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Okay, how bad did I mess up (nutrient addition)?

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CBiebel

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 19, 2007
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Atlantic City, NJ
I decided to start the first of a few "experiments" with different types of honey in 1 gallon batches to see how different varieties taste compared to each other.

This first one was a blueberry honey batch. I was using D-47 yeast. The SG was 1.120.

Here is the thing, though. At the end of the lag time, I added the nutrients based on Oskaar's Sweet Oaked Mead (which also used D-47). However, I forgot that I was dealing with just 1 gallon compared to Oskaar's 6 gallon recipe. Oops!

After transferring to the secondary, I decided to do a taste test. There was a weird off-flavor (not a spoilage type of off-flavor). Unfortunately, I am horrible at describing tastes, so I can't be more specific.

Is this likely a result of too much nutrients added and is it possible that it might "age out?"
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
Administrator
Dec 26, 2004
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Nutrient is what you're tasting. That would be slightly salty, musty, woody, yeasty, mushroomy and almost meaty.

You can always make a 3 gallon batch of untreated mead and mix them to factor out that nutrient flavor.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 

CBiebel

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 19, 2007
97
0
0
54
Atlantic City, NJ
Oskaar said:
Nutrient is what you're tasting. That would be slightly salty, musty, woody, yeasty, mushroomy and almost meaty.

You can always make a 3 gallon batch of untreated mead and mix them to factor out that nutrient flavor.

Cheers,

Oskaar

Okay, I got some more honey and figured I'd try to do this, but why did you say 3 gallons? Shouldn't it be 4 gallons (since I made a 1 gallon batch and put in the nutrients for a 5 gallon batch in instead)?

Should I mix them at the end of the lag time (when you'd add the nutrient additions) or just mix them at the beginning? How much would the alcohol from the finished tainted batch affect the fermentation of the rest of it?
 
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