4 Simple Ways to Fix an Overly Sweet Mead
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Have you ever made a mead that ended too soon? Maybe it ended at the right time but it's just too sweet? Today I'm showing you 4 ways to fix an overly sweet mead! Huge shoutout to @DointheMost for helping me with this video.
Methods:
1.) Water it down
2.) Balance with Tannin & Acid Adjuncts
3.) Restart the fermentation
4.) Blend with another brew
Thanks for watching!
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0:00 Introduction
0:20 The Problem
1:30 Method 1: Blend the Mead
1:57 Method 2: Water it Down
2:10 Method 3: Adjust Acid & Tannin
2:30 Method 4: Restart the Fermentation
2:50 Fixing Each Mead
6:50 After Fixing Each
7:16 The Tasting
8:56 Ranking Each
13:13 Final Rankings
15:24 Discussing Each
It's always good when you're on each other's shows.
The restarted fermentation was probably the worst simply cause it has a much higher abv and has had less time to age since it went through an additional fermentation. I'd love to see a video on that one in 6 months to see if it becomes better or not.
With such a high FG it is really hard to make adjustments that are pleasing, I think that it works best to do little tweaks than extreme one.
last time I brewed with Voss kveik It was a Pyment and fermented from 1100 to 1030, making it taste too round and sweet.
I tried to blend and realized that adding a dry mead to it would completely change the flavours and that I needed a lot of mead to take the FG down to where I liked it… completely changing it.
I ended up adding a bit of dry mead and a really concentrated hibiscus tea to add tartness and fruitiness without watering it down too mutch (just 5 points)
You might experience completely different results by doing it with a smaller FG !
Thanks for your videos
Don’t see many vids on this topic I love the vid! I love seeing videos on all the crazy things that can happen while brewing and what to do for those who are new !
Had this problem recently with my coffee mead. Watering it down and restarting fermentation, while not fixing it completely, definitely helped.
I was going to suggest the same thing; get the gravity down a little and then restart. I did that with a stuck cyser, and it doesn't give an ideal result-I wouldn't use it as a showpiece mead at dinner with guests- but it's an ok house mead.
I saw the title and had to watch. I made my first mead this weekend. The OG was 1.140. I was told a few ways I could fix it, or I could leave it be and have a sweet one. I do love the syrupy sweet stuff, so I went that way. I am going to rack it on some French oak for secondary, so I’m glad I saw that MAYBE that will help. I’m saving this video though, that way I can come back after the secondary, just in case. Thank you for this video!!
I’m happy to help!
Thanks for doing this. Very interesting. I've had this happened a few times lately. The first time I added a mix of water and vodka. That way the ABV stayed high. Another thing that happened was I added acid blend in primary and I think the yeast stalled due to low pH. Added some potassium bicarbonate to restart. I think I might invest in a pH meter
I added jalapeños and habenero to one and it worked 😂
Another very useful experiment! I've got a stuck bochet and these gave me some ideas. One minor complaint I have about the video editing is the tendency to have important information un-narrated. I listen to videos on headphones at work and miss a lot of info when its typed out on screen. Otherwise, thanks for the great content!
a stuck Bochet might be a different problem. I think that bocheting converts some sugars into unfermentable sugars. Therefore, refermenting might not be an option.
@@dalestevenson4398 I'm fairly certain it's not converted sugars, I didn't let the honey get over 220 and it's stuck at a higher gravity than the total added amount of bochet'd honey
@@coreyeubanks7866 sounds like you know more about bocheting then I do. 🙂
Another problem I've had is too low of a pH. I think I might have to invest in a pH meter.
I agree, narrating the important information would be helpful.
Very helpful thank you so much for all of you advice!
I'm happy to help!
This is a fantastic and informative video!
I'm super glad I could help!
I’ve had a cranberry and a blueberry stall on me at about 1.060. I simply bottled and mix them with a dry sparkling champagne. Works wonderfully for fruited meads. (They we’re all juice meads.
amazing vid. Im in this exact situation, was going to restart, but now i might try the chips :P
Go for it!
Thanks for sharing, I actually have a 1.060 sitting there in hope it goes lower xD I'm used to use 1118 as yeast but this time I used D47 and it was not as strong as the 1118 to chew the last .020-030 I would have hope to (my target is 030 but I would have go with a 040 anyway, 060 is just too much). I was thinking of watering it down and carbonate it, looks like I have something to try now ahah
Would you consider doing a similar video on balancing a very acidic / extremely tart brew?
I think more sweetness would help a brew in that circumstance!
I did cut mine with water. It definitely helped, however it also lowered the ABV. Not a big issue as my mead was at around 14% (I added extremely too much honey and even surprised that this fermented at all, or that it tastes any good).
I sometimes cut with water and vodka. That way the ABV can stay high
Gotta say that cut to DTM saying “what the f*** is this” was brilliant 😂
😁
Gonna need this soon, as i have two brews on the go that have way too much honey...
There is a fifth approach and that is to treat the overly sweet mead as a dessert wine. A brut dry wine might have a few grams of residual sugar but a dessert wine can have almost as much as a pound of sugar in a gallon. BUT you don't drink a dessert wine as if it's a beer. You drink it more like a low alcohol liqueur and as the name implies - you drink a dessert wine with dessert and not as an accompaniment to the main course OR to quench your thirst...
Hi guys i have a question. i made a batch of mead in OCT 2021 and after 15 days in the ferment bucket i moved it to 4 separate glass carboys. 1 gallon each, put different fruit in to each of them . like apple & cinnamon one had ginger and lavender one had orange and , and the last had blueberry's strawberry and raspberry, so i forgot about the batch and the fruit has been in these since. with airlocks sealed. now it doesn't look like theres mold but do you guys think the batch is still safe or do you think i should dump it? i can take pictures if that helps??? thanks again your always so helpful.
If there’s no mold - you should be safe!
The restarted one both disliked is probably going to be quite ok after a while. It is the yougest one by far, relatively speaking.
If I was to try the blending approach and had 2 meads in different fermenters, how could I combine them to bottle? Or should I bottle them separately and only combine when drinking?
I would just blend them in bulk and taste test!
@@ManMadeMead like siphon them into another fermenter and let it sit? Any chance it doesn't mix well?
Hey brotha, my buddy made 100 gallons of mead and has been selling at local ren fairs for years. It's good stuff and I'm wondering if you'd like a free bottle to review or just have.
Do you absolutely need to add more yeast to restart fermentation? What happens if you don't do it? I was kidn of hoping that fermentation would restart by itself
Most of the time your yeast are done (when they have stalled). So I would say adding more yeast will help it finish!
@@ManMadeMead thanks. I know the repitched came bottom of both your assessments, but would you say the effect was so much worse than the others, or was it still a bit close to call? Reason I'm asking is i think I'll be going that route with two meads I've got going on, they've both finished fermenting and both are way too sweet. Should have finished 14% if the yeast capped out at the advertised %. Diluting it doesn't appeal to me unless I can get the alcohol % back up after diluting the sugar (I prefer my meads to be >10% at least but at the way it's looking I'd have to go 50-50 water... Do you think that's too much dilution?)
Watering it down can also restart fermentation right. Isn’t it dangerous when bottling?
If you have yeast present and they get to a comfortable point ferment again (if they can) - they can definitely restart.
water it down in a fermenter with a bobbler as you would in primary, bottle it when you are sure its not refermenting or done fermenting :)
Very interresting, I would not have expected the restarted one to do so poorly. Maybe it got stressed while trying to build a new colony without oxygen?
Maybe!
How did you comment 3 days ago on a video that was posted 7 minutes ago...
@@asseenontv247 The video is uploaded but hidden for some time before it's published. I get a link 1 week early as a youtube member! It's only 2 dollars a month
Can u put to much yeast in...my first gallon had stringy floaty things in it after 2 years of sitting
Nothing! Too much yeast won’t cause any problems!
I honestly wish that I had this problem. Most of my meads are too dry lol!
😂😂 the good news there is, you can always backsweeten!
Wat happens if u put to much yeast in
Feels like you are reading my mind (or reddit account ) XD
what if i have the opposite issue?
You can always backsweeten a mead!
Riddle me this Batman! I have a sweet and spicy mead. Neighbor gave me some ghost peppers from his garden that I dried out and added a little too much during secondary and the mead is now about 6 months old. It's good BUT, it's just tooooooo hot, almost not enjoyable. It's like at a 1.036 gravity so very sweet but it works really well with the hot spicy note. I want to blend it. What are your thoughts on blending with a dry mead at 1.000 gravity to ease the hotness and bring the sweet note down (since it won't be as hot). Anyone ever tried this? What worked well? Thanks.
Oh man - that's a pretty tough one. Honestly - your best bet is to just blend it with a separate mead... there isn't much you can do to settle down heat other than that!
But overly sweet is what makes a good mead. If I wanted bitter or alcohol tasting, I’d drink beer or liquor, but I have never wanted that so I usually drink Pepsi unless I am lucky enough to be somewhere with a nice low alcohol mead that just tastes liquid honey.
Have you made a Yeast Nutrient Test where you see the difference in taste, ABV, fermentation-duration between a mead with staggered nutrient additions, a mead with all-at-once nutrient addition, and a mead made with no nutrients?
I haven’t but I want to in the future!
Anyone on his discord?! I’m trying to join, but link is expired?
Oh no! Here’s a new link: discord.io/manmademead
@@ManMadeMead I’m in!! Thank you. I made my first mead and it looks weird 😂🤣
Palatable*
Oops!
@@ManMadeMead
It's totally okay! I probably should have fixed it in the editing process!
I think it'll be about 1.035 in 7 days.
The word is palatable not palpable. Palpable means you can feel it. Palatable means you can taste it.
Correct! Oops!
Sorry buddy - Palpable doesn't mean what you think it means. I think what you mean to say is palatable.
Palpable - you can touch it
Palatable - you can eat or drink it
Oops!
Fortify
True! That can help some!
I hate to be "that guy" but it sounds like you're saying "palpable" instead of "palatable". The former means "touchable" the latter means "tasty".
Oops!
It is not a surprice... voss is only a 12% yeast... so wrong yeast for the meade.
Yup! That's why I made the video to show people how to fix an overly sweet mead!
Not Palpable, Palatable.
Oops!
I think you got the wrong adjective
Palpable adjective
Definition of palpable
1: capable of being touched or felt : TANGIBLE
palpable lymph nodes
2: easily perceptible : NOTICEABLE
a palpable difference
The attraction between them was palpable.
: easily perceptible by the mind : MANIFEST
Perhaps a better adjective
Palatable adjective
Definition of palatable
1: agreeable to the palate or taste
The restaurant's chicken dishes are quite palatable.
2: agreeable or acceptable to the mind
attempted to make physics palatable to a broader range of students
Oh crap! Haha