Homebrew Mead Wine

[GilpinGuy]

I'd try redstone meadery's stuff.

The taste profile you describe is fusels and the result of stressing the yeast by fermenting at too high of an ambient temperature. It takes time to mellow. What I'm reading about that indicates age for 6 months or so.

Good to know, thanks. I'll have to find a cooler place.

And yes, it's Redstone. It's all I can seem to find around here. I'll have to pick up a bottle.

[Irving]

I found some plum wine that was bottled in 2009 at my grandpa's place. How do I check if it's safe to drink? There is a lot of it.

[CS1983]

https://www.coravin.com/blog/WineGoneBad/

http://winefolly.com/tutorial/how-to...-has-gone-bad/

[Irving]

Thanks, sounds like it should be safe enough to taste and won't kill me.

[CS1983]

Anyone you have around familiar with plum wine and/or are you?

I wouldn't trust myself to know if X item is good to go unless I am familiar with the baseline. For example, all liquor tastes like it should be throw away to me.

[Irving]

Not that I know of. I figure I'll grab a bottle and try some. Both links said over and over that it shouldn't hurt you, even if it is bad. If it tastes good I'll drink it, if not, I won't. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Brian]

I didn't check the abv. Just poured into a bottle (now empty) and started sippin out of a glass on a whim. At this point I'd say it has a rather high alcohol content. LOL

I guess you could call it a sort of gasoline after taste, but not nearly as strong. It's totally drinkable though.

The mead is crystal clear and looks awesome. My uneducated guess is that more time will cure the aftertaste.

Funny, I never even tried mead before brewing it, so I have no frame of reference at all. I might have to break down and buy one of the $20 bottles at the liquor store and compare. It's Stonegate or something like that. Worth a try or is it garbage?

Mead has a reputation for being pretty sweet, though that might not be fair anymore since it's started to gain popularity. There's just a lot more variety. When I first started playing around with wines and meads, it was hard to distinguish whether the odd burning flavors were related to issues with fermentation that I could learn to prevent, or just part of having a higher ABV result. But either way, the two most common suggestions were letting it age or adding back some sort of sweetener. Even if you prefer a dry result, adding even a bit more sugars back (honey, sugar, whatever) to your result can change the flavor and mask that harshness somehow. Just do it a little at a time. It's also why measuring ABV is important, because you'll probably find that your preference lands you in a particular range combo of sweetness and/or ABV and then you can target that next time around.

IMHO, the super-high ABV results tent to yield less tasty drinks, but can be fun contests in some ways to see how far you can push fermentation. I have some hooch in the basement that is basically only useful for bragging rights when friends come over.

[Brian]

I found some plum wine that was bottled in 2009 at my grandpa's place. How do I check if it's safe to drink? There is a lot of it.

Send me a bottle and I'll try it for you.

Seriously though, from everything I've read it's fairly hard to create something too harmful. If air gets to it, you'll be drinking vinegar but you'll figure that out pretty quick. Most bacteria that can live in alcohol are not hurtful and often used on purpose for sours.

It would be nice to know at least a little bit about how it was made though. I had plum wine once that a buddy made and it was awesome.

[Irving]

Send me a bottle and I'll try it for you.

Seriously though, from everything I've read it's fairly hard to create something too harmful. If air gets to it, you'll be drinking vinegar but you'll figure that out pretty quick. Most bacteria that can live in alcohol are not hurtful and often used on purpose for sours.

It would be nice to know at least a little bit about how it was made though. I had plum wine once that a buddy made and it was awesome.

The only thing I know about it, is that it was probably made from the plum tree that is on the property, and has been since before I was born. Other than that, if it tastes okay, I don't see why I couldn't get you a bottle.

[Brian]

I really wish I had enough property for fruit trees. Sounds like it's probably more work than I imagine but it would be nice to be able to bottle your own juice and alcohol based on a personal orchard.

And yeah, we do need to figure out how to have an exchange or swap sometime, maybe this spring or something. Winter is a good time for having bubbling carboys in the basement.