Back sweaten
- Thread starter mnlindsey
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Weclcome to the forum. To stabilize the mead you will need to add potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate. The K meta kills yeast and the sorbate prevents any living yeast from reproducing. You can get these from most homebrew supply stores and directions for use should be printed on the packages.
I don't treat the honey with anything. Honey is antimicrobial and I've never had an infection from the honey (especially at 17% alcohol). If you are worried about this, add the honey before you add the k meta and sorbate.
I don't treat the honey with anything. Honey is antimicrobial and I've never had an infection from the honey (especially at 17% alcohol). If you are worried about this, add the honey before you add the k meta and sorbate.
Ok. So depending on what yeast and what amount of honey, they may have croaked from alcohol poisoning or they may have eaten the honey. What is your FG measurement? Do you have any sugar left in your container? What yeast and what was your OG? (original gravity)
Sometimes you can cold crash your batch. Storing in a cold environment ( near freezing) the yeast will go dormant and start to drop to the bottom of your fermentor along with the other particulates. Once a good bit of things have dropped out of suspension you want to rack it over to another container leaving the lees ( sludge on the bottom of the bucket) behind in the primary bucket. Then you will want to add sulphites (will stop invaders from moving in) and sorbate (will stop reproduction of the yeasties). After that, you can add new forms of sugar and the yeast will not start fermenting it again.
If you don't have the ability to cold crash, you need to age it until the stuff falls out on it's own. The use the chems to stabilize.
You can also do this with out chemicals but you will have to check it once you think it's done fermenting and check the FG for several weeks to see if it changes.
If your really going to do this I can suggest enough to become a patron (pay) and the patrons forums are full of advanced info. Just the proven recipes are worth more than the membership fee.
Sometimes you can cold crash your batch. Storing in a cold environment ( near freezing) the yeast will go dormant and start to drop to the bottom of your fermentor along with the other particulates. Once a good bit of things have dropped out of suspension you want to rack it over to another container leaving the lees ( sludge on the bottom of the bucket) behind in the primary bucket. Then you will want to add sulphites (will stop invaders from moving in) and sorbate (will stop reproduction of the yeasties). After that, you can add new forms of sugar and the yeast will not start fermenting it again.
If you don't have the ability to cold crash, you need to age it until the stuff falls out on it's own. The use the chems to stabilize.
You can also do this with out chemicals but you will have to check it once you think it's done fermenting and check the FG for several weeks to see if it changes.
If your really going to do this I can suggest enough to become a patron (pay) and the patrons forums are full of advanced info. Just the proven recipes are worth more than the membership fee.
1.006 is pretty sweet for me. I have a mead at 1.007 and I'm grateful it's not any sweeter. Different people have different tastes, but maybe the mead needs to age a bit more before deciding whether or not to backsweeten? Meads with such a high gravity may well need more aging time. Stabilising is always a good decision though
Wow. You do indeed like it dry as a bone! I like mine closer to 1.010 and I love JAOM which often clocks in at over 1.025. But I like to balance that sweet with acid.
That's a general sort of guideline. It really depends on the particular recipe. I had one batch that tasted sweet but was actually under 1.000. So go figure.
Now to the OP. If you've had mead aging for one year, you're ready to back sweeten.
Some (almost everyone) uses honey to back sweeten. I (and a few other morons like me) don't like the taste raw honey imparts so I have a sweet traditional 1.030 I blend into mead I feel is too dry.
Lately I do sweetening last after oak and acid and tannin additions (acid and tannin are technically the same thing but I treat acid blend and tannic acid as two unique ingredients). I find that often finding the right balance of acidity and oak will obviate the need to sweeten.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
From the amount of people who like meads sweeter than me I'd have to guess I like my meads dry. I do tend to like dry wines. It might also have something to do with this great tasting honey I'm getting..
Now that I think of it.. Shouldn't a mead at 1.006 and 17%abv have more residual sugar than a mead at 12%abv and 1.006? (because of how hydrometers and sugars+alcohol work) Does the increase in alcohol automatically balance this extra sugar or would the 17% abv mead taste sweeter?
Don't know for sure but it would make sense.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
I believe Osckaar has said that Mead should not taste like raw honey has been added to back sweeten. I'm like you Manny. I don't add raw honey after I have stabilized it either. I have never tasted a commercial Mead that tasted of raw honey either.
I wonder how many Mazer Cup finalist back sweeten with raw honey?
I wonder how many Mazer Cup finalist back sweeten with raw honey?
Plenty of people do it. I'm sure that with proper aging that raw honey taste goes away (maybe). I guess like any adjunct, balance is key. The right acid/honey ratio can only result in good taste. Right?
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
Damnit mannye do you have any idea how long it took me to track down this article again?
Basically, you might be absolutely right. Of course the page is about wine making rather than mead but the principle could be the same:
"..... Many large sugar molecules can be hydrolyzed and broken into smaller molecules by enzymes, acids or heat.
When sucrose (table sugar) is added to wine, it often produces strange flavors because many weeks may be required before the wine acids can hydrolyze all of the sucrose into glucose and fructose. Even in a warm cellar, the strange flavors can persist for several weeks. However, when all of the sucrose has been hydrolyzed into glucose and fructose, the strange flavor completely disappears, and the wine has a normal taste."
It is very possible that the same happens to the sugars in honey. After extensive aging the acids in your mead *could* break down the sugars from the honey and blend it better with the rest of the already smaller-broken residual sugars in your mead.
For anyone who is interested this was copied from the summary section. The rest of the page talks about acids and is also a good read:
http://www.grapestomper.com/wineacids.html
Well reading that makes me think you and I might never like mead back sweetened with raw honey. If I'm not mistaken honey is already fructose and glucose and would not need to be hydrolyzed. Or at least that's not the process that would reduce that taste I don't like. That doesn't mean that the million other interactions happening in there won't do it though. I guess like anything else the only way to really know for sure is to backsweeten with some honey and let it sit for a few months and see what results.
In the end we can read for hours but until it's in the bottle we have no idea.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
In the end we can read for hours but until it's in the bottle we have no idea.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
I don't know. This page, for example, says honey has some sugars which are even more difficult to break down than cane sugar (at least by the body):
"Sugar is made of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, the sugar typically found in fruits, and is broken down very easily, leading to a surge of blood glucose. What your body doesn't use right away gets stored as fat. Honey is also made mostly of sugar, but it's only about 30 percent glucose and less than 40 percent fructose. And there are also about 20 other sugars in the mix, many of which are much more complex, and dextrin, a type of starchy fiber."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/09/healthy-sugar-honey_n_5445024.html
But... in the end we can read for hours but until it's in the bottle we have no idea
"Sugar is made of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, the sugar typically found in fruits, and is broken down very easily, leading to a surge of blood glucose. What your body doesn't use right away gets stored as fat. Honey is also made mostly of sugar, but it's only about 30 percent glucose and less than 40 percent fructose. And there are also about 20 other sugars in the mix, many of which are much more complex, and dextrin, a type of starchy fiber."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/09/healthy-sugar-honey_n_5445024.html
But... in the end we can read for hours but until it's in the bottle we have no idea
Lol yeah.
And to add to the complexity it depends on the variety of honey what the exact makeup of the sugars are.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
And to add to the complexity it depends on the variety of honey what the exact makeup of the sugars are.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
You know.... One thing this thread did do is induce me to try back sweetening with cane sugar. No raw honey taste to worry about.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
