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Sweetining Melomel

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toolboxdiver

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 3, 2005
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toolboxdiver.tripod.com
Hello I have a small batch of Blueberry/Cranberry Melomel and its a little tart from the cranberries. The SG is .995 and I was wondering about how much Honey to use to take the edge off, or will it mellow with age. I normally like my meads dry but this is a tad too much. Thanks for your help
 

CosmicCharlie

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2004
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Is my math right - would adding 8 oz of honey bring the gravity up to 1.015?

(We're talking about a 1 gallon batch, right?)

I won't say "right" anymore. Starting right now!
 

toolboxdiver

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 3, 2005
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toolboxdiver.tripod.com
CosmicCharlie said:
Is my math right - would adding 8 oz of honey bring the gravity up to 1.015?

(We're talking about a 1 gallon batch, right?)

I won't say "right" anymore. Starting right now!

Yes Charlie it is a 1 gallon batch, and that sounds just about right ...lol... adding the 8 ounces of honey should bring it up to 1.015
 

CosmicCharlie

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2004
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Last dumb question (for now): Is there a general threshold gravity that separates "sweet" from "dry"? Maybe around 1.010???
 

JamesP

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Dec 3, 2003
654
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Brisbane Australia
Not a dumb question.

There are a few different "SG differentiators", but they are primarily for mead competitions, where you want to categorise entries.

For personal use - sweeten to taste, ie it is subjective. Also factors like tannin, acidity, %ABV all produce different organeoleptic (? ie taste) sensations.
Hence adjust by taste rather than by numbers. The numbers are handy to put you in the ball-park, but nothing beats using your mouth ;D

Back to categorising by numbers,

JamesP said:
From the Michael L. Hall treatise on Mead Judging
http://www.hbd.org/atommash/hall/mead_judging.pdf

which has three sweetness ranges defined: Dry, Medium & Sweet
comes the following Quote:

Roughly, a dry mead will have a final gravity less than 1.010, a medium mead will fall in the range from 1.010 to 1.025, and a sweet mead will be greater than 1.025.
dry <1.010
Medium 1.10-1.025
Sweet >1.025

Somewhere else IIRC I've seen it split into 4 groupings of something like
dry <1.010,
semi-sweet 1.010-1.020,
sweet 1.020-1.030
sack >1.030


Update:
From http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/mead.html as referred in
OG:hydromel: 1.035 - 1.080standard: 1.080 - 1.120sack: 1.120 - 1.140+
ABV:hydromel: 3.5 - 7.5%standard: 7.5 - 14%sack: 14 - 18%
FG:
dry: 0.990 - 1.010
semi-sweet: 1.010 - 1.025
sweet: 1.025 - 1.040+
 
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