Hi guys,
I brewed a small batch for my first attempt using strawberries. It's been in the 2ndary for quite a while, and I just took a sample, and I'm not happy with it right now. It's quite clear, has a nice slight strawberry aroma, but the flavor is off. I can't even describe it. Maybe medicinal? A bit weak. It doesn't have a strong flavor of any ingredient, the fruit or the honey. Is there a length of time one would recommend conditioning in the secondary for fruit meads? Well, here's the ingredients:
3 lbs Wildflower Honey
3 lbs strawberries (frozen, packaged)
Cote des Blance
Yeast Nutrient blend
I did the no-heat method by just adding the honey and water to a 1 gallon fermenter. I fed it with the yeast nutrient a few times during primary fermentation. After two weeks I added the strawberries and split it between two fermenters (due to volume). Nearly two weeks later I racked off the strawberries back into a one-gallon fermenter. It's been in that fermenter for about 3 1/2 months around 62 degrees.
Is there any saving this mead or explanation of what might have gone wrong?
Mike
I brewed a small batch for my first attempt using strawberries. It's been in the 2ndary for quite a while, and I just took a sample, and I'm not happy with it right now. It's quite clear, has a nice slight strawberry aroma, but the flavor is off. I can't even describe it. Maybe medicinal? A bit weak. It doesn't have a strong flavor of any ingredient, the fruit or the honey. Is there a length of time one would recommend conditioning in the secondary for fruit meads? Well, here's the ingredients:
3 lbs Wildflower Honey
3 lbs strawberries (frozen, packaged)
Cote des Blance
Yeast Nutrient blend
I did the no-heat method by just adding the honey and water to a 1 gallon fermenter. I fed it with the yeast nutrient a few times during primary fermentation. After two weeks I added the strawberries and split it between two fermenters (due to volume). Nearly two weeks later I racked off the strawberries back into a one-gallon fermenter. It's been in that fermenter for about 3 1/2 months around 62 degrees.
Is there any saving this mead or explanation of what might have gone wrong?
Mike