First Time Backsweetening...Please Excuse the Noob Questions

[SenorPepe]

Hi guys
I'm getting ready to bottle my first two mead attempts. I got a really helpful response here last time I posted so I figured I'd ask here even though I'm sure it gets asked a lot. I just want to make sure since I'm getting conflicting info from the LHBS guy. Short backdrop: I have a dry mead and a dry cyser that have been in their gallon jugs for about 4 months. I'm moving and want to make more mead so I'd like to bottle them. I'd like to backsweeten both. When I went to the LHBS and said that, the guy gave me just Potassium Sorbate. I didn't really think too much about this until I got home and remembered reading threads on the sorbate stopping reproduction but not killing yeast, etc. and I just want to make sure before I have to trek to the LHBS again. Am I going to need something else besides sorbate (I assume sulfite)?

I also have a question about the honey for backsweetening. Both of these (a JAOM that went dry and a simple cyser) were made with regular, cheap store bough honey. Since then I've gotten some local wildflower honey, way darker and more flavorful than the supermarket stuff. Should I backsweeten with supermarket honey or the wildflower?

Thanks guys.

 

[fatbloke]

Hi guys
I'm getting ready to bottle my first two mead attempts. I got a really helpful response here last time I posted so I figured I'd ask here even though I'm sure it gets asked a lot. I just want to make sure since I'm getting conflicting info from the LHBS guy. Short backdrop: I have a dry mead and a dry cyser that have been in their gallon jugs for about 4 months. I'm moving and want to make more mead so I'd like to bottle them. I'd like to backsweeten both. When I went to the LHBS and said that, the guy gave me just Potassium Sorbate. I didn't really think too much about this until I got home and remembered reading threads on the sorbate stopping reproduction but not killing yeast, etc. and I just want to make sure before I have to trek to the LHBS again. Am I going to need something else besides sorbate (I assume sulfite)?

I also have a question about the honey for backsweetening. Both of these (a JAOM that went dry and a simple cyser) were made with regular, cheap store bough honey. Since then I've gotten some local wildflower honey, way darker and more flavorful than the supermarket stuff. Should I backsweeten with supermarket honey or the wildflower?

Thanks guys.

Too stabilise, you would normally use the Sorbate in conjunction with sulphite - yes you can use them at the same time. The normal measurement is something like 1 crushed campden tablet (for the sulphite) per gallon and the Sorbate is something like 1/2 tsp per gallon.

As for using honey to back sweeten, yes it's fine. I'd suggest that you mix a syrup of half honey and half water. Then add it a small amount at a time, each time you add some, take a sample of with the new amount of honey in the mead and take a gravity reading, once the reading is recorded, put most of the sample back into the batch (obviously during the testing part, carry out the usual sanitation procedures) but keep a little bit to taste. That way, you get used to the approximate levels of sweetness both in the numbers and also to your taste.

The one issue that might arise, when back sweetening with honey, is that it can cause a previously clear mead to become hazy again. This, it seems, is a protein haze issue, caused by proteins in the honey. It's an issue, but not a problem, as the last time I did this, I left it in the hope that it would drop out naturally - which after 6 months, it hadn't, so I just used some 2 part finings and it was clear in 24 hours and just needed to be racked off the haze sediment.

As for the nice honey you have to try the back sweetening, well that will probably end up as the predominant honey flavour, though a little diluted by the back ground taste of the original honey used in the batch(es).

Sounds like a PITA, but it's not really. I'm not too keen on dry meads, equally I'm not too keen on overly sweet ones (I tried 4 commercially made ones a couple of years ago, and they were all in the 1.035 to 1.042 range - cloyingly sweet). I've worked out that I like mine at about 1.010 to 1.020 so hence my suggestion of how you work out what you like - then you'll know for the future.

The ferment dry and back sweeten method is infinitely easier than trying to ferment to a certain level to retain residual sugars - trying to set the ferment to a specific level is quite difficult (and IMO a PITA).

regards

fatbloke

 

[SenorPepe]

Thanks fatbloke. Very helpful. I am kicking myself a little for using my the 2 part finings before backsweetening; I didn't consider adding a haze. Oh well. Is it important to let it bulk age after backsweetening? I'd like to kinda get these things in bottles, at least within the next month before I move.

 

[Insomniac]

You only realy NEED to bulk age long enough to ensure that the new honey has fully mixed, that fermentation hasn't started up again and to get your finings in. Though people here will probably list the many benefits of bulk aging I also had the "must bottle soon" issue and have had no problems doing so.

 

[SenorPepe]

Right on. Thanks, Insomniac. I think I'm up on the bulk aging v. bottle aging debate in general, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't universally recommended to bulk age it long after sweetening. I'll just stabilize, backsweeten, make sure there's no renewed fermentation, fine it (possibly) and bottle that sucker up. Aye aye.

 

[fatbloke]

When I'm planning to back sweeten with honey, I now, do it when it's finished the ferment, rather than waiting until after clearing.

That's purely because the 2 y.o. batch of heather honey mead I made took a long time to clear and then I went and added the honey only to get the bloody haze back.

Hence my comment about just checking the level of sweetness when back sweetening with honey and not worrying too much about the end flavour. The idea being that I know it'll be sweet enough for my taste, irrespective of whether it's still a little cloudy.

I like to let it clear naturally as well, and the "master plan" being that if the honey does cause further hazing, I won't notice it as the mead wouldn't have already been cleared once and hopefully the sediment dropping out naturally will also take any protein haze with it. I've got finings but I like to keep them as a last resort.

Which is why I suggested about back sweetening once it's finished the ferment and stabilised. Normally, if not back sweetening with honey, I back sweeten before bottling.

Hopefully that makes sense.....

regards

fatbloke

 

[SenorPepe]

I think I'm catching your drift. I get the part about re-introducing haze, which is a PITA because I did have to add SuperKleer to the cyser to get it to drop. Had I known honey was gonna bring that damn haze back I obviously would have done otherwise.

I think here you're getting at just that; stabilizing and sweetening before trying to get it to clear so that the natural precipitation without finings takes out the haze. Which is a lesson learned. Anyway, I suppose I'll just bottle it up with or without haze and hope it drops in the bottles. I don't care too much about the aesthetics; since these are my first meads I'll be overjoyed if they come out tasty no matter how they look.

 

[fatbloke]

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I think here you're getting at just that; stabilizing and sweetening before trying to get it to clear so that the natural precipitation without finings takes out the haze. Which is a lesson learned. Anyway, I suppose I'll just bottle it up with or without haze and hope it drops in the bottles. I don't care too much about the aesthetics; since these are my first meads I'll be overjoyed if they come out tasty no matter how they look.

Pretty much spot on there.

If you know pretty much the usual numbers of how sweet your preference is, then when back sweetening with honey, you just stabilise and then adjust the gravity with a hydrometer (to slightly below your preference, as you can't tell whether the batch is gonna recover some of the sweetness perception with ageing). Then it should still come out fine.

Oh, and if it does haze, you could always try bentonite or sparkoloid to re fine it (i believe they're a little more gentle than superkleer). Worst case, just re fine with superkleer.

 

[SenorPepe]

Good deal. Thanks for the reassurance. I'm much happier to fly by the seat of my pants in beer brewing, when I know if I messed up within a few weeks. This mead thing is giving me a whole newbie-anxiety problem all over again. Good to get reassurance. And you guys here must have the patience of saints; I can't believe how many posts in the mead forum start with "First time" "First mead" or "did I screw up?". I'd probably be much snarkier by now. Anyway I appreciate it. Cheers, fatbloke and Insomniac.