Back sweeten or...front sweeten? Sweet traditional mead

[giuzep89]

Hey guys,
I'd like to make a traditional mead of around 10% alcohol and quite a bit of leftover sweetness (dessert wine-like). I tried stabilizing the mead with sulfites in the past after adding honey, but for some reason the fermentation started again some time later...
Is there a sure-fire way to make sure it won't start fermenting again? I thought that maybe it was because the honey I added after stabilizing it wasn't pasteurized and might have been full of yeast...

Alternatively, has any of you tried to make a sweet mead by adding more honey than the yeast's alcohol tolerance? Does that work or is it too unreliable?

 

[lumpher]

To truly stabilize, you need to use potassum metabisulfite AND potassium sorbate. Sorbate stops the existing yeast cells from multiplying and is more of a stabilizer, and k-meta kills the yeast. The problem is k-meta doesn't kill all the yeast; some is left, and without sorbate the surviving yeast cells will replicate and start right back up. Sorbate will stop the existing cells from replicating and restarting fermentation, so they'll just die off instead. Basically. by pairing them up you're exterminating what you can and sterilizing the rest.

 

[giuzep89]

Gotcha. Are there guidelines to know how much of each to use?

 

[MightyMosin]

This is what I use:

pH of Mead	grams of K-Meta per 1 gallon
3.2​	0.138​
3.3​	0.171​
3.4​	0.210​
3.5​	0.256​
3.6​	0.322​
3.7​	0.414​
3.8​	0.519​
3.9​	0.644​
4​	0.810​

K-Sorbate
ABV	Sorbic acid (mg/L)	g/gallon
5.5%	275.00​	1.40​
6.0%	250.00​	1.30​
6.5%	237.50​	1.20​
7.0%	225.00​	1.10​
7.5%	212.50​	1.05​
8.0%	200.00​	1.00​
8.5%	187.50​	0.85​
9.0%	175.00​	0.90​
9.5%	162.50​	0.85​
10.0%	150.00​	0.80​
10.5%	137.50​	0.70​
11.0%	125.00​	0.60​
11.5%	112.50​	0.55​
12.0%	100.00​	0.50​
12.5%	87.50​	0.45​
13.0%	75.00​	0.40​
13.5%	62.50​	0.35​
14.0%	50.00​	0.30​
14.5%	37.50​	0.25​
15.0%	25.00​	0.20​

The K-Meta amounts are still a bit of a "shotgun" approach, though much less than saying add xx per gallon with no reference to the pH. The ideal way involves using a meter to measure the Free SO2 in the mead so you know exactly how much is needed and to then test again to see if what was added is all free or if some of it became bound.

 

[Maylar]

Short of all that ^^^

I use the standard 1/4 tsp for 5 gallons or 1 Campden tablet per gallon. Never had a problem.

And K-Meta doesn't kill the yeast. It acts as an antioxidant for long term storage and prevents the Sorbate from being metabolized into geraniol by Lactic Acid Bacteria. Much more of a problem with wine than mead.

It's the K-Sorbate that stabilizes the mead. 1/2 TSP per gallon does the trick for me. But the ferment must be completely finished first.