had a small tasting session last night with my test run mead and also a commercial bottle.
bit of a story behind the commercial mead. its a bottle of manuka mead i was given and it originally tasted $%&* awful. more like kero/turps than mead. didn't even get the glass down. so it was topped off with water and but in the fridge. so last night, after its been in the fridge for several months, we tried it again and it was wonderful. still horribly sweet but no fusel taste at all.
now my test run mead was some old reject honey i was given. looked like it was cooked in the drum. yeast used was EC-1118 and outcome was somewhat fusel as to be expected especially at summer temps.
it was stabilized, backsweetened, a bit of acid mix, then quickly bottled to make room for another batch.
after a few months sitting in the wine rack it looks to have a little bit of very fine sediment at the bottom.
taste, surprisingly the mead had lost most of its fusel taste. still a bit funky but quite drinkable.
now i also kept a small bottle of pre stabilized mead in the fridge. what was interesting was the difference between the untouched and backsweetened bottles. the untouched bottle was fairly horrible and no one finished their sample.
i'm very surprised at the commercial bottle aging so rapidly in the fridge. i wonder if its related to the fact that they bottled it with a tasting cork instead of a real cork ??
bit of a story behind the commercial mead. its a bottle of manuka mead i was given and it originally tasted $%&* awful. more like kero/turps than mead. didn't even get the glass down. so it was topped off with water and but in the fridge. so last night, after its been in the fridge for several months, we tried it again and it was wonderful. still horribly sweet but no fusel taste at all.
now my test run mead was some old reject honey i was given. looked like it was cooked in the drum. yeast used was EC-1118 and outcome was somewhat fusel as to be expected especially at summer temps.
it was stabilized, backsweetened, a bit of acid mix, then quickly bottled to make room for another batch.
after a few months sitting in the wine rack it looks to have a little bit of very fine sediment at the bottom.
taste, surprisingly the mead had lost most of its fusel taste. still a bit funky but quite drinkable.
now i also kept a small bottle of pre stabilized mead in the fridge. what was interesting was the difference between the untouched and backsweetened bottles. the untouched bottle was fairly horrible and no one finished their sample.
i'm very surprised at the commercial bottle aging so rapidly in the fridge. i wonder if its related to the fact that they bottled it with a tasting cork instead of a real cork ??
