Hi All,
Today I commemorated the racking of my second batch of mead (my Orange Mead) by doing an early tasting preview of my Apricot Mead. The results were far less than what I was hoping for.
Here are my notes from this Apricot Mead:
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Apricot Mead
9 lbs. Desert Mesquite Honey (3 @ 3lb cans from Trader Joes)
1 gallon Apricot Nectar (4 @ 1qt bottles of Looza Apricot Nectar
-- Ingredients: Water, 40% juice, sugar)
Lavin 71B-1122 Yeast
5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (all added at pitching)
Water to 5 gallons (largely from rinsing out honey containers and nectar jars)
Placed in fermenter: 07/08/11
Fermentation lasted for about a week.
Racked to glass carboy: 07/26/11
Bottled: 01/15/12 (First smell after airlock was taken off was very yeasty. Mead is watery in appearance. Very little apricot taste (if any); odd "sparkly" taste.
Shelved until the summer for re-tasting.
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Two important notes:
When I tasted this mead tonight it still had an oddly sparkly quality and had a pronounced yeasty taste. (It was bottled without any additional sugar/honey to make it a sparkling mead.) My wife took a sip and pronounced it as "bitter", which I don't taste/smell, but my sense of smell - and therefore taste - is, sadly, less than reliable.)
I have no problem being patient with these bottles of Apricot-ish Mead. After all, it might have enough alcohol to be noticable, but otherwise I would certainly not consider sharing it with anyone at this point!)
My questions oh, Great Hive Mind, are:
-- What might be contributing to the sparkly taste? (and what can I do to prevent this in the future?)
-- How long would you suggest I wait before tasting this mead again? (And why?)
A great many thanks, one and all!
...
Today I commemorated the racking of my second batch of mead (my Orange Mead) by doing an early tasting preview of my Apricot Mead. The results were far less than what I was hoping for.
Here are my notes from this Apricot Mead:
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Apricot Mead
9 lbs. Desert Mesquite Honey (3 @ 3lb cans from Trader Joes)
1 gallon Apricot Nectar (4 @ 1qt bottles of Looza Apricot Nectar
-- Ingredients: Water, 40% juice, sugar)
Lavin 71B-1122 Yeast
5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (all added at pitching)
Water to 5 gallons (largely from rinsing out honey containers and nectar jars)
Placed in fermenter: 07/08/11
Fermentation lasted for about a week.
Racked to glass carboy: 07/26/11
Bottled: 01/15/12 (First smell after airlock was taken off was very yeasty. Mead is watery in appearance. Very little apricot taste (if any); odd "sparkly" taste.
Shelved until the summer for re-tasting.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Two important notes:
- I didn't degass this mead at all. I brewed it as if I was brewing beer, not mead. (I've since learned better!)
- There were no fresh/dried apricots added to this mead at all. All apricot flavor/aroma was dependent upon the bottled Looza Apricot Nectar.
When I tasted this mead tonight it still had an oddly sparkly quality and had a pronounced yeasty taste. (It was bottled without any additional sugar/honey to make it a sparkling mead.) My wife took a sip and pronounced it as "bitter", which I don't taste/smell, but my sense of smell - and therefore taste - is, sadly, less than reliable.)
I have no problem being patient with these bottles of Apricot-ish Mead. After all, it might have enough alcohol to be noticable, but otherwise I would certainly not consider sharing it with anyone at this point!)
My questions oh, Great Hive Mind, are:
-- What might be contributing to the sparkly taste? (and what can I do to prevent this in the future?)
-- How long would you suggest I wait before tasting this mead again? (And why?)
A great many thanks, one and all!
...