I just racked a cider to secondary(*), and have reharvested/washed the White Labs 720 (sweet mead/cider) yeast that I used to ferment it. My intent is to use this stuff to make mead about a month from now, when I can dedicate a carboy to such a long-term project.
I'm wondering about "sweet" mead. How is it made (as opposed to dry mead)?
My naive guess is that it's done by having more fermentable sugars than the yeast can ferment before it reaches its alcohol tolerance. If I ass/u/me I'll have a F.G. of 0.995, for example, and the yeast is rated as being able to handle about 15% ABV, then that suggests the highest O.G. would be 15/131 = .114 gravities higher than the F.G. Thus, if I add enough honey to get O.G. of 1.109 or more, then any excess fermentable sugar beyond that will fail to ferment, due to the yeast shutting down when it hits 15% ABV. Result: sweet.
I'm skeptical that it's really that simple. And I'm nervous about predicting the F.G.
I'm also nervous that if anything living which has a higher-than-15% tolerance manages to get into there, I'll have serious infection risk, since it won't really be "competing" with the much larger yeast pitch. The yeast will "lose" by default, having given up and flocced when the mead got too alcoholic. Invader gets to take its sweet time (heh) consuming the remaining sugar.
(*) I'm not sure racking the cider was really necessary. I guess it will help with clarity, but the sediment isn't really the usual trub I get with beer (which presumably will add off-flavors if you let it sit there a couple months). Did I rack merely out of habit, or was there some good reason (i.e. retroactively-applied justification) for that? ;-)
I'm wondering about "sweet" mead. How is it made (as opposed to dry mead)?
My naive guess is that it's done by having more fermentable sugars than the yeast can ferment before it reaches its alcohol tolerance. If I ass/u/me I'll have a F.G. of 0.995, for example, and the yeast is rated as being able to handle about 15% ABV, then that suggests the highest O.G. would be 15/131 = .114 gravities higher than the F.G. Thus, if I add enough honey to get O.G. of 1.109 or more, then any excess fermentable sugar beyond that will fail to ferment, due to the yeast shutting down when it hits 15% ABV. Result: sweet.
I'm skeptical that it's really that simple. And I'm nervous about predicting the F.G.
I'm also nervous that if anything living which has a higher-than-15% tolerance manages to get into there, I'll have serious infection risk, since it won't really be "competing" with the much larger yeast pitch. The yeast will "lose" by default, having given up and flocced when the mead got too alcoholic. Invader gets to take its sweet time (heh) consuming the remaining sugar.
(*) I'm not sure racking the cider was really necessary. I guess it will help with clarity, but the sediment isn't really the usual trub I get with beer (which presumably will add off-flavors if you let it sit there a couple months). Did I rack merely out of habit, or was there some good reason (i.e. retroactively-applied justification) for that? ;-)