Awile back I bottled a mead that had a distinctive medicinal, grassy taste to it. I've been reading alot about the medicinal taste lately and was curious what caused it. Does anybody know from experiences what causes it?
On another forum Ken Shramm was recently asked this but he didn't know. Patty Vargas, in her book Making Wild Wines & Meads at one point mentiones this and then says that mead needs acid and this is brought on by a lack of acid. I don't care for her mead making methods though, which are quite in contradiction to everything I've read (she adds everything but the kitchen sink to everything), so I question her knowledge.
Does anybody know what brings on this medicinal, grassy taste in a mead? Schramm mentioned that it occurs often in some of his meads when he uses D-47 and then settles out later.
Another off flavor I've had was a strange biscuit-like, yeastie flavor in a blackberry melomel I've recently made. This was in contrast to another plum mel I made with the same ingredients at the same time. This mead is clear and has been racked and aged enough so there is no sediment left. Did the heat get to it? This is strange because both meads were kept in the same place. Maybe some of the blackberries I used were a little too old? I've heard there is something about the seeds in blackberries that could cause problems but I never heard details. Anybody have this problem before?
What causes these off flavors? These seem to occur often but are discussed very little.
On another forum Ken Shramm was recently asked this but he didn't know. Patty Vargas, in her book Making Wild Wines & Meads at one point mentiones this and then says that mead needs acid and this is brought on by a lack of acid. I don't care for her mead making methods though, which are quite in contradiction to everything I've read (she adds everything but the kitchen sink to everything), so I question her knowledge.
Does anybody know what brings on this medicinal, grassy taste in a mead? Schramm mentioned that it occurs often in some of his meads when he uses D-47 and then settles out later.
Another off flavor I've had was a strange biscuit-like, yeastie flavor in a blackberry melomel I've recently made. This was in contrast to another plum mel I made with the same ingredients at the same time. This mead is clear and has been racked and aged enough so there is no sediment left. Did the heat get to it? This is strange because both meads were kept in the same place. Maybe some of the blackberries I used were a little too old? I've heard there is something about the seeds in blackberries that could cause problems but I never heard details. Anybody have this problem before?
What causes these off flavors? These seem to occur often but are discussed very little.
