Back sweetening questions

[jgoodhart]

I have a couple questions about back sweetening a mead that has already been bottled and aging for a year and a half. I have tried 3 bottles at different times in the aging process with the most recent tasting at the 1.5 year mark. Every time I try the mead it gets a little better but I feel it needs to be slightly sweeter for my taste and I wanted to try and carbonate some. My first question is: I have a kegging system for my home beer and was thinking about taking 5 or so of my already bottled mead (approx. 1 gallon) and dumping them into a keg to carbonate as well as back sweeten. I never used any yeast killing chemicals to begin with before bottling and have not had any problems with bottle bombs (I'm assuming the yeast hit their tolerance during fermentation). I was wondering if I can just back sweeten with a 50/50 mix of honey and water directly into the keg with the mead and then carbonate as I would beer? And secondly, what would be the proper amount of honey to start with to add to a 1 gallon batch? Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Yooper]

Pouring the mead into a keg will probably oxidize it. It will most likely ruin it.

 

[jgoodhart]

Even if I purge the headspace?

 

[jddevinn]

Even if I purge the headspace?

As soon as you open the keg the co2 will diffuse very quickly into the air. http://colinb-sciencebuzz.blogspot.com/2010/01/if-co2-is-so-heavy-why-doesnt-it-sink.html?m=1

.....also as soon as you start pouring you are going to be sucking air into the bottle to replace the mead that came out.

 

[jgoodhart]

Yes, there will be some oxygen introduced for sure when pouring from the corked bottle into the keg but once sealed and the head space purged, I would think that there would be no more oxygen then when you rack to a secondary vessel to clear/age after fermentation was done to begin with?

Also, I plan to carb for a week and drink fairly quick!

 

[Maylar]

If you're drinking it quickly you should be OK. You don't have to dilute it to sweeten. A half cup of honey will bring gravity up about 10 points in a gallon.

 

[steveoatley]

Rack - with a Racking cane

That way you are taking the Mead from the bottom - and air comes in the top

The rising mead will push up the AIR above it.

2 cents

S

 

[jddevinn]

Yes, there will be some oxygen introduced for sure when pouring from the corked bottle into the keg but once sealed and the head space purged, I would think that there would be no more oxygen then when you rack to a secondary vessel to clear/age after fermentation was done to begin with?

Also, I plan to carb for a week and drink fairly quick!

When you pour the bottle it will "chug" air into it to replace the mead. When you rack (siphon) this doesn't happen

 

[juskojj]

side note:

could you rack from bottles, backsweeten and re-bottle (racking again) and be OK or would you risk destroying the mead? i have some mead bottled for a year that when i opened my 1st one it wasn't as sweet as i was hoping for..... suggestions?

 

[jddevinn]

Every weird transfer is a risk. probably the safest way would be to push from the bottles with a "backwards" counterflow bottle filler. I wouldn't risk this to something I'd kept for a year.