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pointers please

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Jarveye

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 10, 2013
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I have my main 5 gallon batch of plain mead aging now, and plan to rack it again into 4 seperate 1 gallon demijons soon, with the remainder (which will be much less than 1 gallon due to losses in racking) i would like to experiment by backsweetening it with fruit and spice....

can anyone point me towards advice with this? i would like to make it raspberry, apple and cinamon, (or similar) im not sure the best way to do it though, use a jar of ground cinamon? or sticks? fresh fruit crushed or squeezed and strained, or can i just use fresh juice (not from concentrate)?

to try and keep the strength of the mead, can i use some kind of syrup or flavouring rather than a larger volume of juice?

also im fairly sure the yeast is all spent in the mead, and i did add some campden tablets to stabalise it, so im guessing this means it will not try to continue fermenting? the reason i ask this is, one of the left over amount of mead from racking, i took this and let it settle in a tall bottle so i could then syphon the extra into a spare batch for tasting, this batch i sealed into a glass bottle in the fridge confident it was off the lees and had the campden so wouldnt ferment, however when i opened the bottle it was very presurised and made the mead sparkling, which was actually lovely, but left me suspicous....
 
fatbloke

fatbloke

good egg/snappy dresser.....
GotMead Patron
Feb 3, 2008
3,632
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UK - South Coast.
fatblokeshomebrew.blogspot.com
Apples juiced is fine.

Raspberries should be frozen, then thawed and added whole. Don't blitz/puree stone or seeded fruit generally as it damages the seeds/pips and that can introduce bitter notes....

Cinnamon, as whole sticks or pieces. It can be removed when the taste gets strong enough. Ground/powdered not only is hard to remove if you add too much, it can cause clearing issues too.....
 
rmccask

rmccask

Worker Bee
Registered Member
May 3, 2013
96
1
8
VA
I don't use campden tablets but from what I understand, they come in two varieties and are both sulfites. I use Potassium Metabisulfite in powder form. This may help to pause fermentation if it isn't very active but does not prevent it from restarting. For that you need Potassium Sorbate. You should add the sorbate at the same time or shortly after the sulfite. Then you shouldn't have to worry about further fermentation if you backsweeten it.
 
Kelvin

Kelvin

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 1, 2012
158
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Indiana
Fatty is right on with the additives and like rmc I never use campden. I do mine until it is good an done. If it explodes. oh well.
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
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Ottawa, ON
If you ended up with something sparkling, your yeast isn't dead. There have been reports from a few people who've had restarts in what should have been finished wine that was at least two years old, so never assume your yeast are dead unless you've hit them with sulphites and potassium sorbate. And even then, watch them...
 
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