Questions about my halloween batch (sparkling, strength, etc)

[Yggdrasil]

So as I said in my intro, this is my second attempt at making mead (although my first serious attempt) and the more I try to research and learn, the more questions I end up with. I hope I can kind of just dump them all here to keep from cluttering up the place.

So I have a recipe I want to try that's a semi-sweet 16% but I was hoping to shoot for half that. My first thought was I could just add water and double my production, but a quick search confirmed that's a terrible idea. I'm not sure if I'd just have to cut the initial honey, wait for the fermentation to end, rack/filter and then add more honey for taste? I'm really hoping I don't have to filter since the only ones I could find require pressure systems and I'm still at the 'used glass carboys from friends and family' phase.

The second issue I'm having is I'd like to have it carbonated, but with trying to control the alcohol content, sweetness, and clarity (bentonite?) I'm not sure which order I'd have to do things in. It seems contradictory for me to want to get rid of the yeast to stop unwanted fermentation, and then need it for the bubbles, but not so much that it ends up drier and stronger than I wanted.

I'm also still a little fuzzy on the length of time before racking/bottling/drinking, but since most places I've seen just go with 'try it every month until it's where you want' I guess there's not really any rule of thumb? That is, except for the part I read about autolysis that happens after a "couple of months." Basically, I'd like to be able to plan very roughly how long I should have it racked/bottled before giving my friends a taste. Part of me thinks of how people spend thousands of dollars on wines that have been aging for decades, and part of me is hoping I can celebrate my new batch by summer.

Also a more philosophical question: if you make a mead and add fruit flavors after, is it still a melomel? Or is that just sacrilege?

I thought I had more questions than that but it's late and that's all I can think of for now.
Thanks.

 

[Ryue]

If you want a lower ABV but still want it to be sweet, I believe your best course of action would be to add enough honey to your target gravity, stabilize with potassium sorbate and campden tablets then back sweeten to desired sweetness. I'm not sure the route to do that if you also want to carbonate though.. I'm sure someone will have advice on that lol.

How long you need to wait until its drinkable really has a thousand variables, including your own personal taste. I've had great luck with my own high ABV recipe that is delicious as soon as its done fermenting, and others I didnt touch for two years.
Personally, I wouldn't bottle anything until I deemed it drinkable.

It is perfectly acceptable to ferment a basic mead and add fruit to secondary, thats a fairly common practice, I believe.

Be sure to keep us posted on your progress!

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hmm, at first I thought I'd have to carbonate it with compressed gas, but I was hoping to avoid that. If I re-added some yeast before bottling would they just consume all the extra honey, or would they stop due to the pressure before the honey was consumed?

 

[Ryue]

The problem is yeast will continue to ferment until there is either no fermentable sugar left, or the ABV is too high for them to withstand (I believe about 20% is the highest they can reach, depending on the strain.)

If you bottle while your still in active fermentation, you will end up with bottle-bombs, and no one likes that

So, thinking out loud here, maybe someone else can chime in on this -
Perhaps you could use just enough honey to get your target ABV.
Once fermentation is finished and ABV is reached, you should be left with a very dry mead.
You COULD backsweeten with a NONfermentable sweetener (glycerin? Odorless and flavorless, but very sweet ) to your desired taste.
Then just like priming beer (except with honey in place of sugar) add just enough honey to start a small fermentation in the bottles?

 

[Yggdrasil]

You might be on to something there. I never thought of non-fermentable sweeteners. Food for thought. Thanks!

To be honest I didn't expect my first real foray to be new territory. Lol.