I've just about finished my first attempt at mead. I'm now thinking about my second batch. The yeast I have used is pretty aggressive, Bulldog mead yeast, so was wondering if anyone has some better suggestions. Looking to make an orange and ginger mead and possibly a peach mead. All advice gratefully received. Fitz
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2To make a sweeter mead, I will just add some honey after it fermented dry.– skveryAug 13, 2020 at 9:10
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1 Answer
As @skvery suggested, backsweeten it to make it sweeter.
Mead is quite devoid of nutrients (as honey is basically straight fructose) so a strong yeast bred specifically for mead / low nutrient fermentations will outperform an ale yeast and not become as stressed. Due to the strong yeast, more of the sugar will be converted to alcohol which is why backsweetening is required.
You could argue that you could use an ale yeast and when it gets stressed out and stalls there will still be some sugars in there for a sweeter taste. However, when yeast becomes stressed it starts throwing out esters which will make your mead taste "yeasty" like bad homebrew :). Better to backsweeten with some of the honey
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Thank you for this advice. I've not heard of back sweetening before. What is the best way to do this and at what point? How much honey do I use to make a medium sweet mead?– FitzjgAug 21, 2020 at 11:24
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Backsweetening is typically done when fermentation is complete, because you have to kill the yeast to prevent bottle bombs after adding the extra sugars. I can't say how much honey you need because it's going to vary based on volume of mead and your tastes. For more information, see here: byo.com/article/backsweetening Aug 23, 2020 at 19:13