backsweetening

when back sweetening a mead, is it best to use honey or sugar?
I've been told that backsweetening with honey makes it too over powering.
is that true?

No.

ETA: however, it's said that when replacing sugar with honey, it only takes 3/4 c of honey to replace the sweetness in 1 c of sugar. That may be where the people who say honey will make it too overpowering are going wrong.

ah thanks, I'll keep that in mind

The other thing to consider is that backsweetening with sugar will also change the taste. Most of us back sweeten with honey to keep the flavors. I have been known to backsweeten with Lactose or Maltodextrin to add a creamy mouth feel but mostly I rely on honey as there isn't much sweetness as you would expect in lactose or maltodextrin. I recomend you stick with honey. Some use the same honey they did the primary fermentation with and some mix it up and see it as an opertunity to mix honeys. Use your judgement.

Matrix

Right. Why sweeten with sugar if the point is to be making mead?

huesmann said:

No.

ETA: however, it's said that when replacing sugar with honey, it only takes 3/4 c of honey to replace the sweetness in 1 c of sugar. That may be where the people who say honey will make it too overpowering are going wrong.

Click to expand...

I presume those quantities should be the other way round ? As sugar is more sweet than sugar ?

Plus the other issue that I find with back sweetening with honey, is that it can cause a haze in the mead if added to an already cleared mead.

While it's normal to back sweeten before bottling, I usually let my ferments finish, then I'll rack off the sediment onto stabilising chems (sorbate/sulphites) and then add honey water syrup (50/50) a little at a time up to between 1.010 and 1.015 (where I like my meads). Only then do I think about the clearing.

It's a PITA to have got to the effort of clearing a batch only to have it haze up and have to clear it again........ So I just have to clear it once.....

YMMV, but it seems to work for me

fatbloke said:

I presume those quantities should be the other way round ? As sugar is more sweet than sugar ?

Click to expand...

Sugar more sweet than sugar?

Cooks.com - Recipe - Substituting Honey For Sugar

he is reffering to honey as a sugar. thus the question, A sugar sweeter than sugar?

Still doesn't make sense.

Given that honey is only 80% sugar how could it be sweeter than 100% sugar?

its not always about sugar level but taste. some honeys taste a whole lot sweeter than others even with the same sugar content.

start small work your way up. its easy to add more.

Um, also, consider that granulated sugar is not solid sugar.

1 cup of granulated sugar weighs 7.06 oz.
1 cup of honey weighs 12 oz.

Think about it.

honey is much richer than suger, this couldbe where people are getting confused. it seems sweeter because it effects more parts of your mouth in the tasting process.

Different sugars have different sweetnesses, this is why soda company's use fructose to sweeten their drinks (high fructose corn sugar). Fructose is much sweeter than sucrose (table sugar), which is sweeter than glucose. Maybe the mix of sugars in honey is sweeter than table sugar. Possibly due to higher fructose levels.