Stinky Mead

[RedneckRich]

I think I messed up somewhere.

I made a yeast starter as follows...
In a sanitized wine bottle, I added 2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice, 1 tsp sugar, 1 packet Lalvin D47 yeast, 1 cup warm water. I then plugged the wine bottle with a cotton ball.

One day later...
In a sanitized six quart crock pot, I heated 3.5# local honey and a half gallon of filtered water to 140 degrees for 20 minutes. I racked that into a sanitized, food grade, two gallon bucket. I added another half gallon of water.
Into a strainer bag, I added 1 orange (peeled), 1/2 a cinnamon stick, 1 clove flowerette, and 20 raisins, then tied the bag and added it to the must.
I added 2 tsp acid blend, 1 tsp yeast nutrient, 1/8 tsp tannin, each dissolved in 50 ml warm water.
After the must got to 78 degrees, I took an SG reading (1.102), then added the yeast and stirred gently.
Finally, I covered the bucket with cheesecloth and left it to sit. The next day, I verified that the fermentation was active by observing the bubbles coming from the must.

For a couple days, it smelled GREAT! Like sweet honey. Yummy! And it was fermenting very well. But this morning, I noticed that the fermentation had slowed considerably, and it didn't smell nearly as good. This evening, I racked it into a gallon jug, and it smells really bad - like something soured. Maybe the orange??? I racked over only the wine - nothing else. I'm not seeing any action in my airlock. I fear it's ruined. I'll wait it out and see what happens, but I don't have a good feeling about it. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[the_rayway]

Hmm, does it smell vinegary? Or more like pickles? Or rotten eggs? My daughter describes the smell of fermenting wine/mead as 'pickles'.

As the sugar is eaten by the yeast to make alcohol, it will lose most, if not all, of the sweetness it had originally. The alcohol smell/flavour will start to dominate.

If you give the jug a gentle, swirling shake - do any bubbles come up through the airlock? Have you taken a hydrometer reading to see if it's finished? Did you stir it while it was in the primary each day/several times per day?

 

[Deezil]

Whats the SG at now?

Willing to bet it's wanting some yeast nutrient..

 

[mmadmikes1]

Young meads can be GROSS!!!! Dont worry about it and please don't think you can drink this this year. Good old patience really needs to be practiced with meads. I avoid most citrus for this reason but my friends does oranges all the time and he loves the stuff

 

[RedneckRich]

The SG is 1.1! Very confusing, as the must bubbled for three days and the room smelled of yeast. It does bubble some when I swirl it but there's no action in the airlock. It tastes like an orange that got left on the counter for a few weeks. There no taste of honey, no taste of alcohol, and no taste of yeast.

Will I need more yeast?
How much yeast nutrient to add?
Should I rack it to the one-gallon carboy or to the two-gallon bucket? (I don't have a lid for the bucket but I have a cloth cover that I use to cover it with. I also have a seven-gallon fermenter bucket that has a lid.)


Thank you all for your replies.

 

[the_rayway]

Are you sure it's 1.100? Not 1.010, or 1.001?

 

[RedneckRich]

I must be drunk - or need to be. 1.016.
Still smells bad - I'm not making that up.
I made the yeast starter one week ago today (Saturday), then added it to the must on Sunday - six days ago. It didn't do much on Monday, but took off fermenting quite actively on Tuesday. Friday morning is when I noticed the off smell, and that fermentation had slowed.

Just one qualifying remark. I've made about 25 batches of kit wines with no problems, but this is only my 2nd try at a non-kit wine, and my first try at mead. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to smell and taste, and it will get better later. IDK??

Just thinking that if something truly is wrong, and it can be fixed, I'd like to be as proactive as possible.

Thanks for the help.

 

[the_rayway]

Ok, so you're already at about 11%ABV.

Have you been stirring it every day? Several times per day?

If it's a rotten egg smell, try beating the heck out of it to aerate - during primary you really need to do that a lot - the yeast needs it. So perhaps beat the snot out of it - if the smell starts to recede, you could splash rack and see it that helps a bit more?

Anyone else?

 

[mmadmikes1]

Ok again, Meads suck when young. Bubbles in air lock do not equal fermentation. My last mead fermented along slowly for 7 months. Rack it and get some of the CO2 out and see what happens. Is it warm enough and did you add more yeast nutruient? I step feed both honey and nutrients. If it is at 1.o16 it is close to, if not finished fermenting

 

[Deezil]

Sounds like to got stuck to me.
Kind of a tricky predicament now

Can you nail down the smell at all?
Do you have any way of degassing?

Wouldn't happen to have any Fermaid-O, huh?

If you dont have any way to degass, don't stress - but you'll want to 'splash rack' the mead a few times, like Mike suggested.. If the amount of CO2 that bubbles up on the surface while racking, visibly diminishes, you'll want to add some K-Meta to the clean carboy before racking into it, to keep from oxidizing this batch, as it is already really close to out-of-sugar. Getting some of the CO2 out of the mead, will help to clarify the smell - it kind of muddles aromas and flavors

 

[BernardSmith]

I wonder what the pH of your mead is at this time. Honey itself is quite acidic and you added acid blend. I wonder if the pH is so low that it has stressed the yeast and the smell is coming from stressed yeast. I would take a pH reading and if the reading is close to 3.0 you may want to find some way to reduce the acidity to bring the pH up above 3.6

 

[mmadmikes1]

Do not add K meta on first rack OR IT WILL NOT FERMENT any further. Use the hydrometer to check for activity not bubbles. Sometimes the fermentation does not seem like it s happening but it is. Add yeast nutrients. Dont splash rack it, just normal racking is fine. It made need some O2 and regular racking will release CO2. It is going to smell bad at this age and as long as it does not smell like rotten eggs you are good. Never worry about vinegar with mead. honey stops that. Make sure your temps are in 70's. This is mead and not kit wine. It is not going to play by same rules

 

[Deezil]

Of course dont sulfite on the first racking, but possibly on the 5th. If splash-racking is making the smell go away (CO2 is usually the culprit for me), of course you want the smell gone, and you dont want to oxidize the mead, as theres no room for more real fermentation to consume any dissolved oxygen you supply by racking. So you get to add sulfites, at some point..

And adding generic yeast nutrient will do more harm than good, as the yeast are mostly-past the point of consuming DAP/inorganic forms of nitrogen. That's why I asked about Fermaid-O, it's an organic form of nitrogen that the yeast will still consume, meaning you would have a better chance of restarting fermentation will less leftover nitrogen to fuel spoilage organisms.

Mike, I dont know where you got your 'vinegar information'. It's always a worry; the bacteria involved with making vinegar consumes alcohol and when you've thinned the honey out that far, there's no protection. I know some beekeepers that make Honey Vinegar, so...

Bernard might be onto something with the pH though

 

[mmadmikes1]

And yes at 1.01 there is little chance it is going to restart unless you add more honey. Dezill I have never had a single batch of anything I made turn to vinegar so I just operate as, if I dont introduce the bacteria it wont be a worry. I have never used anything but fermaid so I was using nutrient as a generic term

 

[RedneckRich]

Wow, there's a lot of knowledge in here! Thank you all for your contributions. Today's update: There's quite a bit of sediment at the bottom. I have it in the carboy under an air lock so I can't really tell if there's a difference in smell. If it's not finished, it's very close, so I'm not worried about further fermentation. If it does, that's great. If not, that's fine too. I have no ferm aid, and since I'm this far down the line, it's not worth it to try to restart the fermentation (if it has indeed stopped). I plan to rack it off the sediment, check the SG and PH, then degas. It's only a gallon, so the easiest way, I think, is just to shake it. I also have a fizz-x and a vacuum pump, but with just a gallon, I'll shake it a while. I could use the workout anyway. During all that, I'll have plenty of opportunity to observe the smell. Depending upon the outcome of the Ph test, I may also try to adjust that one way or the other. I won't add K-meta or K sorbate until the SG fully stabilizes, if it hasn't already.

Sound right?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[mmadmikes1]

No need for sorbate if you are not going to sweeten it

 

[RedneckRich]

SG went from 1.016 to 1.008 in a day, so it's still going. Ph is 3.2, measured with a Ph stick - I don't have a Ph meter. I racked it off the sediment and stirred it a bit. My wife says the odor is not foul. "I don't want to grab a straw and drink it, but I don't want to throw up either." To me, the odor is still yuk, but maybe not quite as bad as before. So, I think I'll leave it alone for a few days and see if it wants to ferment on out a little more.

 

[seth8530]

Yeah, looks like she is still creeping on along. I think it will work out just fine.

So my question for you.. Why make only one gallon?

 

[Droc]

My girlfriend thinks all my young meads smell like olive juice. But I just opened a small bottle of raspberry mead I've had in a bottle for 3 months and it's lost the majority of that smell.

 

[RedneckRich]

Not a lot of confidence that it will be fit to drink. I'd rather risk a gallon than five gallons. Honey is not cheap. Go Vols!