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Can you thin out mead (reduce mouthfeel)?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Devin Petry-Johnson
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Devin Petry-Johnson

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My wife's only complaint about my mead so far is that she thinks it's somewhat syrupy. I think we are used to wine, and my mead seems a little thicker by comparison. I expected that in the sweet meads that have residual sugar, but she said she noticed it in the dry mead that I oaked. Is this common with mead in general? Is this just a product of fermented honey? Other than lowering the starting gravity and doing a short mead or hydromel, is there a way to end up with a thinner mouthfeel from the mead? I was thinking acid might help, but not sure. Anyone have ideas?
 
I may be wrong but I would think a dry mead , having no residual sugar would not have a syrupy mouthfeel - though certainly some yeasts are known for their production of glycerols.. (DV10, for example). What in fact is the gravity of this mead and what is its TA? a higher TA might create an illusion of less viscosity as might priming this with CO2.
 
I’m not sure how it can be both syrupy and dry.
I take syrupy to mean sweet. Is that not what she means?
 
Syrupy as in thickness, lots of mouthfeel, etc. As opposed to thin, or watery or “drinkable”.
 
so it could be glycerols in the mead that provide the viscosity. I think too, that a higher ABV wine or mead tastes as if it has more "body" but the opposite of a high ABV mead is not necessarily a session mead. Most wines are about 12% ABV. That is a starting gravity of about 1.090. That would be about 2.5 lbs of honey per gallon of must.
 
Devin Petry-Johnson said:
My wife's only complaint about my mead so far is that she thinks it's somewhat syrupy. I think we are used to wine, and my mead seems a little thicker by comparison. I expected that in the sweet meads that have residual sugar, but she said she noticed it in the dry mead that I oaked. Is this common with mead in general? Is this just a product of fermented honey? Other than lowering the starting gravity and doing a short mead or hydromel, is there a way to end up with a thinner mouthfeel from the mead? I was thinking acid might help, but not sure. Anyone have ideas?
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What is the alcohol content? I have been able to make dry meads that have "legs" and a thick mouthfeel which is generally seen as a good thing. But if she doesn't like it and the ABV is over 7% maybe you can thin it by adding water. Simple and easy but it may reduce the intensity of flavor. Alternatively, you can add high proof vodka (in very small amounts) which can also reduce body but won't reduce the intensity of the flavor too much. Be careful when doing this and try it on small amounts. Water additions can restart fermentation and booze can quickly ruin a tasty mead.
 
Those are some good ideas, thanks. I’m not sure if I will do anything, maybe she’ll just have to learn to like it.

For info, it was a wildflower trad, 1.110 SG, fermented dry and oaked with Hungarian medium. My calculations put it at 14%.
 
I'm making a "light mead", and to avoid the thick mouthfeel of my previous batched I fermented it with 2.375kg of honey and 1kg of dextrose. According to all info I read, this would increase the ABV but not increase the "thickness", since the dextrose has no additional stuff like honey to make the mead "thicker" or "taste more honey-ish", if I can put it that way. The actual way it was described on several sources was "it'll produce a thin mead".

Well, it worked. Mead is light and "thin", and doesn't have that punch that you get from other meads (or wines, for that matter). It's not technically a hydromel (since it's not watered down), and at ~11% ABV it's not something to be laughed at either, but the flavour is just softer. I like it.
 
so I am confused.
Are you saying you don’t like the taste of honey?
Why not just make a hydromel if you don’t like honey flavor?
Or add grape juice for a pyment?
Cider for a cyser?
Other fruit for a melomels?
Sugar is tasteless correct, for the most part
 
I wanted to up the alcohol content as well, since I want to backsweeten with fruit juice. Hydromel would have been too low in alcohol and backsweetening that with fruit would have resulted too low alcohol content. Keep in mind my batch was brewed for a friend who wanted a higher alcohol content.
 
Apologies if this is taking this thread off topic but there is a way to add fruit (juice) that does not "reduce" the ABV. What you do is concentrate the juice - not by boiling off the water - that would cook the fruit but by freezing the juice hard and then allowing the juice to gently thaw. As it thaws you collect the first runnings. The sugars (and flavors) will be extracted first so while about 2/3 is still ice the first 1/3 will contain almost all sugar and flavor. You add that concentrate to your mead. So, sure, you will reduce the ABV a little but the bang you get for that buck is far greater than simply adding the juice from the fruit without the results of this concentration.
 
bernardsmith said:
Apologies if this is taking this thread off topic but there is a way to add fruit (juice) that does not "reduce" the ABV. What you do is concentrate the juice - not by boiling off the water - that would cook the fruit but by freezing the juice hard and then allowing the juice to gently thaw. As it thaws you collect the first runnings. The sugars (and flavors) will be extracted first so while about 2/3 is still ice the first 1/3 will contain almost all sugar and flavor. You add that concentrate to your mead. So, sure, you will reduce the ABV a little but the bang you get for that buck is far greater than simply adding the juice from the fruit without the results of this concentration.
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The above is correct or you could ferment the fruit juice with the honey.
If not enough flavor after fermentation you can add honey or fruit post ferment.
General rule I don’t recommend fermenting a sugar that has no flavor in and of itself.
Even brown sugar is better than cane sugar as it adds at least some flavor.
 
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