Just a few beginner questions if I may... Can I use cane sugar to backsweeten? How hot was the water when you poured it in the mead? Can it be too hot? I'm currently making a berry mead, maybe another week before it's ready... I'd like to bring out the berry flavor by backsweetening if that's possible. Very fun hobby, love your videos!
Got one of your kits for Christmas and started my first batch on the 6th, its already starting to clear a little cant wait to try a taste in 20 days lol
I also got a kit for christmas! My first batch didn't go as smoothly as possibly but was still pretty tasty and now I am confident that my second batch will turn out wonderful :)
Another great video!! You explain things so well. When you bottled your mead after adding the yeast stabilizer, did you end up with any carbonation in your mead, or was it basically flat? Did bottling this way help preserve the flavor without much or any carbonation? Thank you
It shouldn’t change. But if you buy a hydrometer and learn the numbers converted to abv you can double check. I’d say it’d still range from 11-14% depending on yeast and how well it ferments
Adding water and honey will decrease ABV minimally. Alcohol content won’t change as fermentation (process that turns sugar to alcohol) has finished by this point.
Thanks for the video. I am doing my first mango mead. Fermented the mead normally without fruit until 1.000 SG. Added 1 lb of mango and fermentation started back up. Been fermenting for a month now and I plan to put the mead in the fridge for 24 hrs and then use the potassium sorbate to stabilize. I was thinking about backsweetening. Does this all make sense? Again, first timer here, and trying to avoid bottle bombs. Thanks in advance!
I like to check SG about 7 days apart to make sure the fermentation has ended. (First time after bubbling has noticeably stopped and yeast cake has formed on bottom)(second time after it has clarified) If it's the same SG, then I know it's done fermenting. It is still a good idea to stabilize before adding additional water or sugar to get back up to 1 gallon volume.
are you just aging them in those bottled you capped towards the end of the video? Is that okay or are you only allowed to age in the big gallon jug during either the initial fermentation/backsweetening process? Love the content btw
Have brewing question . i dont use chemicals . but I made a cherry mead and its a year old but it has a floating like smoke ribbon cloud it keeeps producing i have no way of knowing what it is . the taste is getting stronger. and a little off. what is it or what can i do i made a chocolate cherry mead and it clear and smells great and clear so i have no idea whats going on . and i made my own yeast from the cherries and brewd it but again its creating a smoke like cloud ive filtered it throught coffee filter and clean towel .. help hate to throw it away if i dont have to .
It sounds like it could be a pellicle or "mother" like a SCOBY or vinegar mother. If it tastes okay, it's likely time to bottle it. Sometimes our homebrews are cloudy and that's just the way they're determined to be! Happy brewing!
Should you also stabilize with a campden tablet? Ive heard using both will close any chance of the yeast restarting fermentation. Would appreciate any feedback!
I’m a beginner however I’ve read and researched this a lot so hope to answer here. You don’t need to use a Campden tablet if you are using the Craftabrew backsweetening kit because it already contains the correct ingredients to prevent further fermentation. If you weren’t using that kit, then yes you can use a single Campden tablet for a gallon of mead, along with potassium sorbate. But not necessary here.
Hey! ive got a question, i bought a craft a brew kit, im making a traditional mead i added 3 lbs of honey into it, started this on the 28th and as of today it smells like a dry wine, is this normal?
You'll want to try to make a concentrate since strawberry is such a light, delicate flavor. We'd recommend juicing as many strawberries as you'd like then trying to extract as much water from this as possible, the best way to do this would be long and slow heating using a double boiling method, this should help protect the flavor from high heat or scorching and allow water to evaporate over time until you get to a nearly syrup consistency. You can then stabilize just as if you were to backsweeten but add the syrup at this time rather than the honey.
More sugar (honey) is more potential alcohol so if you put more sugar in the batch then it could eventually get to a higher alcohol content but it would stress the yeast out and potentially cause off flavors. Starting with 40oz of honey per gallon is a great medium where you get a higher ABV of about 12.5% but you don't stress the yeast out too much if the nutrients are properly used. This then allows you to stabilize and back-sweeten your mead once the yeast has consumed all of the sugars in the honey.
I want to flavor like in your other videos with peaches or fruit,but also want something less dry and more sweet. What should the process be when doing both steps?
ecv1118 lalvin yeast and for nutrients anything with plenty of N(i dont know how this word is spelled in english but look at chemistry periodic system under letter N and u will se :)
Excluding equipment, it depends mostly on the price of your honey. If you use cheap honey from somewhere like Costco, or better honey, the price will fluctuate. I'd say about $15 for 3lbs of honey, plus about $2 for the yeast, about $7 for yeast nutrient (this is enough to make many batches, so let's call it $1) and whatever a gallon of water would cost you, say $2. So about $20-25 for 4 bottles or $4-6 per bottle.
Technically no, to keep from referm, yes. If you backsweeten without stabalizing and ferm starts up again, you are basically step feeding. You can step feed the yeast until they reach their alcohol tolerance. You have to hydrometer every step, then once your gravity doesnt change over at least 2 weeks, your yeast are inactive.
If they did not dissolve, I'd give the carboy a bit of a swirl to help it mix and wait another 12 hours prior to adding the back-sweetening honey. Cold temperatures could also contribute to the stabilizers not fully dissolving.
