Killing the little b**tards

[Landon Sharp]

Hey everyone! I am currently fermenting a honey Mead. It is fermenting in a quart jar and sits at about 700ml. I'm wanting to sweeten it once I bottle it but am terrified and creating the so feared yeast bomb! I am super paranoid about bottling after hearing such stories! What is the best way to go about (forgive me if this is wrong) back sweetening? Thanks for your time!

 

[JimRausch]

Assuming you don't want to carbonate it, it is fairly easy. 1st, let it ferment to completion. This might take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. Then, also assuming you want a clear drink, store it in the fridge for a couple days- week to help the yeast settle. Rack it (siphon it off the sediment), then add potassium sorbate and metabisulphate(Camden). These 2 chemicals will stop any residual yeast from fermenting. Then you can backsweeten and bottle. If you don't want to use any chemicals, then it will take more time and more rackings to get rid of all the yeast. Alternative- since it's only 1 qt, store it in the fridge and drink it up.

 

[Maylar]

For a small batch like that, once it's clear siphon it to another container and heat it to 140°F. That'll kill the yeast.

 

[bernardsmith]

Ignoring for the moment, whether applying heat to mead won't damage the volatile flavor and aroma molecules, for how long would one need to pasteurize a quart of mead at 140 F to be sure to kill all the yeast cells?

 

[Maylar]

Ignoring for the moment, whether applying heat to mead won't damage the volatile flavor and aroma molecules, for how long would one need to pasteurize a quart of mead at 140 F to be sure to kill all the yeast cells?

10 minutes seems to be the consensus on that, but similar to stove top pasteurizing I think most of that time is simply to let the entire bottle (or jar in this case) come to temperature. It seems like a viable method for such a small quantity rather than measuring out tiny amounts of sorbate etc.

 

[Landon Sharp]

Hey everyone! I am currently fermenting a honey Mead. It is fermenting in a quart jar and sits at about 700ml. I'm wanting to sweeten it once I bottle it but am terrified and creating the so feared yeast bomb! I am super paranoid about bottling after hearing such stories! What is the best way to go about (forgive me if this is wrong) back sweetening? Thanks for your time!

So could I add more honey water to the bottling stage and be just fine? I want it to be sweeter and I want it to fill the bottle more.

after of course heating it.

 

[Maylar]

Yes. If you heat pasteurize the mead you can add more honey to sweeten it.

 

[bernardsmith]

You would need to be sure about either killing the yeast or preventing the yeast cells from re-fermenting any added sugar. But assuming that that is taken care of -

To know how much sugar you want to add you need to bench test the wine - but you have only a very small amount to test. It is hard to know without tasting how much sugar you might want to balance the alcohol and the acidity and any tannin in the mead. Perception of sweetness is the key here and not simply the amount of sugar: the same amount of sugar added to two different wines or meads with different levels of acidity will be perceived very differently.
What you might do is ask yourself how sweet you like wine. If you like a semi sweet wine then you might want to add about 1 oz of sugar to the quart (you could dissolve the sugar in a very little water). This will raise the gravity about 10 points. If you were adding honey to sweeten this mead you would need to add a hair more than about 1.14 ounces to hit the same amount of sweetness. If you prefer a sweeter wine you would need to add more honey or sugar and if your preference ran to a drier wine you would want to add less sugar.

 

[madscientist451]

Keep it simple. For a small amount of mead, don't do anything to it. When you want to drink some, add the sweetener of choice to the glass to taste.
Once you have more experience and start making larger amounts you can get into different stabilization methods.