mead or vinegar?

[susies]

hi
I thought my raspberry mead had turned to vinegar, so i bottled it about a week ago. when i opened it today it exploded all over the place. is it truly vinegar yet, or can i save it somehow. still, as mead?

[Christopher Weeks]

How's it taste?

[susies]

it tastes a little sweet, somewhat like kombucha. it's actually delicious but only in a small dose.

[FermentingYeti]

First, if it exploded all over, you may want to rack it with an airlock and give it time to finish fermenting. I've bottled after a couple months in the secondary fermenter and still had corks pop. I have yet to have a bottle explode, but that's definitely something to avoid.

In answer to your question, if it tastes good, that's what's important. Wild fermented brews can have a vinegary taste to some, as they're using the same type of fermenting process as kombucha, cider, etc. I'm curious if others have managed to wild-ferment meads that didn't have at least some degree of vinegary flavor. I bottled a batch recently that I had relegated to vinegar and was labeling the bottles as such. My wife, who likes, drier, more tart flavors than I do said it was my best yet. So, it has a lot to do with taste preferences. Regardless, I'd say always go ahead and bottle and wait at least a year before trying. You'll know by then whether to give the rest more time to age or to go ahead and start using them as vinegar.