Joe's Grape Pyment and back sweetening

[chams]

Hi guys. New guy here.
Great forum! I just found it by poking around the internet since I was interested in making some mead.

I'm in the process of making Joe's grape pyment from the recipe section. I've followed it pretty closely using a medium-light unpasteurized honey from Lafontaine Ontario, and some buckwheat honey (as well as the Welch's).
My OG was 1.113
A question.
Has anyone fermented this dry and not back sweetened?
I like 0 reds and dry whites. Would this dry mead rip your head off?
It should come out about 15% ABV as I used EC-1118.
Just curious. Of course I'll taste it when racking.

 

[mccann51]

Hi, Chams.

I would say many people do not backsweeten. I'm new, but asking around, many say that after aging, an essence of sweetness comes back to the mead. And dry meads are comparable to dry wines (if you like dry); I have a few dry berry melomels, un-aged, that I already enjoy (very much so looking forward to the aged product, though ).

That being said, it's not difficult to backsweeten, but others here can better explain the process than me.

 

[chams]

Hi, Chams.

I would say many people do not backsweeten. I'm new, but asking around, many say that after aging, an essence of sweetness comes back to the mead. And dry meads are comparable to dry wines (if you like dry); I have a few dry berry melomels, un-aged, that I already enjoy (very much so looking forward to the aged product, though ).

That being said, it's not difficult to backsweeten, but others here can better explain the process than me.

Thanks for responding.
I know it's very subjective and I'll just have to wait and see.
I may be too impatient for mead making. Good thing I'm bottling a Shiraz as I go to check my mead tonight.

 

[PitBull]

To each their own!

I tend to drink my grape wines dry to off-dry. I made a gallon batch of Joe's and found it to be too dry without back sweetening. The recipe states "If you want it semi sweet use 4-oz honey instead of 6-oz/gal." (I am assuming that is by weight.) After racking and stabilizing, I back sweetened and topped-off with a mere 2.5 ounces (by weight) of honey and about four fluid ounces of juice.

It turned out well to my liking at that sweetness level. So well in fact, that I was inspired to purchase 5 gallons of pressed Concord juice from a Lake Erie region vineyard to make a batch that is currently clarifying in my basement.

The best advice is if you like it dry, keep it dry. Otherwise, stabilize and then back sweeten a “little at a time” until you find the sweetness level that is right for you. Remember, you can always add more honey/juice to increase the sweetness. But you cannot remove it if the pyment is too sweet.

 

[chams]

Thanks for the info PitBull!

 

[Meriadoc]

I made a batch of Joe's Pyment last summer, and to tell the truth, I liked the character of the honey better before backsweetening than after. When I make another batch (which I do when I'm looking for a convenient quick mead), I plan on keeping some dry, to use as-is or to mix back in with backsweetened, in order to make a more dry variant for those who like it that way...