Question before racking, or smack me before it's too late, adding juice or no.

[Stilgar]

Firstly Greetings and Hello. Really am enjoying this sight and has proven very helpful thus far.

Ok so I started a 1 gallon batch or bochet on the 10th and it's getting close to racking time here. My question is, when I move the mead into the 2nd carboy could I(or should I) add a cup or more of apple juice/cider to the mead to add some flavor or would something like this be best closer to bottling? Was just a thought and anything to help this mead gain a nice mix and character in the end would be nice.

What I used;
4lbs clove honey (caramelized 1 lb of the 4)
gallon water
stick cinnamon
orange zest

I had forgotten to add a nutrient or more correctly someone found my raisins and thanked me later for the snack, so the ferment has been a slow one. I was just curious if my adding juice to this to sort of replace using water after siphoning would be wise or not, and if I should just see how this comes out in the end given the caramelizing should add a fairly distinct flavor. Any help, suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I come off jumbled, running off 3 hours sleep after two trips to urgent care and ER for my girlfriend . Thank you again.

[Chevette Girl]

Originally Posted by Stilgar

I was just curious if my adding juice to this to sort of replace using water after siphoning would be wise or not, and if I should just see how this comes out in the end given the caramelizing should add a fairly distinct flavor.

Apple juice won't add much in the way of flavour at this point but it's not a bad idea at all if you need to top off to decrease headspace.

Welcome to the forum, hope your gf's OK!

[Stilgar]

Thank you! And she should be fine soon hopefully. 5 days off and I'll pretend she'll take my advice and stay in bed to relax and rest up.


If I go the route of Apple juice should I be concerned at this stage about the pot sorb level? I'd use store bought organic or worse case tree top. Same applies with the cider. If neither would add to flavor at this point any suggestions what might?

[Chevette Girl]

If your fermentation is done what it was going to do, topping off with sorbated juice isn't a problem, there should be enough yeast left to finish the job (I did this myself last year with about half a gallon of sorbated cider to top off my crabapple mel), sorbate prevents them from breeding, it doesn't stop them from processing sugar, and the concentration from a cup or two in a gallon shouldn't hurt anything.

You don't want to add it near bottling because sometimes apple can leave a pectic haze (although in this quantity it's probably not going to be an issue), and also more of a concern, if you don't hit it with sulphites and a full dose of sorbate first, it may continue to ferment, which you DO NOT want happening in your bottles.

Unfortunately, you can't tell by time or airlock activity if your mead is REALLY done, and 4 lb per gal is a fairly hefty amount of sugar to go through for any yeast, and you didn't mention which kind of yeast you used. So I can't even guess at it, not without a hydrometer reading.

[Stilgar]

Knew I forgot something on the list sorry bout that. was using Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast. When I visited our local brew supply store they handed that off to me with the carboys figured it'd be safe for a first run.

[Chevette Girl]

I'm mainly familiar with Lalvin products but I'd imagine Red Star's champagne yeast can't be that different in its properties. Quick clean ferment, good on the lees and high alcohol tolerance would be my guess, generally good for a first attempt. So it may well chew through the whole 4 lb of honey

Next trip to the brew store though, I highly recommend a hydrometer...

[TAKeyser]

If I remember right Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast has a tolerance of around 16%. So with a good SNA schedule you can bump that up a bit and you should finish with some residual sugars in the Semi-sweet range, but than again if you didn't aerate and add nutrients you could stall out early since you did start with a pretty high gravity somewhere in the 1.140-1.145 range (these are some of the reasons we recommend getting a Hydrometer).