Racking mead to secondary

[oklahoma_man777]

I'm almost at a month into fermentation with both blackberry and blueberry meads. What's the best product to use to stop the yeast to allow the second round of fruit to be put into secondary?

 

[landsknechte]

Are you looking to make a sweet mead? If so, it's apparently easier to sweeten after primary and secondary are done. If you just want dry, why not let the yeast ferment the extra sugars out of the fruit?

With that said, I believe potassium sorbate is what you're looking for.

 

[Maylar]

You can't stop the yeast. When the ferment is done you would rack to secondary and stabilize with potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite then add your fruit. But you have to let the yeast finish and drop clear first.

 

[MarkKF]

Kinda off topic. I usually just let it sit in the secondary for months to mellow out then bottle & cork.
Will it still mellow out after months if I bottle & cork after a shorter time and let it sit in the bottle?

 

[Dr_Floyd]

I always let my Yeast hit their max ABV and plan my starting gravity accordingly to hit target sweetness by the time I bottle. I don't think back-sweetening tastes as good as a Mead that lands where I want it, something about how the Yeast process the honey is more appealing tasting. If you do this you won't have to worry about restarting fermentation with your secondary fruit additions or even better add the fruit just before it finishes fermentation so the Yeast get a chance to process out some of the simpler sugars from the fruit before they quit.