One of my first batches of mead is pretty much clear and I plan on stabilizing and back sweetening. There's just a small amount of sediment at the bottom. I'm going to rack it onto about .4 grams of potassium metabisulfite and wait about 24 hours before adding sorbate. My first question is: How long do I wait to back sweeten after adding the potassium sorbate? Also, once I rack it will have a small amount of headspace. Is it ok to leave this room in the carboy for a little while while stabilizing to leave room for back sweetening? Thanks.
back sweetening and headspace
- Thread starter reese27k
- Start date
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In my experience, waiting a day to backsweeten after adding the sorbate should be plenty. It should also be fine to leave a small headspace for a few days.
You can add the sorbate and sulphite together. Its not strictly necessary (apparently) to wait the 24 or 48 hours (or whatever) to back sweeten but I, like many others, do like to give the stabilising chems a day or two, to do their thing.........no harm comes of that.
if you find you needed more space to apply the back sweetening, just remove a pint or so and store it in the fridge in a sealed bottle while you sweeten.
Add it back in when bottling etc.....
if you find you needed more space to apply the back sweetening, just remove a pint or so and store it in the fridge in a sealed bottle while you sweeten.
Add it back in when bottling etc.....
The yeast may start up again. Depending on how close you are to the ABV tolerance, once they are active, the sorbate and sulfite may not stop them. These stabilizers are best at keeping dormant yeast dormant.
Sent from my THINGAMAJIG with WHATCHAMACALLIT
Sent from my THINGAMAJIG with WHATCHAMACALLIT
