JAOM too sweet, any suggested fixes?

[Bent-Brewer]

I've had my 3 gallon batch of JAOM finished and sitting in primary for about 4 months now with everything dropped out to the bottom. Went to rack it over for bottling last night, and fortunately took a sample first - way too sweet tasting. Per Murphy's Law, my hydrometer took a dive off the table, so I'll be picking up another in a few hours to get a reading and will update this post then.

• OG = Unknown (unable to get an accurate reading since the excess honey kept dropping out of solution)
• SG = Pending new hydrometer

After searching, I've found some common suggestions to help drop the gravity:

1. Create a new batch of mead and allow it to ferment dry. Blend the batches to drop the FG into the desired range.
   Doable, but I'd like to free up my limited carboy space sooner rather than later for some wine. I don't have the space for extra carboys, but at the same time, I don't believe it would take too much dry mead to balance out my batch. I should be able to do it in a 1 gallon jug, but could use advice on how much of what material to add if I go this route.
2. Thin the mead and drop the gravity by fortifying it with vodka, grain alcohol, or some other liquor of choice.
   I would prefer to keep this around the 10-12%ABV range per the bread yeast used.
3. Modify the acidity of the mead to mask some of the perceived sweetness.
   Doable. It would be easy enough for me to learn the process and target values, but I'd still like to get that gravity down rather than just mask it. Peace of mind.
4. Pitch a new yeast strain with a higher %ABV tolerance.
   Doable, but as before, I'd like to keep this around the 10-12% range. If I need to pitch something along the lines of EC-1118, I can.

Would it be possible or even advisable to thin out the existing mead with water and restart fermentation by re-pitching more bread yeast? It would be easy enough for me to only rack a portion of the finished mead to the next carboy and do this. I set up a nice calculator in Excel for any re-fermenting or blending, but it's kinda hard to share that here.

Any suggestions / preferences / advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Maylar]

JAOM typically finishes in the 1.025 - 1.030 range which by the numbers is really sweet. But the orange and spices help balance that out so the overall sweetness is not as noticeable.

JAOM changes a lot with time. It needs 8-10 months to really mellow out. My advice is to bottle it as is and allow it to come into its own with age.