First Run (Not so good?)

[lostnbronx]

Fray,

Wonderful results! Really, that's a professional-looking product. Great job, all the way around!

You should rename this thread: First Run (Pretty Darn Good!)

Congrats!

-David

 

[storm1969]

Do those labels come off easily?

I prefer to have my labels come off as easily as possible to make reuse simple.


Brian

 

[intothefray]

Don't give me a reason to pop one open and drink it already. They come off much easier than commercial labels right now... not sure if they'll fall off in 6 months or if they'll be harder to get off.

My first time using the label stock.

 

[lostnbronx]

Fray,

As strange as it sounds, I think we'd all be interested in "label updates" on these -- the quest for the perfect label for the homebrewer is passionate, widespread, and ongoing. Your labels certainly look beautiful. If they stay in place until you no longer want them to, and then come off with little trouble when you do, then you may have solved an eternal problem for the home meadmaking community.

-David

 

[byathread]

They really do look lovely. Congrats on your firstborn!!

Cheers,
Kirk

 

[intothefray]

Being both impatient and curious to what a young aged mead tastes like I opened a bottle of my Cyser a few weeks ago.

I don't think it was but bottled for a few weeks, but I couldn't help myself.

Ever since I've been considering the chances of opening more and pouring them out to salvage the bottles. The cyser has the NASTIEST bitter carpet and motor oil taste. I drank some when I bottled and it didn't taste ANYTHING like that. There was a little bit of gunniness to it, but I just assumed it to be the chemicals.

Lately I've been giving myself crap about maybe not letting the bentonite clear long enough or if I should have even used it at all with such a light mead. The current (well it's been a while now) taste is so nasty I couldn't force myself to have more than a few sips. The nasty aftertastes lasts a long time.

Does something like that actually AGE out? I can understand harshness of the alcohol smoothing out. I can understand the honey flavor to maybe pop out stronger later..

I'm really not sure if it was the bentonite, something else, maybe chemicals I added or what. I'm seriously confused why it got so much worse in a few weeks (although I've read enough that others find that wines get worse before better).

I'm thinking about bottling my blueberry mead this weekend and I'm at the point that I don't want to sorbate it (it's at 1.008ish) or anything. I don't even care if it clears out (hell it's so dark there's no way I could tell if it wasn't in the carboy). I'm not sure if I have quite enough bottles. I bought some for it and have some extras... I guess I could always drink the leftovers.

Thinking about it more and more I HAVE to bottle the blueberry. As busting a 6.8 gal carboy (while trying to move) and wasting 5 gal of mead isn't my idea of fun. Not to mention that I'm sure it'll stain anything it comes in contact with.

No replies needed. just needed to rant about my cyser since it's been bugging me for weeks.

 

[Oskaar]

Being both impatient and curious to what a young aged mead tastes like I opened a bottle of my Cyser a few weeks ago . . . Ever since I've been considering the chances of opening more and pouring them out to salvage the bottles. The cyser has the NASTIEST bitter carpet and motor oil taste. I drank some when I bottled and it didn't taste ANYTHING like that. There was a little bit of gunniness to it, but I just assumed it to be the chemicals.

Generally the things you describe will age out. Cyser, when young can have a lot of fusel and other very harsh flavors that can really make you wonder if it's going to age out well. Generally it does, so I'd recommend giving it a year and trying it again.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

 

[JoeM]

intothefray

You must have patients my friend…a few weeks isn’t going to tell you anything. Don’t go dumping good mead down the drain for nothing.

 

[intothefray]

That's all I needed. Thx guys.

Got a few more bottles last night from a restuarant, so should be okay there too.

 

[Pewter_of_Deodar]

I recommend patience as well. I was told my raspberry wine and mead tasted like .... at War because of extra time I allowed on the lees (71B-1122). I was also told that it might take up to 2 YEARS for it to age out and taste better. So I will wait...

Did you do a really good job of sterilizing the bottles and the corks prior to bottling? I soak my corks in vodka and use a hot water then one step sanitizer then hot water cycle for my bottles prior to bottling. Or maybe just one bottle went bad...

 

[Billjr59]

intothefray,
This may be a little late for you but:
I think your problem may be the 3 tsp. of sorbate and sulfite. Sorbate should be added at 1/4tsp
per gallon. Potassium Metabisulfite should be added at 1/8tsp per gallon, as per the instructions on the labels. I have been making wine for a few years now and this is what I use to stabilize wine.
Also you should never use Sorbate alone. Always with the sulfite. If you use Sorbate alone you will
get off flavors a aromas. Like the dreaded Geranium smell. Some of the more expierienced mead makers on these forums will know more than me about mead and Sorbate. I'm speaking from my wine making expierience. Also, if wine gets the dreaded Geranium smell and taste it's curtains for
that batch. Hope I've helped for the future. I'm on my first batch of Joe's ancient Orange waiting
for my supplies to arrive. I hope the aren't coming UPS.

Billjr59

 

[Mu]

I noted you said corking was a bitch. What corker did you use? Corks? and so froth. <Im looking at buying a corker and have been told here that getting a hand corker is a bad idea, you want a floor corker> I have had a look at floor corkers as well, and there seems to be quite a range of products, some look flimsy, some look good.

Mu.

 

[intothefray]

I used a 2 hand corker. My problem was I soaked the corks overnight and they ended up being huge and brittle. So if I put them in the corker they broke up. The next time I boiled them for about 20 minutes and it was easy as pie.

I also had the LHBS guy show me how to use the corker better. After watching him do it a couple times it seemed so easy that I was confused why I couldn't get it to work right originally.