Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Mead Lovers Digest #1564
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1564, 9 January 2012
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1564 9 January 2012
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1563, 5 January 2012 (Adam Chatburn)
Sweet mead (Tim Bray)
Re: MLD #1563, Sweetening mead (arthur_torrey@comcast.net)
Re: Stopping mead fermentation ("Bill Pierce")
NOTE: Digest appears whenever there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe and admin requests.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead#Archives
A searchable archive is at http://www.gotmead.com/mldarchives.html
Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1563, 5 January 2012
From: Adam Chatburn <achatburn@cssea.bc.ca>
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 10:27:49 -0800
Back sweetening without secondary fermentation.
You can use Splenda or any other non-fermentable sugar like sucralose, malt=
o-dextrin or lactose, try something like Log cabin syrup, it's a blend of s=
orbitol, aspartame and sucralose. However, if you want to avoid chemicals -=
try natural gelatine finings and/or using a wine filter to remove the ce=
lls before back sweetening.
Adam
------------------------------
Subject: Sweet mead
From: Tim Bray <tbray@wildblue.net>
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:18:13 -0800
Greg asked for:
"Suggestions for those of us who do not care for chemicals?"
Learn to enjoy dry mead. Seriously, if avoiding chemicals is really
important to you, develop a taste for fully-fermented beverages. Sweet
drinks without preservatives are always at risk of fermentation (or
worse). And why does everything have to be sweet nowadays, anyway? Has
the relentless addition of HFCS to every food product made us expect
everything we eat or drink to taste like candy? (Sorry, got a little
ranty there)
I find the aroma and flavor of a well-made dry mead (or cider)
preferable to a sweet one; the flavor in particular is often much more
complex and satisfying. Even a dry mead tastes sweet to me if it has
honey aroma.
Cheers,
Tim in Albion
------------------------------
Subject: Re: MLD #1563, Sweetening mead
From: arthur_torrey@comcast.net
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 20:27:11 +0000 (UTC)
My approach has been somewhat primitive, but seems to work and it avoids
the use of chemicals. It DOES produce the risk of bottle bombs in theory,
but I've never had one when doing it right... Essentially I leave the
mead in bulk age for a very long time, racking every few months.
My target range for most meads is between 1.005 and 1.010, which IMHO is
a nice balance between sweet and dry. Each time I check the SG, and if
it is below 1.005, I add enough honey to bring it up to 1.010
Eventually the yeast gives up, so when I get a batch that has been stable
through a couple of rackings, shows no other signs of activity, and tastes
good, I bottle it...
I control the approximate alcohol level by choice of yeasts. I used to
use champagne yeasts, but I found that they have high tolerance, and
I had "rocket fuel" by the time they gave up. I now use Lalvin D-47,
which gives a nice result, and that I've found very reliable.
The risk is that the yeast might wake up and start fermenting again,
leading to excess pressure in the bottle. IMHO as long as you are careful
to make sure the batch is stable before fermenting, this isn't a big risk.
The other factor is that what made the yeast quit was the alcohol
concentration - if the concentration drops by much, the yeast WILL wake
up, so you need to avoid adding any water while bottling - make sure the
bottles are dry, and minimize the amount of water added from the cork
soaking solution. (I use aglomerated corks, and shake them off after
dipping in sulfite solution per the directions)
> Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1562, 1 January 2012
> From: "Greg and Sandy Swob" <swob@ruraltel.net>
> Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 15:04:25 -0600
>
> How do you Mead Lovers like to stop fermentation on mead? Backsweetening
> has a potential of wakening up a sleeping yeast even after a long time off
> the clock. I know a commercial meadery who chills their meads to the point
> of freezing after the desired fermentation. Then they rack, and add
> infusions, herbs, etc. Suggestions for those of us who do not care for
> chemicals?
>
> Thanks - Greg
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Stopping mead fermentation
From: "Bill Pierce" <BillPierce@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:09:29 -0500
In MLD #1563, Greg Swob asks about stopping mead fermentation. The fact is
that honey is almost 100 percent fermentable, and barring exceeding the
alcohol tolerance of the yeast, or the near-total absence of nutrients, the
yeast will happily ferment the honey almost to the depletion of sugar. Some
strains are a little less attenuative than others, but in the end you can
expect a dry product without some serious intervention.
If you have an aversion to chemicals and want a sweeter mead, about the only
guarantee would be to crash chill the mead nearly to freezing when it is
close to the desired gravity, and then to keep it cold until it is drunk.
Otherwise it requires chemical intervention. Potassium sorbate (wine
stabilizer) will fairly reliably (though not absolutely in all cases)
prevent fermentation from restarting, so it can be used rather successfully
with backsweetenting, but it's much more effective if the fermentation has
ceased before the sorbate is added. I wouldn't count on it to stop an
active fermentation dead in its tracks.
Sulfiting (potassium or sodium metabisulfite) is not very useful for
reliably preventing refermentation. It's a rather mild sanitizer
(sufficient for cider, wine and mead but not beer), and it's often used to
retard wild yeasts so that they are outcompeted by the culture yeast that is
pitched. But it does not reliably kill yeast so much as inhibit it, and its
effects diminish after a day or two, which is why the recommendation is to
wait 48 hours after sulfiting before pitching the culture yeast.
And once again I will remind readers that it is not possible to reliably
naturally carbonate these beverages that have been chemically retarded. If
you want sparkling, sweet mead, you have to force carbonate.
Bill Pierce
Cellar Door Homebrewery
Burlington, Ontario
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1564
*******************************
