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Bready yeasty taste/smell

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Zem

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 14, 2005
1,396
1
38
I've had this happen with mre than one mead now.

1st a stawberry mel with 1 gal. basswood honey, water to 5 gal and 8 lb organic strawberries. EC-1118 rehydrated in water.
I think I did alot of things wrong witht his, for one, it sat next to a heater, after which it finished to dryness in only 12 days.
The strawberries came forward with time, but that bready smell and taste never left it.

The second was started with 12 lb wildflower, 4 gal water, and eau de vie wyeast, no starter. Fermented around 65-70 f.
I discovered that I had gravely under estimated my sugars, removed a gallon of must and added a gallon of honey.
fermentation promptly stopped at 1.04. ~15% abv

After alot of tinkering, I cut the batch in half, added water to 4 gallons, and repithced 71B, it fermented fine to 1.012.
It tasted sweet and otherwise fine, except for that yeasty tase. Many of my friends enjoy it, but it still bothers me becasue I do not know where it came from, but I do know from my year old strawberry mel, that it will not go away.
 

Val

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 8, 2005
110
0
0
I've had the same experience with some of my meads.

I suspect that I'm leaving it on the leese too long during primary fermentation.

Still, I'd love to hear from some of the diagnosticians here.
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
Administrator
Dec 26, 2004
7,874
8
0
34
The OC
Hey Wolfie,

Can you give us some more information on the two batches you made?

Like how old they were when you drank them, original and ending gravity, nutrients added, etc?

Cheers,

Oskaar
 

Zem

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 14, 2005
1,396
1
38
hm...lessee.....

Both of these methinks started with 1 t. DAP
The wildflower one is the eau de vie must that gave me so much trouble, listed in my eau de vie post in yeasties and beasties. I belive I added another 1/4 t. of wyeast yeast food in to it when last I fed it. Must have been a couple of months ago....very high gravity, 1.16 range.

The strawberry on the other hand was pretty low gravity, at 1 gal of honey to 4 water I think it shouldve been around 1.09 (dont have a log on it...) that one is now better than a year old. The last remaining bottles of it are out of my possesion, though my cousin called me not long ago after opening one and told me that it still had this taste. Prominantly. Almost exclusivly in fact.

I figure it must be some stress thing, both of these fermentations went through a lot in various ways. The eau de vie through improper feeding and prepping, and the melomel through exposure to high heat and oxidation.

a last note--I experemented with a vanilla bean on the recent ex-eau de vie batch and I noticed that it got rid of the yeasty taste entirely.
 

CindyY

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 23, 2006
3
0
0
You know, I've had the same problem, but I attributed it to "youth" of the mead - I haven't been able to let mead age beyond a year yet (felt the need to drink it before then!), and thought the problem might correct itself with longer aging. Sounds like that has not been your experience, though. I have made 5 or 6 batches so far and all of them except for a very, very lemony metheglin, had that yeast taste.
CindyY
 

storm1969

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 13, 2005
600
1
0
54
Columbia, MD
It has been my experience that the bready/yeasty taste is mostly caused by extended lees aging (like champagne). But I am not the authority of such things (and have not had that problem unless was going for it).

Brian
 
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