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Stabilize, as outlined above, or pasteurize, or add artificial sweetener. I like my ciders a little sweet, and a little fizzy. So I bottle condition (with fermentable sugar) and sweeten with non-fermentable. I like Erithytol for sweetening.

Bottled a chokecherry melomel; re-racked, stabilized, and sweetened a chokecherry-cyser blend; and re-racked a dry traditional.

I know it has been a few years, but I also know you are still around, @bernardsmith . How did the experiment turn out?

Mine wasn't backsweetened at all. It sat the the secondary, on oak cubes, for 3 months before bottling. Was super clear when bottled, and then eventually dropped black fines. I am guessing in my case it came from the oak.

I had one do that, and I don't know what it was. It aged fine and tasted great.

Yes, that is just about 1.119, which would give you about 16%. It will improve with aging.

This thread was 10 years old ...

Your first hydrometer reading was almost certainly in error. Could it have been 1.109? That would result in 15% abv. D47 has an "Alcohol tolerance of up to 15% v/v (depending on fermentation conditions)," according to Lallemand. Or maybe 1.09? That would hit about 12%. Based on your...

Dissolved salt would raise the SG just like sugar would.

What is it said to do?

Another thing I have done from time to time is keeping my brew bucket in a bathtub of water. This tends to stabilize temperature swings.

I likewise do my mead in winter. I can keep my temperature in a fairly tight low 60s range by placement of the fermentation bucket on the floor in an lesser-heated portion of the house. This, plus using K1V-1116 yeast, works well for me.

I looked at my 3 batches in secondary (traditional, cyser-chokecherry blend, and chokecherry), and decided they were not quite ready for re-racking. They are clearing nicely, maybe in another week or so.

I do gallon batches, and use 1 Camden tablet per gallon for the kmeta. For the sorbate, I start with 1/2 tsp per gallon and fudge that down for higher abv. Not a recommendation, just answering your question about what I do. I am sure it can be dialed in better.

I don't do regrets. That said, in another life, maybe I would have been a pastor, a mutual fund manager, or a software developer. Ok, one regret. I had the opportunity to fly across the Atlantic in the Concord, and didn't.

I don't think you will want to back sweeten them, as they are already semi-sweet to sweet at that FG. Age is the best tool you have. You can also try oaking, which might balance it a little. Did you stabilize it? With that FG, and abv in the 13% range, I'd want to stabilize for sure before...

I am curious how the "cough syrup" turned out. Were you able to correct it, or has it mellowed?

Today I opened a 2 year old dry traditional, 10% abv, lightly oaked. It was pure freaking magic, so perfect. I am astounded. The sad part is that over time, I have used most of that batch to top other batches because it was "only" a dry traditional. What a huge mistake! One bottle left, I am...

My pyments so far have been made with Welch's juice. Pretty lame compared to yours. The concord grape juice is cheap, but the finished product has a bit too much of the "concord" carrying through, unless it is blended. I recently opened a pyment/raspberry melomel blend that I had bottled about...

I really want to try a bochet, but can't until after honey harvest. Probably will do it in the fall, after the temperatures are starting to drop.