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Mead Lovers Digest #1399
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1399, 5 December 2008
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1399 5 December 2008
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: MLD#1398, 29-11-08, Back sweetening (Arthur Torrey)
Re: back sweetened mead (MeadGuild@aol.com)
Re: back sweetened mead (mail-box)
Re: Back sweetened mead (Phil)
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Subject: Re: MLD#1398, 29-11-08, Back sweetening
From: Arthur Torrey <arthur_torrey@comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:55:18 -0500
I consider adding sulfites, sorbates and other such artificial ingredients
objectionable, so what I do is pick a yeast that attenuates at about the
alcohol strength range I want, usually Lalvin D-47. I pick a target range of
SG for my desired sweetness, most times between 1.005 and 1.010, sometimes
sweeter if it's a capsicumel, or other "desert" brew, or drier if it seems to
taste right that way. (This is a compromise of sorts, I like things dry, but
the GF wants sweet, this is a medium....)
Each time I rack the mead, I taste it and measure the SG. If it's about
right, I rack it off the lees and leave it be - when it's been stable (no
significant SG change, and no sign of fermentation) for 6 months or two
rackings, I'll bottle.
If it tastes dry, and the SG is lower than my target, I use a chart that, IIRC
came from the Gotmead site, and says how much honey to use to make 5 gallons
of must at a given SG to calculate how much honey I need to bring the SG back
into range and use that much - with a bit of fudging on the amount depending
on where in the brewing cycle I'm at... If it's the first one or two
rackings, and I was starting from very dry, I'll go heavy on the theory that
the yeast are still pretty hungry and will probably eat all I give them. If
I've already fed the batch a time or two, and it's getting fairly close to
target, I'll go on the short side.
My usual adding method is to mix the honey 50/50 w/ hot water, and put that in
the container I'm racking into, then rack the batch onto it, trying to angle
the racking hose to "swirl" the incoming must around - this seems to do a
pretty good job of mixing.
Example - a cyser on first racking tastes like drier than the Sahara, and
measures 0.995. Target is around 1.010, so I'm 0.015 short. Per the chart,
to make a 1.015 must you need between 2 and 3 cups of honey. Since this is
an early racking I'll go for 3 cups or a little over.
ART
On Saturday 29 November 2008 17:01:22 mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Re: back sweetened mead
> From: wanna.b@comcast.net
> Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:55:26 +0000
>
> Ken Taborek writes:
> > How are you back sweetening? I use honey,
> > some reserved from the original honey if I'm making a varietal mead. I
> > just warm it a bit in the microwave to make it pour easily and stir it
> > in. This will be after bulk aging and a few rackings, so the stirring
> > doesn't disturb much if any lees.
>
> Ken: Is there a formula you use to determine how much honey to use to
> back sweeten? Or do you pour some in, taste, and repeat if needed?
> I have not back sweetened before.
>
> Greg Van
Arthur Torrey
------------------------------
Subject: Re: back sweetened mead
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:26:08 EST
Greg Van asked:
> Is there a formula you use to determine how much honey to use to
> back sweeten? Or do you pour some in, taste, and repeat if needed?
> I have not back sweetened before.
My estimate is just under 1.45 lbs of honey to raise the SG of
5 gallons of Mead by 0.010 points.
Assuming
Honey has an SG of 1.438 and a weight of 12 lbs per gallon,
G = Gallons of Mead
SG = SG of Mead
FG = Desired SG
LBS = LBS of honey needed
LBS = 12 * G * (FG - SG) / (1.438 - FG)
If this is wrong, I am certain someone will correct it.
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated
------------------------------
Subject: Re: back sweetened mead
From: mail-box <mail-box@comcast.net>
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:45:35 -0500
Greg Van wrote:
> Ken: Is there a formula you use to determine how much honey to use to
> back sweeten? Or do you pour some in, taste, and repeat if needed?
> I have not back sweetened before.
>
> Greg Van
Greg,
Over time I've learned how much sweetening I get from a specific amount
of honey. Back sweetening 5 gallons of dry mead with 1/4 cup of honey
brings it to off-dry, which is where I prefer it, and 1/2 cup brings it
to semi sweet or sweet, depending on the scale used. Most commercial
meads are well above this level of sweetness, I'd guess that it'd take
at least a cup of honey in 5 gallons to start to approach the sweetness
of a Chaucer mead, for example.
If you haven't yet acquired a feel for how much sweetening you prefer,
there are several calculators available on the web for wine making which
will tell you exactly how much sugar added to a specific volume of
wine will bring your SG up by a given amount. I'd recommend that you
find one of these calculators and substitute honey for sugar. Mead
making sites might have the honey to volume SG calculations already, but
honey is not a fixed value so I prefer to work off of a more specific
sugar to volume ratio and estimate from there.
You might try measuring the SG of some meads you enjoy, and then try to
shoot for that level of sweetness from back sweetening. Your suggested
"add some, taste, repeat if needed" method is a fine way to learn how
much sweetness you prefer also. Stepping up a 5 gallon dry mead in 1/8
cup honey intervals should give you an excellent granularity on the
sweetness scale.
Caveat: I do not filter so I always have yeast in my mead, active or
otherwise. Adding a sugar source to a mead can restart fermentation,
even after a long period of bulk aging. Back sweetening requires
stabilization with sorbate and sulfite, the aging time helps also but it
is no guarantee. My general practice is to sulfite and sorbate after
racking the dry mead, wait at least 2 weeks, and then I can back
sweeten. I typically back sweeten during bottling, as I prefer to
bottle some of the mead dry and some back sweetened. Since I bulk age
at least 9 months this gives me a large buffer of time during which the
yeast can go dormant or die off and I don't need to worry as much about
the interaction between sorbate and fermentation, but I still sulfite at
each racking and at bottling.
Cheers,
Ken
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Back sweetened mead
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 08:41:33 -0800 (PST)
> Ken: Is there a formula you use to determine how much honey
> to use to
> back sweeten? Or do you pour some in, taste, and repeat if
> needed?
> I have not back sweetened before.
I like my meads at a certain level of sweetness and, generally, aim for
a finishing gravity of 1.006 to 1.010. After I take finishing gravity,
I figure out how much aditional honey is needed to reach my desired FG.
I dissolve it in a little bit of water and add what I need to fall just
short. From there, I add to taste.
Hope this helps.
Phil
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1399
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