# Sweet Mead Backsweetening



## wineforfun (Apr 8, 2013)

Have a batch of sweet mead going, just plain. Used the recipe out of the book that came with my equipment kit. Fairly basic recipe, I have seen similar on the web. 
3 1/4# honey
nutrient
energizer
yeast

added more nutrient at 1/3 fermentation

starting SG 1.12

ran dry to 1.000

It has a very plain, bitter taste. I don't understand how it is going to be sweet mead in its current state.
Questions are, do I need to just wait and let it age?
do I need to backsweeten(which I don't understand as I thought it was supposed to be sweet)?

Another recipe in the book, and like others, uses the same ingredients with the exception of 2 1/2# honey, and it runs dry. It is considered a dry mead. I am not seeing the difference in the two right now.

Thanks.


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## JDC (Apr 8, 2013)

What yeast did you use? to have fermentation stop with residual sugars left you need to use a yeast with a low alcohol tolerance. I typically use D47 with meads. You will need to backsweeten to taste now. I am used to my meads stopping around 1.020 with the D47.


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## wineforfun (Apr 8, 2013)

I used 71B. Was going to use D-47 but then started reading about how some people had some issues with sulfur, etc. so I went the other way as it was recommended on another recipe. I believe both are about 14% alcohol tolerance. 
I had a feeling I should have either a. upped the SG or b. used a lower alcohol tolerance yeast to have some residual sweetness left, but the recipe didn't mention any of that.
Live and learn.
Thanks.


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## BernardSmith (Apr 8, 2013)

At an SG of 1.000 there would be a little residual sugar left so your mead is going to taste quite "dry". Upping the SG at the beginning won't change anything (and may make it worse) unless the starting SG was so high that the yeast died of alcohol poisoning and so were unable to ferment all the sugars to alcohol. For me, personally, an SG of 1.000 is often sweet enough (dry would be around .996 or .998) - but I tend to aim for 11 or 12 percent ABV so I wonder if the issue is that the alcohol content is too high for the amount of residual sugar to be noticed - I think that if you water to 3.25 lbs of sugar to make one gallon your starting SG might have have been around 1.100 so it is possible that what you are tasting is what I would think of as an an imbalance between a relatively high ABV and the perceptible sweetness. Another possibility is that the acidity of the honey is too high (the pH too low) for the relative sweetness to come through.


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## Dend78 (Apr 8, 2013)

how old is it? reason i ask it may just be a bit on the young side, im pretty new to meads but it seems like the wines i make are bitter up front but as time goes by that bitterness goes away leaving a much smoother end product.


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## wineforfun (Apr 8, 2013)

It isn't even bottled yet, so I have thought about that too. It hasn't had time to "mellow" but right now, it doesn't have the slightest hint of sweetness. I have no problem backsweetening but the point of the recipe and others I have seen like it, is to have a finished sweet mead, so not sure what I am missing. 
As Bernard stated, it could be the alcohol that is overpowering any sort of flavor/sweetness.
I will give it time and see what happens. If it doesn't come around, I will up the SG quite a bit next time so there is enough residual honey leftover.


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## BernardSmith (Apr 8, 2013)

Wineforfun, but if you also think that the problem may be that the amount of alcohol is overpowering the residual sugar I am not sure that I understand why you would want to increase the alcohol content even if your intention was to eliminate the yeast before they completed fermentation. Would you not have far more control over the level of sweetness if you say, added enough water to the honey to produce say 12 percent alcohol and then allowed the yeast to ferment to dry all sugar (say SG of .996), stabilized the mead and then added back some honey to increase the SG to a level you found acceptable. I am no expert, but I cannot see how you have any control over whether the yeast will give up the ghost when the SG will be at 1.020 which may be far too sweet for you or at 1.000 which may be too dry for you. 
That said, if your mead has stopped all fermentation, there should be nothing to stop you stabilizing the wine and then backsweetening it to the point that suits you. I guess what I am saying is that there is no need to wait until "next time" to turn this batch into something you enjoy. Moreover, if you are making a second batch with less honey (and and so a lower SG) is there any reason why you might not want to blend the two batches to reduce the ABV of the first batch


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## Dend78 (Apr 8, 2013)

i think what he is shooting for is higher starting SG with a low tol yeast, giving him a higher residual sugar ending so he just has to go from carboy to bottle adding nothing except maybe some k-meta for long term storage


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## wineforfun (Apr 8, 2013)

Bernard,
It would be experimental but what I meant by upping the SG isn't to increase alcohol, it is to leave enough sweetness after the yeast has done its job. As far as making the yeast quit, if I start the SG equivalent to say 22% and then use a 12% yeast, I should end up with a 10-12% ABV. I am following this same logic/process on another recipe I received on WMT, except with grape concentrate. It is basically sweetening on the front end, instead of the back end. 
I understand your logic with adding water too, and I suppose that would be another viable option.

As far as this batch goes, I will definitely backsweeten and get it to my liking. It will not go to waste.

I guess my confusion is with how the dry and sweet recipe(s) run the mead dry and yet are supposed to be different. Now I may just need to let this age for awhile and I could be very surprised how it ends up.


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## wineforfun (Apr 8, 2013)

I was in the middle of typing but dend is onto what I am trying to do/say. And maybe I am crazy in my logic but it makes sense to me.....................just maybe not the gods of nectar.


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## Dend78 (Apr 8, 2013)

makes sense to me, the Wyeast sweet mead yeast is good up to 11% lil more expensive than your typical red star or lavlin yeast but much lower abv. only reason i know this is because with the blueberry i have resting quietly now when it was fermenting i transferred at 1.012 to secondary the flavor was great. after it went dry the flavor was bitter and the berry flavor had been stripped quite a bit just in that last .015ish. if i were to do it again i would do it the same and use the sweet mead yeast instead of the dry and save that extra sugar and flavor.

another thing to consider is its a sweet mead to who? each person likes a sweet mead with a different ending


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## JDC (Apr 8, 2013)

Many of the older sweet mead recipes assumed you were using a bread yeast with a low (9-11) alcohol threshold. A other's have stated, finish dry & then add honey back to get it to sweetness you like - then measure that SG. That will give you something to use a bench mark to use in the future for calculating how much honey (or sugar) to add in the future. I have never personally had any problems using D47 with meads. My first mead, like yours finished quite dry & I kept a couple of bottle dry - it took a couple of years for it to mellow.


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## VineSwinger (Apr 28, 2013)

When fermenting nearly anything as finnicky as mead can be, it is easier to back sweeten with the same variety of honey of used in the initial fermentation. Yes, a mead may mellow upon bottling, but it will not get any sweeter in the botle.


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## ox45 (May 1, 2013)

I personally like a bit of a sweeter mead myself. I am still relatively new at this, but I have gained a lot of knowledge so far from reading way too much!

I have tried the route of making a high OG must and trying to get a yeast to hit the target sweetness level, but this has proven to be all but futile. Yeast is a finicky creature, and the rated tolerance level is an estimate at most. I tend to take great care of my fermentations, which usually leads the yeasts to going well over their rated tolerance. This will leave a dry, alcohol hot mead that takes a long time to age out. Just ask my 15% JOAV that is 6 months old and can still take a shuttle to the moon.

I have had success in cold crashing. I like mine a little lower ABV at around 11-12%, and at around 1.010 final gravity. So I will make my must SG at 1.090-.095 and crash once the must reads 1.012. But even this is unreliable and there is always the chance that the yeast will start back up after racking.

I have found that it is easier to figure out what ABV you want, make your initial must to that level and let it run dry. After the ferment is done, I rack and stablize. I will then backsweeten to the point just shy of what I want sweetness wise. I do this because as mead ages, the honey flavor and aroma will come back and help the sweetness sensation.

And finally, the most important thing with mead is that young mead tastes bad. No way around that (unless it's a potent melomel or something along those lines). It is possible to mask some of these young characteristics by over sweetening, but I wouldn't suggest that route. Time will be your best ingredient you can put into the mead.


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