[kwest]

i have made 3 batches of mead/wine. I have always ended up with a dry and high alcahol content finished product. how do i sweeten it up or make a sweeter mead or wine.

 

[Ben Brewcat]

Stop using champagne yeast for one (if you are). Read the stickied thread on meadmaking for a more detailed treatment, but basically you need to put in more sugars than the yeast will eat. It's a simple process to determine once you understand points per pound per gallon, PPG, and the alcohol tolerance of yeast strains.

 

[HoneyBull]

Even Champagne Yeast has a limit to the amount of alcohol that it can survive in. You can either like the previous poster said use a different yeast that doesn't ferment out as at high of levels. Or just add more Honey to your recipe. You may end up with a little higher alcohol level but this isn't always a bad thing. Like I said even Champagne Yeast has a limit and it won't be able to ferment out all of the extra honey you add. If you make a lot of Mead just experiment add an extra pound at a time of Honey till you get the sweetness you are looking for.

 

[kwest]

thanks

 

[Fl_Beak]

We've been playing with one gallon batches. Certainly we are new at mead- but FWIW- one batch completed fermentation a couple weeks ago, and was too dry, so I added honey- it's sweetened and has not started fermentation again...I am letting it age with an airloc to make sure its stable, and then bottle.

The addition of some more honey made a huge difference in taste

 

[Paraplegic Racehorse]

In a 6-gallon batch, about three years ago, I experimented with 30lbs of premium fireweed honey. It came out super-dry - HUGE pucker-factor. Yet the alcohol content was less than 10%, as figured from first and last of my four hygrometer readings (pitch, rack, age, bottle). Yield was thirty-three 750ml bottles, so that much honey didn't just settle out and get racked off.

Theories?

 

[plaztikjezuz]

you have two options.

first you can add more honey to max out the yeast alcohol tolerance.

second you can make it as strong/weak as you want. let it finish out and use potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. these are the same chemical wine makes use to prevent fermentation from restarting after sweeting wine.