Looking for sweet Mead recipes!

Try the big book of mead recipes. There are only 4 dry. The other 55+ are sweet or semi-sweet

Use the search engine on this site and search for the term "sweet"

To make sweet mead you can a) push the yeast to the limit
or b) stabilize with sulphites and then add more honey

Both have pros and cons but b) is the easiest way. YOu can take a dry recipe, add sulphites after the ferment is over and then add more honey to make it sweet.

Hello,

I prefer sweeter meads as well....here is what I do in 5 gallon batches (you can do the math reduction for your batch size):

I add 17-18 lbs of honey to 4.5 gallons of water...my target starting specific gravity is 1.145-1.150 measured with a hydrometer.

3 gallons of water is chilled overnight in the refrigerator, 1.5 gallons are brought to a boil, put into a 6 gallon plastic primary fermenter and the honey is added and stirred until dissolved. I then add the other three gallons and stir it up, and monitor the temperature and adjust the final SG (I use a 6 gallon fermenter so the racking losses to total volume on the first racking fill a five gallon carboy). The cold water reduces the temperature prior to pitching the yeast. When it hits 75-79 degrees F, then I pitch my yeast. I use Lalvin 71B-1122. It has a 14% alcohol tolerance and fermentation pretty well stops when the SG hits 1.020 - 1.025 and will give you a pretty sweet flavor profile and an alcohol level of 14% or a little better....it may trail a little with surviving yeast to as much as 16% but will stop. I feed the basic must at start with one tsp of DAP and then every other day for eight days while monitoring the SG as it goes down. This accelerates a vigorous fermentation through about 15-21 days and is virtually complete. I then rack the mead off the must into a secondary (glass carboy if it is going to be a still mead) to let it start to clear or into another 6 gallon plastic fermenter if I am going to make a melomel and add what ever fruit I use. My current favorite is 17lbs of Blackberries, 2lbs of sweet red cherries, 2lbs of tart cherries and 3/4 lb of cranberries for three weeks, stirred off the cap every other day. Rack this into a carboy and wait until there is no further fermentation...at this point (3 months) it is very drinkable. I have just let it settle (3 months) or used fining agents (48 hours)....I am able to pull honey off of my own hives, so I can control what I get for honey, and different flavor profiles depending on the time of year.

My advice would be to make more than one gallon. From experience, I have found the following:

-Most people taste their mead to early. Many don't like it. I can't tell you how many times I have offered to take mead off someone's hands because it had "mead funk" and they were SURE it was spoiled. It is not. Unless you have sulfur smell or something like that, don't worry, just keep it from air and light and let it evolve.

-Mead evolves over time...a LONG time. Do yourself a favor and hide some for 1, 2, 5 years down the road.

-Dry mead takes on a sweet character after aging. I have a black raspberry melomel which was absolutely astringent when it was under a year old. It tasted great with dark chocolate torte, but on its own would make you feel like it sucked all the spit right out of your mouth. It is now 8 years old and you would swear that I sweetened it. It is smooth, full bodied, and (sadly) down to one bottle. It may be one of my finest creations and it is almost gone.

-If you are making sweet styles try to stay balanced. The Chinese idea of yin and yang is what you are going for. If you have a sweet style you have to have some acidic properties to balance it out. Otherwise it will lack interest.

-Your honey matters. If it is a honey you would not eat on its own, don't use it...no matter how little you paid for it. Honey is the star of mead. Let it shine through. Any additions should compliment your honey, not overpower it.

-Ask questions! This is a long term project. If you are investing a year minimum, you want it to be worth the wait. There are many people who have tried different things. It is not shameful to take advantage of their experiences.

-For sweet wines or meads I prefer the natural method. Choose your yeast carefully as it will affect your residual sugar as well as your flavor profile. With the internet it is much easier to get specialty yeasts. In fact, there are places which buy yeast normally only available to vineyards and high volume purchasers and then split them into 5-gallon-batch size portions. They resell these yeasts to home winemakers. I have gotten Sauternes yeast from such places and it makes AWESOME desert wines and sweet meads. I used it for a peach Sauternes once and it gave a creamy character to the wine. So do your homework before you pitch your yeast.

Have fun with whatever you do. If you sterilize properly you will almost guarantee that whatever results you have will be good, even if they weren't what you were expecting.

Good luck to you and please post your final recipe and results.