Back Sweeten Question

[max42]

Hope this is not a dumb question but I don't understand back sweetening. By that I mean if the mead has fermented to completion, no more hydrometer changes, why doesn't it restart fermenting if I add more sugar?

 

[fuelish]

Hope this is not a dumb question but I don't understand back sweetening. By that I mean if the mead has fermented to completion, no more hydrometer changes, why doesn't it restart fermenting if I add more sugar?

It very likely will, depending on the yeast's alcohol tolerance.....folks typically "stun" the yeast with chemicals, allowing them to backsweeten with honey or whatever with no additional fermenting. The only "backsweetening" I've ever done is when adding priming sugar (which isn't really enough to call backsweetening, this is in jest at my fails) to attempt to bottle carb a batch and it...doesn't...carb...LOL No big deal, although my wife prefers lighter carbed meads than the monsters I've been making...

 

[bernardsmith]

Hope this is not a dumb question but I don't understand back sweetening. By that I mean if the mead has fermented to completion, no more hydrometer changes, why doesn't it restart fermenting if I add more sugar?

If the mead has really fully fermented to completion (ie no more residual sugar to feed on) then you can back sweeten if you remove all the yeast before adding any sweetener. You do this primarily by allowing the mead to age and as it ages by racking to a clean and sanitized carboy every couple of months.*** After two or three rackings there should be very few yeast cells in the mead. It is at that point you add K-sorbate and K-meta. This will prevent any of the few cells - remember they have not eaten anything for months - from reproducing. Yeast has a limited life-span (not sure how long any one cell can live) , but if they have nothing to eat and there are very few AND you have added chemicals to prevent those still in the mead from budding and reproducing then they really cannot convert very much of any additional sugar. It is then and only then you can add sweetener and then bottle
*** each time I rack , I rack onto K-meta and this prevents or inhibits oxidation. When you stabilize and add k-sorbate you should also add k-meta at the same time.

 

[BrewTech117]

Not dumb question I always wondered the same thing - im doing a cider and wondering how i can back sweeten as well - i hear they make tabs you can use to kill the yeast once you reach your final grav. than add the sweet flavor in my case a brown sugar. This is what i plan to do.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not dumb question I always wondered the same thing - im doing a cider and wondering how i can back sweeten as well - i hear they make tabs you can use to kill the yeast once you reach your final grav. than add the sweet flavor in my case a brown sugar. This is what i plan to do.

The chemicals that are used are K-meta and K-sorbate. But they do not kill yeast. Try it to use these chemicals on active fermentation and you will see how they do not stop fermentation in active process. What they do (together) is act as a kind of contraceptive to prevent yeast from budding, so a large healthy colony of yeast will be able to ferment a small quantity of residual sugar.