Faults and what caused them

Nearly every mead fault has a cause you could have named on the first day:

• Rotten eggs is hydrogen sulphide from yeast starved of nitrogen; splash-racking or time clears it.
• A stuck ferment is starvation, heat or cold, or too much sugar for the yeast.
• A hot, solvent taste is fusel alcohol from fermenting too warm, and only long ageing softens it.
• Sherry, nuts or wet cardboard is oxidation, from too much air.

That is useful, because it means the fault is a lesson rather than bad luck.

In this game a batch's faults are set by its recipe and shown before pitching. Rotten eggs adds 90 days to clearing, or a splash-rack clears it for 3 percent of the volume. Hot adds 180 days.