We have updated some practices since this video came out! For one, we have used non-fermentable sugars with great success. Allulose and erythritol work well. Video here: Sugar? Honey? Erythritol? What to Backsweeten Mead with? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3M5Up696Ivc.html Also, we have learned that open containers during pasteurization do NOT lost alcohol. Of course, carbonated beverages will lose carbonation though. Here is our latest pasteurization video: Easiest Way to Pasteurize Mead, Wine, and Cider! (no gunk in your bottles!) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zWBU3EI-EFo.html
January 2024. Mead brew, 13 litres, 13 days old, still in fermenter. 28g yeast nutrients, original gravity of 1070, gravity today is 1003- ABV 9.48. I want to back sweeten with honey. I have Campden tablets, but not sure what the next step is. Do I transfer brew to another vessel and add campden tabs to stall fermentation?
@@robboisvert2442 Well, pasteurizing kills off beneficial bacteria and enzymes that are in unpasteurized milk, and isn’t necessary for healthy cows in healthy environmental conditions (though it also extends shelf-life which serves a commercial purpose).
@@CitySteadingBrews At a normal walking speed of 3mph, it would take roughly 8300.33 hours to walk all the way around the earth; or roughly 345.8 days. One could suppose it would take roughly a year to accomplish it.
Oh My Word!!! You just helped me so much! I had some Elderflower Orange Blossom Honey Mead turn into a highly carbonated 14% rocket fuel champagne like monster last year. Who knew that throwing some Elderflowers in the secondary was going to make such a difference! Even now, the bottles are near enough to a fizz fountain each time I open one. They were nearly undrinkable last year and haven't improved all that much. After listening to the first half of this video, I ran down to the cave, grabbed a bottle risking life and limb and brought it upstairs. Once I opened it and poured myself a glass, I mixed in some mandarin orange infused honey, and the result is absolutely astounding! I was almost thinking of pouring them all down the drain until just now!
Backsweetened a batch of mixed berry that I thought was maxed out. It didn't react right away, so I thought it was good and I bottled it all. It did activate after a couple weeks, but not too much. Instead of blowing up, they were perfectly champaign-bubbly. It was AMAZING!
This saved my first mead, which I started from an online recipe, before I found your channel. So many mistakes were made. Maybe because of using a whole cut up orange and a 16% alcohol tolerant yeast, it was very dry and bitter. But by step feeding it, the bitterness went away, it reached a mild sweetness and when it finally stopped fermenting, the peach flavors came out. Thank you. I also made your Beginner mead, and it is lovely. I have six Bottles of each mead now aging. I started a batch of the spiced mead on the winter solstice and will start a batch of the ginger mead and one of apple melomel in the new year. Thanks for giving me one more reason to start keeping bees again.
For those that are worried about controlling the temperature for pasteurization, you could get a Sous-vide the basic unit cost around $80 and you just dial in the temperature and don't have to worry you're going to over heat it plus you can use it to cook a real good steak. Great video by the way! Learning a lot from your channel.
I love these videos. I went from "maybe making mead would be cool. I should try it sometime" to buying all that I need and being a few days away from starting thanks to your channel
We love your videos. All our equipment is arriving in the next few days for the first attempts at Mead minus carboys for racking. Kimchee comes in the same jars so my Korean wife has a collection of 50+ in the garage.
Good job. I agree with you on the "coffee " slurping. No one really needs that......but your video was very concise, clear, well spoken and accurate. Well done Sir.
This was such an informative video! Thank you so much. I like how you inform us about how yeast actually works and why certain methods work better than others. This was very appreciated!
So, are you guys ever willing to have a viewer send in a bottle? It would be neat to see you two diagnose the mead. I'll be first and send you two! Thats a real offer. I do think it would be lots of fun on Friday or Saturday nights to see something like that; or better yet, whenever you felt like doing it.
I used your traditional mead recipe recently for my first brew. I used a high tolerance yeast because I want it to go dry, and then I plan to stepfeed it like you've described. Hopefully I end up with a high abv, sweet mead! we'll see how its progressing in 4-6 weeks I guess
The info about carbonating and pasteurization was super helpful! I made a mango apple cider last year that tasted great, but I drank it still because I was terrified of trying to carbonate. I’m ready to give it another go.
I pasteurize my sparkling sweet cider easiest way is to use water bath and a sousvide. Or an electric smoker set to lowest setting like 150. Place one bottle of water in with your brew so you can use thermometer to check temp once you reach temp hold it there until padtuerized. You can google temperature and time tables for pastuerizaton.
*Do I understand this correctly: you shouldn’t back sweeten unless pasteurized, or the yeast has maxed out the alcohol it can tolerate? *Or does the yeast die once it has finished 2nd fermentation, and I can back sweeten then. Or will it restart fermentation because living yeast is still there? Thank you for everything you have taught me. 😊 I watched all of your videos that I thought the answer would be in, but I still don’t understand.
Okay... pasteurization isn't normally necessary. Times when you want to pasteurize: 1) You want a sweet carbonated brew 2) You want to stop a brew from fermenting further when you backsweeten. Generally speaking, yeast have a tolerance level for alcohol. Generally, if you're past that level, they won't ferment more. But, that means you cannot carbonate. So, you need to carbonate then pasteurize with plenty of sugars still in it for both carbonation and sweetness. If left alone, they will explode, but by pasteurizing after some carbonation happens, it stops fermentation and you have a sweet bubbly brew. If you are backsweetening, and you have not reached the alcohol tolerance of your yeast, then pasteurizing will keep it from refermenting and keep it sweet and not raise the alcohol level. Make sense?
I made your traditional mead and back sweetened it with 12 oz. of Cinnamon Red Hots. It is awesome and definitely sweet I named it Firebird in honor of Carthage College Football 🏈 where my son plays. Thanks some much for your great channel.
Slytherin huh? 😁. Just getting ready to try a gallon batch of Gingerbeer. Just need to drink 11 fliptop bottles of Grolsch between now and next weekend 😂😂😄
Thank you so much for this. The last part, where the big batch is still in the fermenter and very dry...is Exactly where I am at with my brew. This video popped up in my feed exactly when i needed it.
Glad I found this. I am a gear addicted homebrewer but my wife only drinks cider. I am getting here a little cider kit for Christmas. She only drinks sweet cider though. Now I have some directions to go when we give it a whirl.
Thank you I will try this I watched your vide on how to make mead ( honey, black tea, raisins, orange) first batch came out great it was sweet! Second batch was dry and I didn't know what to do so I'm glad to find another video helping with this! You two are awesome!
@@CitySteadingBrews I thought I put the same amount in but maybe I need a new scale! No worries I have a bee keeper who sells honey (I heart bees) 2 minutes from the house I'll just pick up some more and continue the adventure
Usually it will far exceed your target ABV. You’ll know by the concussion type hangover that you get from it! Unfortunately, best practice is to dump it or like you said add sugar at time of opening. Great videos!!
Thanks for the information! I just started my fermentation adventures last year and so far have been very successful at making apple cider and mead, as well as fruit vinegars. I’ve been binge watching your videos, so many cool recipes I’m going to try! Cheers to you and Derica!
Awesome video, thanks for adding the Celsius in there, yeah I can google it but it's a nice touch. The blooper at the end was funny as all heck should do that more often!
Been brewing for 20 years and still learn things everyday. Tried all kinds of things to make my cider sweeter. None worked. Thanks! Will try some of methods mentioned.
Your video was very helpful! Answered alot of the questions I had. I liked the way you presented the info. You didn't talk down like you were talking to a bunch of idiots, but you were clear and direct without all the overly technical stuff. (For those of us who are new and maybe feel a little like idiots.) Awesome video. Thanks
You have just saved me from having a nervous breakdown. I'm RU-vid drunk ! Way too much info. that my brain doesn't compute. I can understand you. You make sense. And, you're entertaining. Now I can finish. I just subscribed and I'll be back. Thank you !
Great straightforward explanation. My local brew shop recommended dextrose in fermentation to up fermentable sugar content in a cider I was planning. Dextrose (made from corn) has a neutral flavor profile and won't interfere with the cider flavor.
God I can't believe I just found you all! I have a batch of pear wine that has fermented dryer than I wanted (Using the apparently HIGHLY contested EC1118) and I was looking into ways to back sweeten it a bit Love this content and love the channel! Now I've got a two year backlog of content to get through haha! Cheers!!
found this channel while searching for making rice wine. I love your videos. When I back sweeten, I typically use corn syrup. And I always chuckle when you talk about bottle bombs....I made one a few years ago in a 1 gal carboy. It exploded on my dining room table. Fortunately no one was in there. It literally sprayed all 4 walls. We were finding glass shards for weeks. Now I don't normally ferment in glass :P
Hi Brian, love your videos, I have just started the hobby of brewing, and have watched your brewing videos several times trying to get it right, I have a traditional, a JAO and some ginger beer brewing there two weeks old so far, hope you continue to make making videos on brewing, Thanks !!
Whats funny is I was going to comment on one of your other videos where you talked about back sweetening but I forgot to. RU-vid algorithm sends me this!
This was incredibly helpful!! I was wondering how I could backsweeten a cider I'm making in case it became too dry, but without pasteurizing. I'm excited to try this!!
Without pasteurizing, I think the best option would be to use non fermentable sugars. They say erythritol is the closest to sugar that doesn't have a lot of off flavors. I've never used it, but a lot of people do
I've been trying to get into brewing and whenever I think I've figured it out I have more questions and think I did it all wrong. The videos are really helpful. I've been doing step feeding without knowing what it's called and whether or not you should even be doing this. Hearing that it's a real thing and a viable option eases my mind.
I just back-sweetened some very dry apple wine with some clear apple juice (what you call cider in the US), it's given it a really appley taste and has softened the harshness of the dry wine beautifully.
Thank you for these videos! I recently have tried home brews with some mead! I wanted to make it a carbonated mead and your pasteurization video and this video helped me make sure I didn’t end up with some glass bombs! Thanks!
One thing I'd like to be explored is the process of re-using yeast. I don't know the exact terminology, but the same way that beer brewers use the same yeast for decades by letting the yeast grow and multiply in another container. I hope that makes sense.
Love all your video's,you inspired me to go out get some apple's and start brewing,the one tip I took from you was to keep to one technique,I started confusing myself by looking at other contributors,well done and keep up the good work, Andy UK
Video perfect timing my Black Current Apple Cider just finished and it pretty dry. Tasty but dry, I was looking for something with a tad bit more sweetness to it. I was just going to attempt to back sweeten this weekend. Since I made a 5 gallon batch may do only half because it's still pretty tasty dry
I've been thinking about trying to make a sack mead at some point. This video has been very helpful in terms of the back sweetening process and I just might get one started in a few weeks. Thank you both very much for the information and advice
Great video. In a past SMaSH brew, I had used Lav 71B, was aware it wasn't going to hit the tolerance of the yeast and bottled with a few mg of sweetner to get the carbonation in the bottles.
Currently making a peach wine and it’s soo sour but still fermenting and I was wondering how I’m going to make it sweet at the end but this video answered all my questions
This video helped me on the question I left on another. Thank you oh and I ordered the hydrometer you suggested should be here tomorrow. Thanks again for all your help.
This helped a lot. I'm going to do the step sweetening if my brew is not quite to my liking. 1/2 c sugar wait a week...still fermenting? Add another 1/2 c of sugar and wait another couple weeks.
Was looking for a alternative to back sweeten wine v.s. using potassium sorbate. That's interesting bottling the wine and then cork. Fill the large pot warm water to 140 deg then place bottles in 10-15 minutes to kill the yeast. Makes sense. Thanks for the great tip.
I'm a little confused. Potassium Sorbate is not for back sweetening.... Unless you mean an alternative to using it when backsweetening, then yes! I agree.
Exactly the info I needed. I love this channel. Thank you so much. Nice shirt, nice Lagavulin, and you are like the Alton Brown of alcohol. Thanks again!
This was extremely helpful! Thank you for sharing this. I've been worrying about how to pasteurize my brew w/o affecting the taste "too much" and I think your method of bringing water to 180°F and then putting my bottles into that bath is going to be my answer. Especially with my peach/habanero wine that I'm about to start.
We can offer one better. Heat the water to 160f. Put an open bottle of water in the middle. when you put the bottles in after removing from the heat. Monitor that water bottle. Keep it at 140f for 15-20 minutes. Done. Much safer method!
I had to check out this video to see if it is ok to sweeten in primary or secondary. It's been two weeks and fermentation has stopped. I tasted ginger apple wine and it is too dry. I may sweeten in secondary so there will be less sediments. This is my first-ever wine. Didn't take a reading because my hydrometer broke. So everything is blind brewing. Thanks for the video. So helpful.
The best Cider I make is also the easiest (if you have a keezer) Store bought juice at a OG of 1.05, bumped to 1.06 with brown sugar, dumped in a brew bucket. After about a week or so it's Fermented dry to 1.00 FG, with an ABV of about 8%!! I then rack to a glass carboy. I put the whole carboy in my keezer and cold crash for a week. I then transfer to my keg, throw in a few cans of concentrate (I also enjoy it dry on occasion) and force carb it for a few days. At this point the first glass I pour is sludgy. Every glass after is a beautiful hazy cider. It never lasts long enough for me to be concerned about any residual build up of less. The cold keezer keeps it hazy and cold.
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Double checking that I did this right. Started my first Vikings blood with tart cherries(3#) and a fruit mix(4# raspberries, black raspberries, blueberries) with 15# of honey for 5 gallons. Starting gravity of 1.11 using Lalvin K1-1116. Racked off the fruit after 1 month, gravity .996. Gravity stable at .996 so roughly 15% alcohol and still stable after another month. Added 5# more honey looking for a semi-sweet finish. Current gravity after additional honey 1.028. Did not want to back sweeten in bottling as way to much fermentation. Shooting for about 18% alcohol with about 2% semi-sweet. Thanks in advance.
I’m so happy to have found your channel. I’m brand new to wine making and I have little idea what ur talking abt BUT I love how kind and gently you guys teach things. Also, it’s nice to get this info from folks without scary ‘south of the Mason-Dixon’ vibes. Is anyone else feeling real Alton Brown here?
I'm just getting back into home brewing since retiring. I traveled a lot. But as I recall (I was doing primarily beer), But what are advantages/disadvantages of using dextrose as the sweetener. I was under the impression it gave you a cleaner flavor. Thanks Love your videos by the way.
