Diluting?

[chode720]

I brewed up a batch of a tupelo sweet mead that is a year old now and ready to bottle. When I take a sample, it comes in at an FG of 1.022 and its a bit sweet for my liking. I couldn't imagine sitting down to drink more than just a small glass. I was thinking of boiling some water to drive off the oxygen and then brining the FG down to around 1.014.

I took a small sample with my hydrometer tonight and tested this. I was able to get the gravity down to 1.014 in the little jar, but the sample tasted kinda watery.

So, what Im wondering is that if diluting to lower the FG will also dilute the flavors, etc and if I would be better off just bottling and enjoying or brewing a batch and let it go dry, then blending the 2?

Thanks!

 

[Chevette Girl]

If you're not in a hurry to bottle it, I'd recommend making a batch of drier mead... if you aim for something around 8% it should ferment out relatively quickly. If it tasted watery when you did a sample, it will probably also taste watery if you dilute the whole batch.

If you figured out how much water you needed to dilute it to an appropriate level of sweetness, you can approximate how much dry mead it'll take to get the same level... if it's a 5-gal batch, you could also mix it in different proportions (say you dilute a gallon to 1.000, another to 1.005, 1.010, 1.015, and some at the original SG of 1.022) and then you'd get an idea what level of sweetness is right for this honey, as well as how it behaves over time depending on sweetness...

 

[Medsen Fey]

Welcome to GotMead!

If I wind up with a batch that is too sweet, my preference is usually to try blending with a dry batch.

If you will provide the details of your recipe, especially the starting gravity, yeast strain, and other additives, we may be able to help with more suggestions.

 

[chode720]

Welcome to GotMead!

If I wind up with a batch that is too sweet, my preference is usually to try blending with a dry batch.

If you will provide the details of your recipe, especially the starting gravity, yeast strain, and other additives, we may be able to help with more suggestions.

I dont have my exact numbers in front of me, but it was a 3.5 gallon batch, I think I used 11.5 lb of tupelo honey. I used D-47 yeast, with a target of it hitting 14% ABV around 1.012-1.014 and stopping there. I was using the staggered nutrient addition of Fermaid-K and DAP with Go-Ferm used in the yeast hydration water. I was late on one of the nutrient additions and the yeast was sluggish the whole time. It has been about 9 months since there has not been any activity. The mead is clear and has been bulk aging since then. Its ready to be bottled as the gravity has stayed at 1.022 the whole time its been bulk aging. I did some calculations and with my current batch size of 3 gallons, I would need 2 gallons of a 1.000 mead to get it to roughly my desired gravity.

Im still debating if I should bottle it or not. I know I do like it, but my wife REALLY likes it. So maybe I'll just bottle it up for her, chaulk this up as a learning experience to back sweeten to get to a desired gravity and make another 3 gallon batch........

 

[mmclean]

If Mommy's happy, everybody's happy! ;D

 

[commonsenseman]

Making another batch is always a good idea!

I've learned very quickly that sweet mead & me don't agree. My JAO is too sweet for me at 1.024 (we'll see if I like it better after a few months, or if it's just too darn sweet for me to enjoy) & several commercial meads are as well (usually unless labeled as "dry"). I'm not sure where the cutoff is for my palate, but I'm pretty sure it's around 1.010 or less.

 

[AToE]

I'm not sure where the cutoff is for my palate, but I'm pretty sure it's around 1.010 or less.

For me with a straight traditional with no acid additions it's about 1.005, but how balanced a mead is can really shift that around. If a mead has acidity to balance, it can be a whole lot sweeter and not taste so sweet.

 

[chode720]

For me with a straight traditional with no acid additions it's about 1.005, but how balanced a mead is can really shift that around. If a mead has acidity to balance, it can be a whole lot sweeter and not taste so sweet.

I have found that through the different meads I have made, it depends on the honey. I tend to like dry wines, so I made all of my meads dry. Ive only been making mead for about 18 months now. This tupelo was my first sweet mead. With the lighter honeys, I didn't like them dry. I did a local wildflower and orange blossom that both finished at 1.000, but they seemed a little lacking. But I had a mead from killer bee honey (that had a very strong flavor and aroma) also finish at 1.000 and it is perfect for my taste. I am finding that a lot has to do with the intensity of the honey. Even though the tupelo got stuck at 1.022, its not to cloying or syrupy sweet. To me, it tastes about a sweet as a fruit wine you could buy in a kit from a winemaking shop.


I think I might even get some acid blend tonight, and try adding a little to this mead. Be easier than making another batch and it will help to cut it a bit.

 

[Medsen Fey]

It is also really easy to over-do the acid additions so it is good to error on the side of too little and give it time to integrate.

Another way to handle this would be bottle up half of it for your wife, then create a dry batch and blend it with the remaining 1.5 gallons to get it where you want it.

Just one suggestion - since this batch is still significantly below the ABV tolerance of the D47, you may want to add sorbate/sulfite to make sure it stays quite as the temperatures warm up during the summer before you bottle it for her.