Acid Questions

[eogaard]

My last mead was a blueberry vanilla sweet mead. I fermented dry then backsweetened and added the blueberries in secondary. I liked the flavor and the amount of sweetness, but it just seemed flat to me. My current project is a pear mead with about the same sweetness. It's done fermenting already and the pears are in, but the taste has the same flatness to it. I've never tested the acid of my mead and I've read that adding a bit of acid can make the flavor more robust. What sort of acid should I use? Malic, citric, tartaric, a blend? What are the differences?

 

[biochemedic]

Not having ever been a winemaker, I don't really know a whole lot about which acids are best for what, but that being said, I do think that most fruit meads benefit from some acidity, especially if you backsweeten. I use a blend that I get from my old LHBS that has 50% tartaric acid, 25% citric acid and 25% malic acid. It seems to work well enough for me...I add to taste just before packaging. It helps to make up a solution that you can add various amounts of to some 1 oz samples of your mead, and then once you figure out where it works, you have to crunch some numbers to scale up to your full batch size. I try to go a little on the lower side, and then add a bit more if necessary...can always add more, can't take it out!

 

[Yooper]

My last mead was a blueberry vanilla sweet mead. I fermented dry then backsweetened and added the blueberries in secondary. I liked the flavor and the amount of sweetness, but it just seemed flat to me. My current project is a pear mead with about the same sweetness. It's done fermenting already and the pears are in, but the taste has the same flatness to it. I've never tested the acid of my mead and I've read that adding a bit of acid can make the flavor more robust. What sort of acid should I use? Malic, citric, tartaric, a blend? What are the differences?

Acid blend is a blend of all three of those acids and I like it for most things. You can buy some (it's cheap) and put some of your mead in a glass and add a tiny bit at a time and see if it "brightens" up the flavor- it should.

Malic acid is the acid that is predominant in some fruits- think green apples, blackberries, raspberries, etc. It's that "bite" you get from those fruits. Citric acid is found in citrus fruits- think of a squeeze of lemon in ice tea. Tartaric acid is the predominant acid in wine grapes.

You can also try a tiny squeeze of lemon juice in your sample glass, to see if you like it better. Then you'll know which direction to go.

 

[eogaard]

Thanks! That helps a ton