Hi lovely folk, and happy friday.
I'm tasting a lemon ginger mead (Named Dorian Gray to have a "dry" sense of humor and strange hotness) I pitched in March 2015, racked and re-racked in August 2015, bottled in December 2015 and am just now cracking open. It's dry, very dry, which I don't mind. I wanted that. But I used sliced (super clean and organic lemons) in primary, and when I tasted in December, man, so bitter. Tasting the inaugural bottle now, 4 months later, damn. Still so bitter.
Was it my fault for using whole slices, with pith? Is it maybe the ginger? The bitterness is what I'd associate with eating pith, although I adore lemons and usually don't mind. It's only bothersome because there's zero sweetness. Should I have used some sort of additive? Everything else I've made with 71B hasn't fermented to complete dryness (on the contrary), but then again, I did start with only 2 lbs honey. Did I push 71B to dryness by accidentally step-feeding it more sugar each time I racked?
Either way, will the bitterness age out with time? How can I avoid this in the future?
Thanks for any advice. I mean it. <3
Recipe below just in case:
Primary:
2 lbs honey
4 chunked lemons
1 ginger root, grated and diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
71B yeast
energizer and nutrient
Secondary:
1/2 cup additional honey
Second racking:
topped off to fill to one gallon with Trader Joe's organic lemonade (which also had sugar in it)
(Fermentation restarted)
I'm tasting a lemon ginger mead (Named Dorian Gray to have a "dry" sense of humor and strange hotness) I pitched in March 2015, racked and re-racked in August 2015, bottled in December 2015 and am just now cracking open. It's dry, very dry, which I don't mind. I wanted that. But I used sliced (super clean and organic lemons) in primary, and when I tasted in December, man, so bitter. Tasting the inaugural bottle now, 4 months later, damn. Still so bitter.
Was it my fault for using whole slices, with pith? Is it maybe the ginger? The bitterness is what I'd associate with eating pith, although I adore lemons and usually don't mind. It's only bothersome because there's zero sweetness. Should I have used some sort of additive? Everything else I've made with 71B hasn't fermented to complete dryness (on the contrary), but then again, I did start with only 2 lbs honey. Did I push 71B to dryness by accidentally step-feeding it more sugar each time I racked?
Either way, will the bitterness age out with time? How can I avoid this in the future?
Thanks for any advice. I mean it. <3
Recipe below just in case:
Primary:
2 lbs honey
4 chunked lemons
1 ginger root, grated and diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
71B yeast
energizer and nutrient
Secondary:
1/2 cup additional honey
Second racking:
topped off to fill to one gallon with Trader Joe's organic lemonade (which also had sugar in it)
(Fermentation restarted)