Sweetening meads

[Biergarden]

Greetings collective,

I've made a five gallon batch of mead with the addition of blueberries post primary fermentation. In about two more weeks I'll be packaging this up and allowing it to rest for at least six months.
One thing I'd like to try is sweetening up with another dose of honey and then pasteurizing the bottles to kill whatever yeast might still be in there and viable.
I know this is an objective question, but how much more honey would you add to the bottling bucket? Do you think one pound of honey or two?

 

[viking1984]

Hi there,
I made a batch of blueberry mead, also adding the blueberries in secondary. I guess it depends on how much honey you used in making your mead, but I don't think there is any "right" amount of honey to add to any mead. It depends on your personal tastes. If after you remove your blueberries the mead tastes to dry for your liking, then add a little more honey. When I made my blueberry mead it was sweet enough for me once the blueberries were removed and it aged a few months. I would add honey slowly and taste and see what you like. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

 

[Biergarden]

Hi there,
I made a batch of blueberry mead, also adding the blueberries in secondary. I guess it depends on how much honey you used in making your mead, but I don't think there is any "right" amount of honey to add to any mead. It depends on your personal tastes. If after you remove your blueberries the mead tastes to dry for your liking, then add a little more honey. When I made my blueberry mead it was sweet enough for me once the blueberries were removed and it aged a few months. I would add honey slowly and taste and see what you like. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Thanks for the input. Did you save the blueberries after you pulled them? I'm almost thinking about making a loaf of bread with them, just to see what happens.

I guess I'll just add one pound and see if it's sweet to my tastes.

Have you ever tried to carbonate your mead to make it sparkling? I guess you could use one liter swing top bottles and prime it like you would a beer with a touch of extra yeast just to be sure.

 

[Maylar]

If you're not doing carbonation you don't need to pasteurize. Just stabilize the mead with potassium sorbate and metabilsulfite before sweetening. As for how much honey, use a hydrometer and mix in honey until it's at the right level. Somewhere between 1.005 and 1.010 works well for mead, but depends on your tastes.

If you are going to carbonate, that will consume 2-3 gravity points of whatever level of sugar you add so plan accordingly.

 

[bernardsmith]

The best approach - in my opinion is to bench test. Remove three or four samples of an identical volume (say 4 fluid ounces ) and add different but known quantities of sweetener (honey, for example) to each glass. Mix thoroughly. Taste. Repeat this until you have found the precise amount of honey you want to add to a glass that provides you with the sweetness you are looking for.
OK. There are 128 fluid ounces in each gallon - so 5 gallons = 640. Your sample size = 4 fl oz and so there are 160 * 4 fl oz. You then multiply the amount of honey you added to the glass that tastes just right : just for laughs ; let's say 10 ccs, so you multiply 10 by 160 = 1600 cc and THAT is the amount of honey you need to add to the five gallons to reach the sweetness that you determined you preferred. Bingo! You add that amount of honey, mix well and you are home and dry. end of story.

 

[Biergarden]

I like that approach. I'll give a go and let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the tip