I have 5 gallons, more or less, of mead that's been sitting for almost 2 years. It's my first batch of anything, mead or otherwise. I want to bottle it, but it needs back sweetening. OG was 1.065, G now is at .993. I have plenty of honey I want to sweeten it with. I also have campen tablets and potassium sorbate to stop the re fermentation. I would like to get it to a semi-sweet state. What exactly do I need to do?
How to back sweeten mead
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bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
I would bench test. Take say, 5 samples of a known volume (say, 50 CCs) and add known quantities of honey to each sample (say, zero g , 3 g, 6, g , 9 g, 12g stir to dissolve and taste. Let's say that 9 g is too sweet and 6 is not sufficiently sweet for your taste, then take another set of samples and add 6.5 g, 7 g, 7.5g 8 g and 8.5 g and stir to dissolve and taste. Let's say that 8.5 g of honey in 50 CCs is what you are looking for, then divide your total volume of mead by 50 (let's say that 5 gallons = 18925 ccs, so divided by 50 = 378. You then need to multiply your 8.5 by 378 to determine the total volume of honey you want to add - and that is 3.213 kg (or about 6.5 lbs of honey). In my imaginary example this will raise the gravity about 45 points. That would be tooth scrapingly sweet...You might find that you prefer 2 g of sugar or .5 g . The principle is the same - bench testing is the answer.
1 crushed campden tab per gallon, 1/2 tsp sorbate per gallon (or whatever it says on the package). Dissolve them in a bit of warm water first.
As bernard suggests, take a sample and add a 1/2 tsp of honey at a time until it's as sweet as you want it. Then measure the sample's specific gravity. Honey is about 38 gravity points per pound per gallon, and you can math your way to the amount you'll need.
As bernard suggests, take a sample and add a 1/2 tsp of honey at a time until it's as sweet as you want it. Then measure the sample's specific gravity. Honey is about 38 gravity points per pound per gallon, and you can math your way to the amount you'll need.
Could I put that campden and sorbate in the mead instead? Heat it up a bit, put in the campden and sorbate, then add back? I don't want to dilute the mead any, if I can help it.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
You are not going to "dilute" the mead in any significant way if you dissolve the K-meta and sorbate in a quarter or half cup of water. K-meta does not in fact dissolve well in alcohol and adding particles to a wine that has not been fully degassed will nucleate the CO2 and create a volcano of wine.
I think it's degassed after 2 years.. so, yes you can use a cup of warm mead to dissolve the campden.
Okay, so I put 4 ounces into 4 glasses...4 per glass. Then I added a half tsp to one glass, and 1 tsp to the second glass. The second glass is what I want. My math came up with 171 ounces/21 cups of honey for the 5 gallons. I actually have less than that. I'm going to rack it into a bottling bucket and get a better take on how much I actually have.
well I hope you didn't go buy 21 cups of honey. 1.33 gallons of honey is definitely more than you want here.
using your volumes, if 1 tsp in 4 oz was what you're looking for, then you need 3.33 Cups of honey for 5 gallons.
By the way, how does it taste after two years? Was this all primary or was it racked at some point?
I already had the honey. It's been racked several times. I know my math was off on the amount of honey needed. I redid it and came out with about 3 cups...3.084 to be exact...I only have 4 gallons of mead. I was going to round down to 3 cups. After two years it's really dry. The only problem with it is a very big alcohol taste...very hot taste. I didn't control the temps good enough when it first started fermenting. That's why I've let it sit for so long, hoping to age a bit of that out, but it didn't work.
