I'm trying to figure out what a "safe" specific gravity would be for maintaining some must longer-term (maybe a month or two?) to use as backsweeting later, minimizing additive usage.
I looked up the SG of honey (1.425), and attempting to make some sense out of the above numbers, (using
this)
Assuming I'm doing math that makes sense (dubious), honey has a sugar content of 1110.53g/L. It's currently 30% water, dangerous at 70%, so I think that means the minimum should be 1111/.7*.3=476g/L sugar. Going backwards using that number, a SG of 1.182 is the lowest that honey is safe at long term.
My OG is 1.095, putting it at about half the sugar density of the 'safe' honey amount (though it's sweetened peach juice, not honey).
I have a gallon of must sitting in the fridge. Do I need to add campden/metabisulfite to it right now, or can I wait until everything is fully fermented and I've racked a couple of times before using it to backsweeten, then adding preservatives to the whole thing all at once? I suppose I could also pop it in the freezer, but I imagine that would have a negative effect on taste.
(I realize this is an old thread, but it is by far the most relevant one I could find. the word 'must' must be pretty common, because searching for it isn't helpful
)