Very Sweet Mead - Options?

I started brewing a JAOM a couple months ago with one variation. I had some strawberries lying around, so I tossed them in. Everything else was per the JAOM recipe, even the bread yeast (...except I guess you're not supposed to alter or touch it, and I've done some of both). I've done one "correct" JAOM before and it turned out great.

After two months, there's no airlock activity and the brew is starting to clear nicely. I took a sample and it is very very sweet, almost candy-like. I guess I underestimated the amount of sugars in the strawberries. That paired with the low tolerance of the yeast and I've got some alcoholic syrup.

Does anyone have any recommendations for redeeming this mead? My first thought was to dilute with water, but I'm afraid of diluting all the other delicious flavors. Is it possible to pitch a wine yeast at this point without producing too many off flavors? If so, which one?

 

Maybe ferment a new dry mead and then blend the two? Not a quick solution by any means, but it would save you from dumping it.

 

Champagne or EC-1118 yeast will dry it out.

 

Hmmm... I have some Red Star Champagne lying around so that will save me a trip to the HBS. Thanks for the input! I guess it won't be ready for the springtime like I'd hoped, but it'll probably taste way better in Spring 2015 anyway

 

Witb or without the strawberries, dry JAO isn't good.

So you'd likely need to incrementally dry it out.

If it was mine, I'd fortifying it with vodka. Say a first hit of 8oz, then test and taste. The taste will tell you how it's doing and the test numbers will tell you how much of a gravity drop 8oz's gives you.

You'd need to be thinking of getting it to about 1.020........

 

I have the same issue right now with a modified JAOM and I just did a traditional orange blossom mead fermented dry. I blended that with the JAOM to bring down the gravity. That takes you an additional 30 - 60 days before you can blend so the vodka method FB mentioned may be the way to go if you want it finished sooner.

 

Just a dumb question from a Beginner- whats the vodka going to do? Do you just dump that into the fermenter? Will it hurt anything?

 

It increases %ABV, but equally the higher the %ABV, the more likely the yeast will have exceeded it's alcohol tolerance and dies off, so it can't restart fermentation.

The higher alcohol level reduces gravity and perception of sweetness by dilution of sugar.

It also reduces the body/mouthfeel of the batch, which would normally be an issue but the highish levels of residual sugars in a batch of JAO wouldn't normally be a problem, in this case it's stuck ferment, so there's even more unfermented sugar.

Hence it's basically adding alcohol instead of letting the yeast do it's thing, and in this case, the yeast is being inhibited, so while it is upping the alcohol levels it's also bringing a mega sweet batch back to balance......

It's a bit like making Port (wine). They usually make a very sweet batch then fortify it with brandy of some sort.......

Hopefully that makes sense (it does to me - well the voices in my head anyway ).......

 

Yea makes sense i appreciate it

 

Use a good vodka or the cheap stuff, for blending? (I, too, have a mead that's a bit too sweet... 1.034ish. Was gonna try pitching a premier cuvée start, animated to the ABV, but this seems a bit easier and faster...)

 

Well as you likely won't taste the vodka I'd say the cheapest. Hell if you want to and can get it, everclear as it'll add the alcohol quicker and make less of a change to the body/viscosity....

 

Hmm, everclear...that might be a *bad* idea...this was a high gravity must (1.12, iirc) so even at a FG of 1.03 it's still fairly high on the ABV...probably why it stalled out. It was only my 2nd batch of mead, ever, I didn't know any better or about SNA...

 

No no, thats utter bollocks.

18% ABV is equivalent to a drop of 133 points gravity. So you wouldn't have to add that much everclear to equate to the same amount would you and the fortification wouldn't affect the other qualities that the brew has very much. Just drop the sweetness some reduce body a little bit etc......

 

Awesome, thx! Now, to buy a bottle of everclear...and, of course, the tastings to get the correct volumes!