Back Sweetening

[Dean Wyatt]

We have just started to bottle our first years fermentation of mead. It has been stored for 11 months since the yeast was finished and racked 3 times each. No question we went a bit light on the honey(this was our first time attempting anything like this) and they are astringent. Our first bottling we back sweetened and ended with a specific gravity of 1.012 which we thought tasted pretty nice. We used honey as the back sweetener and after bottling we noticed that the finished product took on a very slightly cloudy appearance as if the honey was in suspension. It was very clear prior to the campden and back sweetening. Any ideas what happened? This was and Old Irish style mead with raisins/oranges/lemons/and spices and had a nice flavour.
We also added the campden tablet to our blackberry melomel and it was sparkling clear and now is murky??? we added potassium sorbate to day to see if that will clear it. Did not expect the campden to alter the clarity of the mead. Any ideas??
We used our own honey from our own bees(same as we brewed with) to keep it pure.
Dean

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Dean and welcome. When you add honey to back sweeten the honey will in fact make the clear mead go cloudy. That said, the best way to deal with this is to add your finings after you back sweeten and not before. You can still add fining agents to clear the turbidity caused by the honey. Cannot say whether you want positive or negatively charged agents but you could try some bentonite.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I’ve been sweetening before I bulk age so it gets a chance to clear again, and it usually does.

 

[Maylar]

Post ferment I've found Super Kleer to be about the best fining. It handles both positive and negative charges. As a side note, if you add oak in secondary after sweetening, the tannin in the oak will bind to honey haze and help it clear.

 

[Dean Wyatt]

Seamonkey84 mentioned that they back sweeten prior to bulk aging. We noticed that the change in taste over the 11 months was quite dramatic and how would you know how much to add early on when things are still changing? We still have 2 more gallons to bottle that we have put the campden in and potassium sorbate but we have not back sweetened yet and I image that this honey haze will probably happen again? Everywhere we read said to back sweeten after campden and potassium sorbate so we are really confused. We are thinking that we should just leave it for a while longer(after back sweetening) and see what happens and then rack again before bottling. Time doesn't matter. We are in no hurry. What do you think. Will it ever go away without chemicals which we would rather not use?

 

[Seamonkey84]

The ones I’ve back sweetened are to what the recipe suggests. I tried with less, but needed more. So first time with a recipe I aim for a bit less than I think I’ll need, can always add more later and let it clear again. Mind you, I front loaded as much honey as I though I needed up front and it stoped due to exceeding Published alcohol tolerance using the BOMM protocol. That left me with residual sugar, plus more honey that I added at the end. Then I let it clear and racked when needed. I haven’t used any stabilizers. But if you aren’t at tolerance or want to be on the safe side, sorbate and sulfite once your clear and racked, then sweeten after. Let it sit and age. Adjust before bottling If needed

 

[Amonratut]

I’ve been sweetening before I bulk age so it gets a chance to clear again, and it usually does.

How much honey do you use to back sweeten a 1 gallon batch of Mead?

 

[bushpilot]

How much honey do you use to back sweeten a 1 gallon batch of Mead?

It depends on what you got, and what you want. For me, if the mead is bone dry, I generally add about 1/4 cup of honey per gallon.

Start with less, perhaps 1/8 cup.

 

[Seamonkey84]

That really depends on what your making and what you want for flavor/sweetness. The berry mead I made was very tart, had to add honey till it was 1.025-1.030 to be good, and then it was very good lol.

 

[Amonratut]

Do you warm the honey before adding?