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Sweet Mead Yeast Help

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miss_rach

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 13, 2015
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All,
I just racked my first 3 batches (2 ea 3 gal & 1 ea 5 gal) after 1 year. One of the 3 gal batches I added 6#s blackberries into the secondary and removed them about a month after. The FG (I'll say FG since its been 12 months) on the 2 traditional meads are close to 1008, on the blackberry more like 1015. All 3 batches are very dry not really what I was looking for, I'm picking up 60#s of winter honey this week and will back sweeten them to the taste I like. But....the question I have is what is the best yeast to use if I want a "sweet mead"? I used the Lalvin K1-1116 for all 3 batches. I'd rather not do that again, ferment the mead then back sweeten, I'd rather find a yeast that works in high gravity (ending ABV 13 - 14% or so) and be fruity and sweet.

Any help would be great as I'm about ready to make my next batch to let it sit at least a year in fermenters.

Cheers!
 
You have so many options it's hard for us to say what you would like. If you go to the web site you can read what each yeast will contribute to the final product. Any yeast cabn be made to be sweet, or dry. That depends on how much honey you add in your batch. Many here are proponents of running something dry and then stabilizing it and back sweetening.

Once you have been around enough you may choose to make a super sweet mead as well as a super dry mead. You can then use that to make your final adjustments based on you personal taste. That is a much better controlled way to accomplish things rather than chancing thinks when using a live culture.

Lastly don't let your next batch sit on the lees/ misc additions for that long or you will most likely run into big problems.
 
So what do you do, rack your mead monthly? rather than 1 or 2 times and then let it sit?
 
71b is my go to yeast. It can handle ridiculously high gravities with no problems. PM me and I will try to help you out with a recipe and method. Include some details about what you want to accomplish and where you want the FG to be.
Chris
 
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