have!
 
Yeast can also taste bitter, so it could be partly that as well. Orange pith is also decidedly bitter, and that will fade/mellow with time.
 
Thanks for the responses! I was worried my batch was doomed to be undrinkable.

Well now that I know that maybe I'll try something else besides oranges for nutrients. I'm not sure I like the added flavor.
 
The JAO recipe uses 3 1/2 pounds of honey per gallon to leave residual sugar to offset the pithy character (& spices). Starting with 3 pounds of honey will give you a dry result that would be expected to be somewhat bitter. Age will settle it down, or you can backsweeten a bit.

What was the final gravity?

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Medsen Fey said:
The JAO recipe uses 3 1/2 pounds of honey per gallon to leave residual sugar to offset the pithy character (& spices). Starting with 3 pounds of honey will give you a dry result that would be expected to be somewhat bitter. Age will settle it down, or you can backsweeten a bit.

What was the final gravity?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

Sadly I left the hobby store without noticing that I needed a test jar. After I prepared the must I looked up how to use the hygrometer and I realized my mistake. So...next batch I will actually take an initial reading!

As for my next batch, I was hoping to make a dry mead that would showcase the plain mead flavor that I had experienced with White Winter's Dry Mead (http://tinyurl.com/bc8kf94). So if the oranges are not providing nutrients, then I can leave them out?
 
The oranges are probably providing a bit of nutrition, but it'd be negligible compared to the raisins or something like Fermaid. So yes, you could leave them out.

But the oranges are in the JAOM to make it drinkable quicker. They help cover some of the of flavours of a young mead. Without them, you'll probably notice it'll get better the longer you age it, like every other mead.
 
Oranges are definitely not required. I was going to suggest though that if you WANT the orange flavour without the bitterness, use the juice and zest and leave the pith out. That way you might be able to tolerate it being a bit drier than a JAO if you don't like things that sweet.
 
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