Made a mead, not happy

[mavrick1903]

Ended up too sweet. First attempt diddnt do enough research. Expectation for initaial gravity would have put finished ABV around 18%. Dont know if it got there (did not measure, broke my hydrometer on bottling day).

Any options? what can I do with it? It's very "honey forward" in flavor, but too sweet.

help?

 

[JDWebb]

How old/young is it? I've read where the longer it sits, the smoother it gets. Perhaps it's too early? Or maybe you have some furniture you need to remove old varnish from...

 

[damdaman]

If you really want to save it your best bet is to make another batch, same sized, with a much lower OG, ferment it dry, and mix it with your too-sweet mead. So if your first batch finished at 1025 and you get your next batch to ferment dry at 1000, you'll have 1013ish when you combine the two. You could do this with another mead, or just a basic fruit wine, as fruit goes really well with mead.

 

[loveofrose]

Age cures all ills except too sweet. To fix too sweet, you have to make a batch of dry mead to blend. I've done the research for you next batch already:

Current Mead Making Techniques

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html


Better brewing through science!

 

[mavrick1903]

Thanks for the tips. It was brewed a year ago. Bottled a couple weeks ago. I'll likely go for the fruit route.

 

[mavrick1903]

Can I dilute and re-pitch?

 

[fatbloke]

Can I dilute and re-pitch?

Indeed you could.

But by far the easiest route, is to siphon it back into a bucket, then get some acid (for traditionals, I use a mix of 2 parts malic and 1 part tartaric), then add a very small amount (1/8th teaspoon) and stir it in gently.

Once you are confident it's completely mixed in, taste.....

You don't usually need that much, often between 1/8th and a half teaspoon total to mask excessive sweetness.


Then just re-fill bottles and cap/cork......

 

[fuelish]

Advice for the future....buy 2 hydrometers!!! You know, like the Boy Scouts..."Be prepared..." I've found, since buying two some time back after breaking the one I had, I haven't broken one since....a backup is always good to have, as they are fragile thangs and seem to break at very inopportune moments