My almost 1 year old mead had fermented in the bottle

HeartOfGold · Oct 12, 2024

Earlier this year I had an issue with bad sorbate. This was the only one that I filtered and I thought it was good as it was stable for months.

Well, I was wrong. Not sure when I checked them last time around 6 months, it's now 10. Thank god I packaged them to a container. This was one of the best things I've made and the most expensive. I'm ****** off to the seller who sold that bad sorbate. K-sorbate was sold out from the LHBS at the time when I needed it, and I had to buy from a different store.

R.I.P

HeartOfGold · Oct 12, 2024

Well, at least I got to drink a few bottles of it. Nice taste, the honey flavor has aged out, but it gives body to it and I get some peppery (black pepper) notes in the taste. Lovely, but ****.

Buy your sorbate from a reliable source. Definitely don't buy it from a non-homebrew store like I did.

MashBag · Oct 12, 2024

Why do you think it's the sorbate?

HeartOfGold · Oct 12, 2024

MashBag said:
Why do you think it's the sorbate?

I always use the same amount of sorbate. I add 1.5g per 10l, I used for some time a mix of k-meta, sorbate, and gelating, it's is sold here as a "fast-fine" (pic below) I never had issues with that one. I made three with that bad sorbate in a 100g pouch and all of them fermented in the bottle and had to be pasteurized. I bought new sorbate from sweden and I've had no issues. three in the bottle, one has been since july.

MashBag · Sunday at 7:52 AM

I would venture it was not fermented dry for some some reason, or it later woke up. Wines are seasonal and perfectly dormant wines can & do burst into live in spring.

In 1000's of liters I have only used K-meta and nothing else.

That said, your logic is quite sound. And mead in particular is notoriously dynamic because of variations in honey content. A bad batch of sorbate - perhaps badly kept or out of date could have failed. But does your process rely on it that much?

Dunno every day is a school day.

HeartOfGold · Sunday at 3:50 PM

I backsweeten everything I make about 10 points so yes. My theory is that it was old stock that was relabeled as it had a bbd in 2025.

MashBag · Sunday at 6:45 PM

Hang on, you kept that quiet.... What do you back sweeten with and when

HeartOfGold · Sunday at 8:12 PM

I added campden tablets and k-sorbate 4 days after it fermented dry, and I didn't write it on my notes, but I back sweetened with honey maybe like a month after that.

One other I made, I back sweetened it 5 weeks after stabilizing and I had to pasteurize them a week after that.

An Ankoù · Sunday at 10:19 PM

Not the way I make mead. I choose the yeast to the strength I want and then keep feeding it with fresh honey until it has stopped fermenting and has reached the required degree of sweetness. It then stays in the fermenter for 4 to 6 months before going into the bottle and kept for at least a year to mellow down. Never used MBS. Never even allowed sorbate in the house. Never thought of mead as a short-term project.
And it slows right down towards the end even with adequate nutrient.

MashBag · Monday at 7:45 AM

HeartOfGold said:
I added campden tablets and k-sorbate 4 days after it fermented dry, and I didn't write it on my notes, but I back sweetened with honey maybe like a month after that.

One other I made, I back sweetened it 5 weeks after stabilizing and I had to pasteurize them a week after that.

You are not cooking a meal (stick with me

).
Never think of fermented drinks as a mechanical recipe a+b+c= yeast are organic living things and as such they go there own way.

Just like puppies.

You told the puppy to sit & stay (with all the chemicals) and then after it had perhaps forgotten you gave the puppy breakfast (honey)

I know what popped the corks. And it wasn't the sorbate.

If you want to backsweeten use something nonfermatable (but not Stevia)

HeartOfGold · Monday at 3:05 PM

So the sorbate isn't at fault but not using non fermentable to back sweeten is, gotcha.

An Ankoù said:
Not the way I make mead. I choose the yeast to the strength I want and then keep feeding it with fresh honey until it has stopped fermenting and has reached the required degree of sweetness. It then stays in the fermenter for 4 to 6 months before going into the bottle and kept for at least a year to mellow down. Never used MBS. Never even allowed sorbate in the house. Never thought of mead as a short-term project.
And it slows right down towards the end even with adequate nutrient.

Good luck making a session mead.

And what made you think it was a short-term project?

Goodbye!

P.S I didn't make this topic to listen to complaints about how your Appeal to nature brewing is better than the modern way.

Chippy_Tea · Monday at 3:28 PM

HeartOfGold said:
Goodbye!
P.S I didn't make this topic to listen to complaints about how your Appeal to nature brewing is better than the modern way.

An Ankoù · Monday at 4:14 PM

HeartOfGold said:
P.S I didn't make this topic to listen to complaints about how your Appeal to nature brewing is better than the modern way.

Here we go.
What did you start the topic for, then?
Because your way hasn't worked, has it?
You said nothing about session-strength mead, but for your info, there's no such thing as bad potassium sorbate, it's either what it claims to be or it isn't. If it was potassium sorbate then you've gone wrong somewhere.

So I suggest there's little point in asking for advice if you're going to be rude when you receive genuine pointers.
Your "gotcha" response to mashbag's "puppies" parable in post #11 indicates you don't really know what you're doing, do you!

Pass the popcorn @Chippy_Tea

MashBag · Monday at 4:16 PM

@HeartOfGold
Have you tried hopped mead. I did. Very nice.

Would it suit a wee session mead number?

Chippy_Tea · Monday at 4:21 PM

An Ankoù said:
So I suggest there's little point in asking for advice if you're going to be rude when you receive genuine pointers.
Your "gotcha" response to mashbag's "puppies" parable in post #11 indicates you don't really know what you're doing, do you!

Pass the popcorn @Chippy_Tea

Maybe a change of username to HeartOfMould would be more fitting

Sorry couldn't resist - i will get @The Baron to give me a warning for taking the thread off topic.

An Ankoù · Monday at 4:24 PM

MashBag said:
@HeartOfGold
Have you tried hopped mead. I did. Very nice.

Would it suit a wee session mead number?

I've been wanting to make a methaglin, but haven't settled on a recipe: some use hops, others use ginger, and those are just from some of the recipes I've seen.
Would you like to share your recipe, @MashBag?
Made a braggot and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll be making another when I get back from sunny Wales and hope it's ready for Yule.

Druss · Monday at 4:52 PM

I did 'session strength' all natural mead (pasteurised before bottling) for many years, only in the last few months completely scrapped the idea as it was such a fickle beast.

There's only so many times I can walk into my shed to the distinct smell of spilled mead and see a couple of empty bottles in the rack and a colossal mess all over the floor/walls/furniture.

Campden tablets and potassium sorbate every time for me now, all natural was a nice dream, but it came at too heavy a price.

HeartOfGold · Monday at 4:53 PM

An Ankoù said:
Here we go.
What did you start the topic for, then?
Because your way hasn't worked, has it?
You said nothing about session-strength mead, but for your info, there's no such thing as bad potassium sorbate, it's either what it claims to be or it isn't. If it was potassium sorbate then you've gone wrong somewhere.

So I suggest there's little point in asking for advice if you're going to be rude when you receive genuine pointers.
Your "gotcha" response to mashbag's "puppies" parable in post #11 indicates you don't really know what you're doing, do you!

Pass the popcorn @Chippy_Tea

My mead was 12%. I didn't ask for advice, but condolences

and I shared info to:

Buy your sorbate from a reliable source. Definitely don't buy it from a non-homebrew store like I did.

I have replaced it with good sorbate months ago and I have no issues with it. I use the same 1.5g/10l liters. That settles it then. It was fake sorbate after all.

EDIT: Looking at the info on the store, it says made in china for it. Might actually be fake from China.

MashBag said:
@HeartOfGold
Have you tried hopped mead. I did. Very nice.

Would it suit a wee session mead number?

I've only drank and made hopped cider. I was planning a braggot, but I have other things that have more priority, like a bochet and a pyment (or black mead).

An Ankoù · Monday at 7:52 PM

HeartOfGold said:
I didn't ask for advice, but condolences

Makes sense now. You needed the R.I.P. thread.

Glad to see you've worked it out for yourself.

With our deepest sympathies.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/r-i-p-thread.90629/post-965309

HeartOfGold · 2024-10-19T04:32:16+0100

Not sure what benefits you live on, but I live on unemployment.

Anyway just checked in to tell that if you want good advice with mead you should give a call to

MightyMosin On HBT. I don't like the forum, but he's a good dude with amazin advice there. Don't listen to these people here.

Stabilze by The God aka yeast tolerance will just get you you broken bottles.

My almost 1 year old mead had fermented in the bottle

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