What's the lowest alcohol mead you have brewed and been happy with?

I did a low alcohol mead experiment started back in November.

8ish lbs to 5 gal batch (just over %5)
After a month I racked and added different fruits (Pear, Blackberry and Raspberry)
Stayed on the fruit for a few months then racked and back-sweetened to 1.018 and bulk aged until last month.

This stuff is so smooth! The fruit aroma is very noticeable and the flavor really stands out front, not sure if that is due to the low alcohol not really competing with the flavor. I could drink a whole lot of this, so far no one has not liked it and most people that know about the length of time you normally age meads and wines can't believe it is only 10 months old. I estimate this batch lasts until this November and no longer!

SpamDog

Henrietta Maria (in the MeadLog) is my lowest ABV (potential around 5%) to date...but she's just getting started.

TheAlchemist said:

Henrietta Maria (in the MeadLog) is my lowest ABV (potential around 5%) to date...but she's just getting started.

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Thanks for the replys guys, i will check out your brewlog alchemist, cheers for the pointer.

BBBF said:

I've made two, low alcohol batches. I think they were both about 5%. I used liberty hops and carbonated them so that they would be like beer. It didn't taste like beer, but I enjoyed them and plan on making some more soon. They were completely dry and refreshing. I couldn't really taste the honey, but I also used cheap (costco) honey. It think it was clear and ready to be bottled in a couple months, but the flavor did continue to improve over the next six months.

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How did you hop it? Dry-hopping, flameout? Liberty seems like a great choice for hopped mead.

I used them as a bittering hop.

Really? How is the hop bitterness balanced?

It was only about 15 IBU.

Hello. New guy, but long-time reader. Thought I'd chime in.

I make low alcohol mead exclusively and it's always good and ready to drink quickly.

I use raw, unfiltered honey and do not boil. I use ale yeast, never wine. I leave some residual sugars for taste and mouth-feel. I stop fermentation (or greatly reduce it) with refrigeration. I don't rack it, but simply drink it. My starting gravities are around 1.060 (from 1.75 pounds of honey) and I ferment down to around 1.020, which makes it beer strength at about 5% alcohol.

I am all natural and do not use chemicals. My yeast nutrient/energizer is organic bee pollen. For acid and additional nutrients I make a fruit tisane and strain some of it into the must. These additional fruit flavors work like seasoning and are not directly detectable. Honey is prominent.

I do not care about clearing. It is primarily cosmetic anyway, but the mead does clear a bit in the fridge, probably more if I let it go longer. Once it reaches the desired gravity and alcohol level, I put a rubber stopper in good and tight and put it in the fridge, allowing it to carbonate and settle and meld. The rubber stopper prevents bombs and will just blow out, but that has never happened. Nor has an infection--honey is infection resistant.

It is fizzy, slightly sweet, and very yummy, and is ready to drink in less than a month. Mead is simple and natural and I try to remember that

EOoN, you may also want to consider boiling some of the yeast cake from finished fermentation as a natural nutrient. Those yeasties aren't above cannibalism and love to munch on their fallen friends.

Another couple of options for carbonated mead is sweetening with splenda (like stevia) or fermenting in PET bottles, waiting for the desired carbonation firmness, then storing in the fridge. I know people who use this method for sweet root beer and ginger beer.

You could fit a gallon in a 2 liter and a couple of smaller PET bottles. The beautiful thing about this method is that you can always recarbonate by letting it sit out in the warmth until it gets hard again - but it isn't the best presentation.

Some other ideas for 'sweetening' and carbonating would be using lactose or maltodextrin as the backsweetener, since these are unfermentable. They're both less sweet than simple sugars, but since the object of the backsweetening is more to build body than anything else, this is not a big issue.