Turning dry meade sweeter..

[tauschung]

Hi. I'm making my first batch of meade. I racked into secondary on the 15th, and when I tested my creation it tasted much dryer than I had hoped. It also tasted pretty bland.

I made a 6 gallon batch of wine, with 15 pounds of sue bee clover honey, red star champaigne yeast, nutrients, and energizer. The initial SG reading at 79*F was 1.090 and upon racking it went dwn to 1.00 or lower (couldn't really tell). The ph was 3.4-3.6.

My plan was to add some fowlers honey to bring in some depth of flavor and to sweeten it up. I think I'll keep adding half pound at a time until I am satisfied with the result.

Pretty much, I am in need of some encouragement on if this is the right thing to do. If not, I am open to suggestions.

Cheers

 

[sfyeti]

Hi. I'm making my first batch of meade. I racked into secondary on the 15th, and when I tested my creation it tasted much dryer than I had hoped. It also tasted pretty bland.

I made a 6 gallon batch of wine, with 15 pounds of sue bee clover honey, red star champaigne yeast, nutrients, and energizer. The initial SG reading at 79*F was 1.090 and upon racking it went dwn to 1.00 or lower (couldn't really tell). The ph was 3.4-3.6.

My plan was to add some fowlers honey to bring in some depth of flavor and to sweeten it up. I think I'll keep adding half pound at a time until I am satisfied with the result.

Pretty much, I am in need of some encouragement on if this is the right thing to do. If not, I am open to suggestions.

Cheers

Make sure the yeast doesn't eat up the honey you try to sweeten it with...stop it with campden tabs and K sorbate. This way, the yeast will stop fermenting and you can backsweeten to your liking.
I've personally never backsweetened, so I can't help you out with that aspect. Although I have heard that it is helpful to take a small sample and sweeten it to your liking, then multiply those figures to find out how much honey you should add.
example: If 1 ounce honey properly sweetens a 16 fl oz sample, then 6 gallons divided by 16 ounces equals 48 parts. 48 parts multiplied by 1 ounces honey per part means you need 48 ounces (or 3#) to proportionally sweeten your sample.

 

[CuAllaidh]

I've backsweetened and added more honey during fermentation for a sweeter end product. Your process will work, but if you don't want more alcohol do as sfyeti suggests and ensure that the yeast has been killed/stabilized.

 

[malkore]

Yep, the yeast needs to be stopped now, and your yeast choice is why it turned out bone dry. Champagne yeast will creep to 20% ABV, which is every last bit of sugar in the honey.

Or you can feed it more honey and eventually beat the yeast out, and then it will be both higher alcohol and sweeter. will have to age probably a year to taste good but that's common with mead.

 

[tauschung]

I understand. I like the dry finish...but the rest is awful. I'm hoping the Fowler's adds some depth of flavor.

 

[fatbloke]

I understand. I like the dry finish...but the rest is awful. I'm hoping the Fowler's adds some depth of flavor.

Don't forget, just because you can get a "branded" honey that you're happy to put in a hot drink or on toast or something, it doesn't make it good for mead.

It just means that it's blended for eating......

An appropriate varietal honey might be better, but also, don't forget, that sometimes when back sweetening with honey, you can get some hazing in the mead (noticeable especially if the mead has already cleared). I don't know exactly why that is, as it's not gonna be pectin or starch, but I suspect that it might be a protein thing and if it occurs then you've either got to try and locate an enzyme to sort it out, or just leave it to age and that usually sorts it out (not necessarily though)......

Other good back sweetening agents are grape juice (usually white grape juice of course, for traditionals and ones with "green" fruit). An excellent one, I've found (and no it's not my idea originally, it's my friend "Mad Keith" down in Oklahoma), and that's Chenin Blanc grape juice/concentrate. It has quite a "honey-like" flavour and doesn't usually cause hazing like pure honey can......

Also malt extract gives a "buckwheat honey-like" flavour.......

regards

fatbloke

 

[Texron]

Wouldn't it be safer to make another batch of mead-very sweet- and when its fermented out and clear-use it for back-sweetening? Whats left over could be used again later for the same reason-or on top of Ice Cream. 8^)

 

[Beebe]

If you have a mead that had bulk aged for a year and is ready to bottle but is to dry, can you at that point back sweeten it?

 

[Yooper]

If you have a mead that had bulk aged for a year and is ready to bottle but is to dry, can you at that point back sweeten it?

Sure. You'll want to use potassium metabisulfite (campden) and potassium sorbate first, to ensure that your sweetening additions don't ferment out.