My mead is horrible! Please help!

ok, so I'm a beekeeper and I thought I'd try my hand at mead.....well first of all the honey I used is a really strong flavour (late harvest so dark and pungent, not the early harvest light kind). So it's a pretty strong honey flavour...a bit much.

Secondly...I bottled it with a little sugar in each bottle (1/2 tsp) and the yeast acted obediantly and ate it up and it has a nice fizz, but it's SO DRY...like suck your cheeks in dry...and combined with the strong flavour is just...yuck....

Can I salvage it? Thinking the only solution is to back sweeten, but that won't affect the strong honey taste...could I also 'water it down' with a mild cider to make a 'Cyser'????

Suddenly I feel like a mead 'Vintner', blending and alchemy......lol

Yes it can be salvaged.
Obvs ones first . Drink it really cold. Ice lemonade etc. Monin Vanilla syrup (or other flavours will help.

Do you want to rebottle it?

I think I may try to rebottle it as it also has sediment in the bottom - which of course mixes in on opening it fizzes up.

Thanks for the advice....might try some with lemonade...

Laura Reid said:

ok, so I'm a beekeeper and I thought I'd try my hand at mead.....well first of all the honey I used is a really strong flavour (late harvest so dark and pungent, not the early harvest light kind). So it's a pretty strong honey flavour...a bit much.

Secondly...I bottled it with a little sugar in each bottle (1/2 tsp) and the yeast acted obediantly and ate it up and it has a nice fizz, but it's SO DRY...like suck your cheeks in dry...and combined with the strong flavour is just...yuck....

Can I salvage it? Thinking the only solution is to back sweeten, but that won't affect the strong honey taste...could I also 'water it down' with a mild cider to make a 'Cyser'????

Suddenly I feel like a mead 'Vintner', blending and alchemy......lol

Click to expand...

I, too, make mead, but from supermarket honey as I've not a bee to my name.
Honey is mostly sugar and this will ferment out leaving the mead completely dry.
This is what I do. I make the mead as normal, but ferment it in a carboy with some capacity for addition. When the bubber stops bubbling, I add another 500g honey (I make 15 litre batches), when it stops again, I add another 500g until fermentation doesn;t restart At this stage you've reached the alcohol tolerance of the yeast and after a couple of weeks or so, it's good to bottle. Each yeast had its own tolerance so it's not easy to predict how much honey to use in the first place Do use plenty of nutrient to make sure the yeast is well and truly finished.
This is the way we do it in Valhalla, anyway.

You will end up with sediment on the bottom of everything you bottle carbonate.
As you have found this can be a problem if the yeast is easily disturbed.

There is a bit of a balancing act in how much time & effort do you want to put in.

You could decant I to clean bottles & leave the yeast behind, but this is often frowned on as it increases the likelihood of nasties getting in and turning it to vinegar. Also you have to top the bottles up to compensate for the bit you leave behind.


The 2 simplest solutions I could suggest are:

You could just put it in smaller bottles so you serve the whole bottle in one go & decant it off the yeast, rather than tilt a part filled bottle upright & disturb the yeast e.g. resuse small 330ml beer bottles or fancy tonic water bottles are smaller still.

Rather than pouring into a glass, get an opaque drinking vessel like a horn, wooden goblet or leather tankard like you see at Saxon vs Viking re-enactments.

It seems a shame not to try to salvage it as proper mead. I've never had honey which is so strong it tastes bad and I wonder if yours will mellow out.
If it were me, I'd empty the bottles back into a fermenter and deal with the whole lot together and don't bottle it until you're happy with it. Backsweetening the bottles won't work as it'll just make your bottles explode. Even then, the mead will improve for keeping it a year more.

What was your original gravity? Final gravity? Strong mead, 10%+, can take a long time to mellow.

MrRook said:

What was your original gravity? Final gravity? Strong mead, 10%+, can take a long time to mellow.

Click to expand...

Original was 1.058. End was 1.000 so it is 7.6%ish...pretty strong mead....although....one 500ml bottle is enough to send me to sleep or keep me talking nonsense all evening...lol...which suggests it's actually stronger. I do have a Brix Refractometer but I have never managed to get the hang of it...

Even so, maybe it does just need time... but it's already been 10 months....harvested the honey last September....

Laura Reid said:

Original was 1.058. End was 1.000 so it is 7.6%ish...pretty strong mead....although....one 500ml bottle is enough to send me to sleep or keep me talking nonsense all evening...lol...which suggests it's actually stronger. I do have a Brix Refractometer but I have never managed to get the hang of it...

Even so, maybe it does just need time... but it's already been 10 months....harvested the honey last September....

Click to expand...

No issues, here, most on this Forum, me especially, need no booze to talk nonsense.
What you might consider is making a very basic Saison - just base malt really, with just enough hops to bitter to be noticeable, then add all the rest of the Mead, Should be good to go in less than 8 weeks.

As others have said, time will sort it out for you, I've had some puckeringly dry meads that have become delightful with age.

Obviously not helpful in your situation, but for potential future reference, I tend to pasteurise my mead (75°C for about ten minutes seems to work) and back sweeten it in the process.

I often use single apiary/artisan honey and the initial brew can be a little overwhelming, it's a tipple that favours the glacially patient in my experience.

Laura Reid said:

I do have a Brix Refractometer but I have never managed to get the hang of it...

Click to expand...

I'll give you some instructions to help with that ...

1. Load your refractometer as described in the instructions ... (blah, blah, blah ... boring .... yawn).

2. Wait for a bit of sunshine and go outside. This might help to make the instrument easier to read. More importantly, it might mean there is people around to see what you're up to.

3. Stand bolt upright with legs slightly apart.

4. Hold instrument to eyes and tilt head back slightly.

5. Fold your other arm behind your back, fist clenched with back of hand against the lumber region of your back.

6. Put arm holding instrument back down and go back inside. Ignore any questions from anyone around and just look smug and aloof.

You should have your reading. If not get your hydrometer out but don't let anyone see you. Should work, but it might be a bloke thing, I can't figure that one out?

You could deal with the dryness issue by putting half an inch of apple juice in the bottom of your glass and pouring your mead onto it. I've had to do this on occasion for acidic cider and it helps greatly.