could you use the mead batch calculator to find out how much honey you need to back sweeten? say my batch is 1.006 and i want to bring it up to 1.025.. could i type in 1.019 for final gravity and see how much honey i need to add?
backsweeten
- Thread starter koniowsky717
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could you use the mead batch calculator to find out how much honey you need to back sweeten? say my batch is 1.006 and i want to bring it up to 1.025.. could i type in 1.019 for final gravity and see how much honey i need to add?
Yes. You might want to change the units from pounds to ounces though.
now, i really want to make a sweet mead. however, i have been reading Steve Piatz meadmaking book and in it, it states that sorbate gives your mead a definite shelf life and you can expect off flavors within 6-12 months.. has anyone experienced this? or have a better way of sweetening a 6 gallon batch that i plan on ageing for about a year?
Not sure why you need to sweeten the mead and then age it. Why not allow the mead to fully age and then when you are ready to bottle decide how much honey it then needs. Using SG may not be the best method to determine that. When you are ready to bottle I would do a bench test to see the optimal level of sweetness it needs then and THEN use that level to determine the final gravity. Knowing how much honey you added to each sample allows you to calculate how much total honey you need to add to the total batch. Knowing the SG would seem to me to be fairly irrelevant unless it was simply to record what it was for this batch.
After a year, I would think that all kinds of chemical reactions will have taken place that will demand a different balance point for the sweetness you are looking for. The benefit then is - if you are sensitive to the effects of k-sorbate (and you should add the least amount that is effective, not more) then you will have added this 12 months later...so its effects and off flavors - if they are indeed real - will be reduced by 12 months.
After a year, I would think that all kinds of chemical reactions will have taken place that will demand a different balance point for the sweetness you are looking for. The benefit then is - if you are sensitive to the effects of k-sorbate (and you should add the least amount that is effective, not more) then you will have added this 12 months later...so its effects and off flavors - if they are indeed real - will be reduced by 12 months.
i believe i understand what your saying.. and when i say age, i meant sit in bottles. im not going to go through 6 gallons of the same mead in 12 months. so your saying add stabilizers to a finished mead, backsweeting, then immediately bottle? should not get any off flavors from sitting in bottles? and when you say least amount of sorbate, would this be less then whats recommended on the bottle?
heres my current situation -
-have a traditional orange blossom sitting crystal clear in a 3 gallon jug, 1 gallon and a half gallon. added campden a month ago when i racked into these. gravity is sitting at 1.006. now, i know i enjoy a sweetness of about 1.025. but i just might try your bench test to make sure of that.
-should i wait another month to rack all this into a 5 gal carboy ontop of campden/sorbate and backsweeten since i already added campden when i racked?
-since im now in a 5 gallon carboy, should i immediately bottle since im gonna have a bit of headspace?
heres my current situation -
-have a traditional orange blossom sitting crystal clear in a 3 gallon jug, 1 gallon and a half gallon. added campden a month ago when i racked into these. gravity is sitting at 1.006. now, i know i enjoy a sweetness of about 1.025. but i just might try your bench test to make sure of that.
-should i wait another month to rack all this into a 5 gal carboy ontop of campden/sorbate and backsweeten since i already added campden when i racked?
-since im now in a 5 gallon carboy, should i immediately bottle since im gonna have a bit of headspace?
if i racked on top of campden a month ago, and i now want to backsweeten... is it safe to add more campden with the sorbate and backsweeten? then after backsweetening, bottle?
Yes. For a few different reason. Camden tabs are not pure Sulfite. It's only part of the total amount. So, more likely than not you added less than you thought you did. Secondly, once added part of it binds to O2 and particulates in the must. So even less is actually "free SO2". It's the unbound, or "free" sulfites that actually remain available to do the work it's designed to do. You do want to add more. It's dependant on pH. You will want to add both sulfite and sorbate. Let it sit a few days before you backsweeten. If your mead is clear. When you add the honey to backsweeten it will muck it up again. So you will want to fine after you-you have backsweetened just prior to bottling.
awesome. and when you let it sit for a few days before backsweetening, is headspace an issue? ill be tranfering 41/2 gallons to a 5gal carboy for this. or will the chemicals not allow any oxidation to happen?
awesome. and when you let it sit for a few days before backsweetening, is headspace an issue? ill be tranfering 41/2 gallons to a 5gal carboy for this. or will the chemicals not allow any oxidation to happen?
You will be ok
You will be ok
when backsweetening.. is it still recommended to use raw unfiltered honey?
Speaking only for myself, I cannot say what you OUGHT to use but if you backsweeten with honey you will likely find that if the mead was crystal clear before it will develop a haze.
Speaking only for myself, I cannot say what you OUGHT to use but if you backsweeten with honey you will likely find that if the mead was crystal clear before it will develop a haze.
yea, Squatchy said the same thing.. would this go away in time, or use a fining agent? any recommended fining agent?
