Back Sweeten Mead Wine and Cider - 2022 Version
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- How to back sweeten mead wine and cider in 2022. Yes, we did this one before, but it bears repeating. Back sweetening is such a popular topic we felt it was a good idea to remake this video. You can back sweeten anything, wine, cider, mead, even beer. It's really easy to backsweeten, you just need to keep some basic concepts in mind.
Back Sweetening - 5 Ways to Back Sweeten your Brew!: • Back Sweetening - 5 Wa...
Capsicumel Mead - How to BackSweeten: • Capsicumel Mead - How ...
Yeast Alcohol Tolerance - Overshoot or Backsweeten?: • Yeast Alcohol Toleranc...
Brewing Sugars Explained! What Sugar Should be in YOUR Brew?: • Brewing Sugars Explain...
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These people need to write a book. They are just an absolute wealth of knowledge
They really do need to…. :)
They prefer to make a wealth of youtube videos I think.
Want to know how sweet to make your wine? Here's my most simple trick: Take your favorite similar commercial wine and get a reading. If it's red, use a red. If it's a white, use a white. That's a baseline for how sweet you want your wine.
How exactly do you get a sweetness reading on a finished wine? I thought that once fermented, brix numbers will be way off especially if non-fermentable sugars are used.
@@embracethesuck1041I believe using a hydrometer will give a reading on a finished product. Backsweeting with nonfermentable sugars should add gravity points. So you could compare the commercial wines gravity to the wine that you brewed to have a base of desired sweetness
@@papersanta I guess I should elaborate a bit. What you say makes perfect sense, but I'm thinking that not all sweeteners will add perceived sweetness for the same volume. I've seen charts that compare, say, stevia to cane sugar. The stevia is many times sweeter by volume, meaning that it requires much less product to reach a desired sweetness. The same goes for many unfermentable sugars. So if I measured sweetness of two products, one back sweetened with cane sugar and one with stevia, I may have the same Brix measurement, but radically different perceived sweetness levels.
@@embracethesuck1041 another solution could be to take a small measurement of the brew to sweeten with whichever sweetener is desired.
Once the level of perceived sweetness is achieved it may be possible to scale up to the rest of the brew.
This is more of a "go by the taste" answer than a "go off the readings" answer to your original question.
Just my opinion since I've never actually done backsweetening
On the subject of personally sweetening a brew to taste: There’s a scene in The Muppet Movie where the gang is in a fancy restaurant. Fozzie has a glass of Champaign and says this classic line: “You know, if you add enough sugar to this, it tastes just like ginger ale!”
I always enjoy coming back to your videos for reminders. My wife wanted me to make her a blueberry/vanilla mead. When we racked it into the carboy, we did a tasting. At the time, it was dry. And my wife likes sweet. So I said, "Don't sweat it. We can back sweeten." That was a couple months back, because... laziness.. It is sitting at a 13.5% ABV. My yeast claims it can go to 18%. So this week, we are going to back sweeten. Now, when I do, I am going to let it sit in the carboy for a few more weeks just to make sure fermentation doesn't kick off again. Thank you for the time you take to make these videos. They are a helpful recourse, even when you know what you are doing; because sometimes, a simple reminder is needed to avoid catastrophe.
Happy to help 😀
I want to thank you for explaining in more detail the dangers of cold crashing a brew. I bake a lot of bread including sourdough. So, as such I fully understand that putting a yeast brew in the refrigerator does not stop fermentation. A sourdough culture will continue to ferment and grew in a refrigerator just fine. It only slows it down to where you only have to feed it once a week instead of twice a day. Any bread dough will rise in a refrigerator just fine too. It just takes longer, and the fermentation will resume at full bloom as soon as the temperature rises.
Absolutely!
BECAUSE YEASTS CANT READ 😂😂😂 I swear you guys are the funniest homebrewers on CZcams!
Lol. Glad you liked it!
OMG!!! I 100% needed this!
Everything that I read on Google has let me down the wrong path!
Tried to back sweeten my strawberry wine and a month later they all popped!!!
Thank you
I'm crushed! Today I learned yeast can't read. Here all this time I was living a lie.
Thanks, I enjoy your videos folks!
Your video basically boils down to what most people ask me. Usually the scenario is that I have someone who isn’t a brewer taste something I made and they are surprised I made it myself. That leads to them asking how I made it and if I back sweetened I tell them “once it was done fermenting I took a taste and added sugar/honey/erythritol/lactose/(fill in whatever sweetener I used) to taste. Then I allowed it to sit so it’d clear again and bottled it.” For ease I leave out intermediate rackings unless that person is the type to want to know the nitty gritty of it all or is considering getting into home brewing. The most frequent question that follows up is: “but how do you know it’ll be enough/that’ll do the trick?” I don’t exactly. It boils down to personal preference and experience. I do always measure the gravity after back sweetening and add that to my notes just in case I want to reproduce that same brew or want to tweak it.
That brings me to another point: I found that depending on the sweetener you use for back sweetening, especially when back sweetening from bone dry to sweet, the way you experience the sweetness differs greatly. A wine, cider or mead sweetened with one sweetener up to an identical gravity as another sweetener might feel sweeter/less sweet. Especially over time. Mind you, that.s my personal experience. No idea if others would agree.
And yes, I usually pasteurise. No faffing around with powders. It’s what works for me and at least I don’t have to start calculating or guessing. Hot water, a thermometer, a timer.
Thanks for yet an excellent video!
@@TigerPat_9180 - Thank you for telling me you enjoy my comments! I love exchanging ideas and experiences with fellow home brewers. Even though I’ve been doing this for a long time I am not done learning and have gained useful tips, tricks and insights from simply commenting and getting replies like yours. Brewers with varied lengths of experience, even some who’ve only just started out have taught me things or made me investigate and therefore learn.
Your racking schedule (or technique, or protocol?) makes sense. I guess it’s like with many things: you build up a flow that works for you and if you like it, you stick with it unless you find a routine that suits you better. I’ve got something similar going on. Over time I’ve collected a series of fermenters/bottles in varying sizes and a brewing schedule that suits me. Once a brew reaches a certain stage I transfer it to a smaller container. Some times, as ingredients vary, temperatures vary and yeast is on its own schedule, I might have to adjust as a brew won’t clear or decides to power through a stage at amazing speed… but there’s always a way to make it work.
I’m certain you’ll agree that home brewing is for the patient types. Some times, you just have to shrug and wait… or decide whether you’ll order a new fermenter or stash your ingredients in the freezer!
The child in me loves the unexpected part of home brewing. Every time I start a new batch or taste test one, it’s a little bit like Christmas or a birthday… I get to play and get a little gift… might seem weird to some but that’s me!
Just what I needed! I'll be back-sweetening my tropical fruit wine tonight, the wine that underwent the weirdest transformation of any brew I've witnessed by far. I started it with a store bought, thick yellow juice consisting of half a dozen tropical fruits that I added some mango and bananas to.
I covered it with a blanket and just left it for a couple of weeks. I did see and hear the airlock bubbling at a steady pace so I never really looked at the wine itself. When I uncovered it a week ago, it had turned from that thick yellow unclear juice, into a bright amber red, crystal clear wine...sitting on top of, like a liter of pulpy sediment. I'm not even being hyperbolic, about a quarter of that carboy was sediment. Guess it had to do with a full teaspoon of pectolytic enzymes I added to it.
I racked it off of that gunk and the wine is amazing for being only 24 days old today, really fruity and refreshing but as dry as the Sahara desert!
The starting gravity was 1.104 and it ended on 0.998. Thing is, the ABV is just under 15% but my yeast tolerance is 16%. I have about 3L of it left and would like to both carbonize it but also sweeten it a bit. The calculator I found online says 28.5g of white sugar or sugar syrup per liter for medium carbonation, but I don't know how much more I should put in for it to be sweet as well.
I was thinking about racking it again off of another inch of lees it's dropped out over the past 8 days, adding 100g of sugar to the whole thing and bottling it immediately, even though I've never done it before.
That would've been those 28.5g of sugar per liter for medium carbonation and some 5 extra grams per liter for back-sweetening, but after watching this video, I've decided to postpone the bottling, stick the airlock into the carboy and just wait for another week or so.
Thanks guys!!
To add to the part about exploding containers, I would like to share the way that I did something for making a carbonated citrus wine. The same method can be applied to anything that you want carbonated.
I made a citrus wine from orange, pineapple, lemon and a handful of cranberries. After the first rack, I decided to test out carbonating with burping as needed. Burping is simply letting out the pressure.
I used a glass wine jug that had a screw on cap. I would check the container periodically throughout the day to get a feel for how quickly it would gain pressure. This can be easily done by pushing on the pop top. If I couldn't really push it down, I would burp it and let it get the pressure back. I kept doing this until the maximum pressure was where I wanted.
I let the wine sit in the jug for another couple of months, about 3 months total, before drinking. The first taste I did at 1 month wasn't good, but I could tell it was because more aging was needed. I'm very glad that I did, because it turned out to be one of my favorites to date. This same wine didn't taste very good when flat, so it was definitely a successful experiment.
While you managed to pull it off, this isn't really a safe method. If you miss a day of 'burping' you can get a bomb. It's far better to let fermentation finish, sweeten if needed and pasteurize. Even with carbonation, you can get it to a stable point. Much safer. Here's a video where we go over the options: czcams.com/video/tvvuVJNn2jM/video.html&ab_channel=CitySteadingBrews
That sounds tastey!
My viewing experience has been improved immensely by Inigo's presence.
I did three batches of your beginner’s mead. They are still in primary, but I think they will be done in another week or two. However, they are all fermenting at different rates. So I can appreciate what you’re saying about waiting. Anyhow, when they’re done, I’m planning to put wood on two of them and see if I enjoy the outcome of one versus another more, with a non-wood control. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. But my first tasting around 1.032 gravity was amazing! Obviously, I have never had to taste young notes before, but I could really tell that there is something great happening on the backend! Can’t wait to have the final product. Thank you so much for all your help. You two are the greatest!!
You couldn't concieve of it....it's inconceivable! That's my princess bride quote for the day.
I'm considering getting into this, starting with a very basic cider. I'm worried about my ability (as a disbled person) to do pasturization safely, so I think that my solution to this might just be to learn to enjoy dry uncarbonated cider... Or just sweeten in the mug.
Thank you for the very thorough explainations over the years, and for making this not just less scary, but potentially even fun.
I like my ciders dry and cheat for carbonation, I use a SodaStream to pump a bit of fizz into it 🤣
I normally do half of the batch dry and backsweeten the rest with erithritol for getting the sweetness without refermenting. It is worth a try to see if you like, for me it is just fine :)
Pineapple you can add Potassium Sorbate to kill the yeast. I ALWAYS USE TO DO IT, I never noticed any after taste.
But some people do not like adding any chemicals to there wine.
now a days I am trying to make my wine with less chemicals, But I have used them. I am an old returning wine maker I started 30+ years ago but only started again last year (after about 15 years brake).
Try gallon size first! Better to learn on smaller scale than have a failed batch of five gallon disaster. Personal opinion/experience!🙃😉
@@wildheart5086 I'm planning to get a Ginger Beer kit that has a 5 litre glass brewjar. that's a bit more than a gallon (even over here), but it feels like a good starting size.
I've been lucky enough to never have had anything referment and explode, but just recently had the grape skins of a pyment brew rise up and clog the airlock. Since it couldn't release air anymore, it managed to build up enough pressure that when the bung finally popped, the grape skins hit the ceiling.
Definitely using a much larger fermenter for that kind of brew next time.
I want to share some tips I have "stumbled" upon. When I buy the airlocks they come with a little red cap as a protection. I don't throw them away. I take them off, make circa 10 holes with a needle and put them back on - no bugs :D. My demijohns have to be really close together to save space. I got some extra large rubber bands and put them around the belly of the demijohn, they are less likely to break now (especially with the kids in the house). Have fun brewing all :)
I believe those airlocks are intended to be used with the red cap. The way they are designed, you don't need holes in them.
The airlocks we get come with holes in the cap. We have heard that some do not. You will need a way for the gasses to escape out the top, so adding small holes if your cap doesn't have them is a good idea.
@@CitySteadingBrews mine seem to fit on a tiny lip or something where gas can escape, and have worked fine without adding holes.
I gave erythritol a try for the first time with a couple of sessions, and so far it didn’t impart any discernible weird flavors. But, I didn’t use a ton and I carbonated, so I can see it going funky in large quantities.
Thanks for the info, folks!
WOW, same same lah.
Years ago I didnt like Whiskey either, now I fancy a tipple now and again - over ice.
:)
We have been doing it for years for all of our country wines. We use potassium metabisulfate. I plan to try pasteurization as the yeast will still eat a bit of the sugars with K. Meta.
LOVE the Two Warriors Meadery shirt, they are in my home town!
I am loving this new series! My only request is that you are more clear on what you don't do because you think it's bad practice and what you don't do because of taste or brewing philosophy! I normally follow your brewing style, but from time to time I stabilize a brew and it's also a good way to stop fermentation (specially if the powders are easier to access than a sous vide)
Basically we urge people to brew in the manner that works best for them. We don't feel the need to tell people they are wrong, as in this hobby there are so many different ways to approach things. They aren't right or wrong, they are simply different. We try to use things we feel might be easier for the majority of our audience to get themselves. If you wish to go a different route, we encourage that! Find what works best for you and go for it. The important part is to enjoy the hobby.
My philosophy is brew what you like and like what you brew 🍻
Tried making pineapple wine? It's easy to make and it comes out delicious with just a hint of pineapple flavor.
First, I love it when the kitties make a cameo appearance, second I just really want to thank you both for the entertainment and the knowledge that you have freely given to all of this. Thank you Brian for answering all my questions, no matter how stupid. Thank you Derica for always liking the pics of my kitties and thank you both for just being cool people and teaching people how to do wonderful things that they never dreamed they could.
P.S. wish you guys were closer so I could sit in on a few D&D sessions!
Good evening guys,I do really enjoy your videos but I get so scatter brained listening to your videos just can’t keep up old age I guess have a good one
My solution is to just add sugar to my glass. My grape wine doesn't need any, but, some of my other brews most certainly do.
5,000 views, 400 likes, come on guys hit that like button and support our favorite brew crew.
Well, thank you!
Hi I’m in Sanibel FL on vac love you’re videos made a bunch of your recipes for the trip. A big thanks we all love them. We are from Ohio loving the weather here in Florida.
The mead I am currently working on is my first alcohol ferment. My goal for the finished product is a carbonated, back-sweetened mead. The mead has been fermenting in a carboy with airlock for almost a month, and the fermentation process is very slow, but there is still intermitent release through the airlock every two minutes or so. I will let the mead refine and ferment for approximately another week, at least. I did not measure original gravity (long story).
This is an overview of my planned process (again, I am only in the 1st fermentation phase):
• 1st fermentation in 1 Gallon carboy with airlock.
• Once 1st fermentation is complete, I will cyphon the mead into a 1 gallon Mason jar and de-gas using a de-gasser wand.
• Then, I will initiate second fermentation in carbonation swing cap bottles by priming each of the swing cap bottles with one tbsp honey, add the Mead using the cyphon, close the lids, let stand at room temperature i cool dark place. I will check the carbonation until it is complete (approximately 5 to 7 days, but I will check daily using the plastic-bottle method).
• Once carbonated, I will back sweeten and then pasteurize in swing top carbonation bottles. After pasteurization, I will let the meads cool to room temperature and then refrigerate the mead.
Comments / Questions:
1. Let me know if anything seems out of order or incorrect about my planned process.
2. If I de-gas, I would imagine that once de-gassing is complete, adding honey and starting a second fermentation will still create carbonation. Let me know if that is accurate.
3. Based on your videos, it seems carbonation will remain after pasteurization, but let me know if I am wrong.
4. It seems as though, if I pasteurize, I don't have to store cold?
5. Once I second ferment, back sweeten, but if i do not pasteurize, if I keep the bottles refrigerated, they should be all right, no explosions, correct? I understand that if I don't pasteurize and remove from the bottles from the refrigerator, I should either keep the bottles in an ice / wayer bath to keep them cool and prevent the yeast from initiating further fermentation, or put the bottles back in the refrigerator soon after use to avoid the fermentation process from reactivating.
Thanks,
Bryan
You can't really sweeten after carbonating. It will lose all the carbonation. Honestly, for a first brew, keep it simple and follow a recipe. There's a lot to it and any misstep could make for a bad time.
10:47 this reminded me of a time that I pasteurized and back sweetened some wine, and used a push cork to plug the bottle. More than likely I ended up reusing an old push cork with some residual yeast from a prior brew on it... as sometime thereafter I heard a loud pop! The push cork was ejected from the bottle and there was a little bit of wine splatter on the nearby wall, and a black mark on the ceiling where the push cork smacked it!
On the plus side... the wine was nicely carbonated. =^_^=
Thanks for your videos guys! Been watching the heck outta all your videos. Been brewing for about a year and your channel completely changed the way I brew. Now I consistently have 3-4 brews going. I made your blueberry mead and it turned out great. Doing my own “viking blood 2021”. Just added the dried cherries! Thank you for your efforts and being so clear about your information!
I use Lakanto (erythritol/monk fruit mixture) and I actually prefer it over sugar. I was pre-diabetic and once I switiched my numbers thankfully came down. I used it in one brew and while it tasted fine, but agree, it's not as good as the real thing :)
I'm 4 days in my first batch of blueberry wine. I'm planning on using Monkfruit and Eryhritol as well. How much do i have to use to raise the level to 1.010 given it is 1.000 before?
Since September I have been focusing on strictly wines and Meads. I am finding that I have not liked my earlier ones at 1.020 Bottled gravity. But the more recent ones where I am starting to aim for lower BG I like 1.008.
I agree, Derica, exploding glass is bad😂
I made a gallon of JAOM and shared a small sample with friends at a party. They all commented on how it was good, but much harsher than the blueberry mead I had shared before. So I went and back sweetened. It had finished fermentation at 1.011, so I added 8 oz of honey and ended up with 1.038. WOW what a difference. The harsh alcohol smoothed out, the faint orange took centerstage and a bit of sweetness rounded it out. I'll still have to wait and see if fermentation kicks off again, but this really did help make a rough mead turn out nice (to this point). Thanks again for teaching and inspiring people!!
2 Questions that I have never seen asked or brought up:
1. Where did you find TRBOS?
2. When adding tea to a mead, exactly how much do you add to it? As in, how many bags with how much water and how long do you let the tea steep before you add it to the must?
I ask the second question because I am making 4 traditionals for my first meads. I'm doing this to get acquainted with the hobby and also to perform a little experiment. The plan is to make them as follows:
- True traditional (just water, honey, yeast, and nutrient)
- True traditional + English Breakfast Tea
- True traditional + Constant Comment
- True traditional + Earl Grey
I'm doing this because I want to see what flavors/tannins get imparted to the mead (if any) and also determine if there is one I will enjoy more. I love all three of these teas and want to see what they do in mead.
Just for reference, all the teas are Bigelow brand.
We put links for what we use in each video (including TRBOS) so #1's answer is Amazon amzn.to/3vBx3iI
We have also talked about how much tea we use and normally how long we steep it in each video that includes tea.
If you are going to ferment 1 gallon of each of your experiments then I would suggest one tea bag of tea steeped 5 to 10 minutes.
Thank you, I know that I was one of those that probably contributed to you making this video, because of my follow-on questions. You both are so helpful; I appreciate the time and patience in answering questions or providing suggestions.
Don't worry Brian, you're not alone. I used to not like whiskey either, but I've learned to love it. Once I found Bourbon, it was all over.
I’m told bourbon and egg nog is awesome!?
@@waynesorensen7071 It is. I make eggnog every year and put Bourbon, Rum, and Cognac in it.
I made a cider that went to dry and ended up making frozen cubes of simple syrup to add to the glass. It kept it cold and you got sweetener as it melted.
Hi guys thanks for the video. My wife likes really sweet I prefer slightly dry, so we use the goldy locks method.
Freakin love you guys!!! My knowledge has grown tremendously from yall.
Love this, perfect for my current situation! Planning to age a few months instead of rushing to sugar coat my young brew.
I like to keep life simple. Honey to back sweeten B4 pasteurized and all is good.
Thank you guys for all the advice/tips! I always seem to need to back sweeten my meads…..(I like sweet)
There is a chart for how sweet a wine is. It is based on the amount of sugar per volume. It starts at bone dry and ends with dessert wine. It goes like this: Bone dry: No sugar, 10-20g/liter: Dry, 20-75g/liter: Semi-Sweet, 75-100g/liter: Sweet, over 100g/liter: Dessert. The chart is simplified, there are other levels like semi-dry and so on. This would be good information to add to the label IMO. You could also use this to sweeten to a specific level if you want instead of doing taste tests (that is what I do).
Yeah I do a variation of this. The sweetnesslevel is about as important as the ingredients/taste of the mead I think. I do a lot of different sweetnesslevels even though I tend to enjoy a specific one more.
I've never actually drank mead before, to be honest never heard of it before I came across your channel, our "my first mead" is still bubbling away 3 weeks later, in anticipation I bought a bottle of mead to try. Only mead available in my area. Have you guys considered reviewing bought meads?
We have reviewed many commercial meads. Our audience didn't seem to enjoy those videos as much as they do our homebrew content. Here are some links to the commercial meads we reviewed. czcams.com/video/faMcND8ayT4/video.html czcams.com/video/q9Ltbsa-nP0/video.html czcams.com/video/y7wOZ5kx-34/video.html There are many more. A search on our channel for "Mead Monday" might be the best way to find them if you are interested.
Who wants to see them to make a brew that tastes like blueberry & cream oatmeal
Y'all just blew my mind, I'm about to put some honey in my budweiser 😄
Lol. Why waste the honey?
Ok, need some advice, please.
Brewed a gallon of gingerbeer, but since my wife loves a particular brand of Jamaican gingerbeer that's pineapple based, I made this like a cyser/melomel - all liquid was 100% pineapple juice.
My experiment is currently cooling it's heels in my minifridge - my little overachiever went almost dry in three days... On bread yeast.
I knew the pineapple juice would add sweetness to the 2lbs of light brown sugar I used, but I thought the added citric acid would at least slow down the fermentation. Nope.
Numbers:
Starting SG: 1.090
72-hour SG: 1.010
Calc'd ABV: 10.5%
I want to do three things:
1. Lower ABV to 5-6%. (🤯, I know...)
(So, double the volume?)
2. Sweeten to about 1.030
(Add 20pts, or 1/2 lb sugar?)
3. Enhance pineapple flavor
('Chunks' in conditioning? Or?)
...and after viewing this video, I think I can just add pineapple juice concentrate and more ginger to maintain 'bite' in increased volume.
Question is, how much?
I like the idea of the 'concentrate'. Provided I can calculate properly, I can effectively double the volume, add sugar, AND adjust the 'concentrate' to whatever strength of pineapple taste I want.
And yes, it will stay cold-crashed the whole time, pasteurizing being in it's immediate future once the taste is right.
Thoughts? Cautions? Derisive laughter? 😁
If you want more pineapple flavor and more sweetness then I agree with back sweetening with pineapple juice. This will also dilute your beverage thus lowering your ABV. As to far as how much, that is really personal preference as to how much pineapple flavor and sweetness works for you. Add a bit and then sample it. One of the great benefits of being a homebrewer. Once you get it to where you like it, pasteurize so that you won't start fermentation back up and loose the sweetness.
I want to thank you for stressing pasteurization. I started doing this for my brews, but then it occurred to me that I should pasteurize my vinegars also (as a few have continued fermentation after bottling, even sitting for 8wks!)
Had 't thought of that!
Thanks for the passion and the expertise. Mead is a new hobby of mine and I love your content.
Good refresher B&D. 👍👍🍻
Thank you for this updated video. I watched your other one a few days ago and was hoping you would revisit this topic.
So helpful...I appreciate you guys.
You folks are AWESOME!!!!!!!
So some mistakes were made.... math and silly decimals ya know😅 Anywho my first Vikings blood turned into what I will be calling Bloody Beskar. The whole thing kinda turned into a pleasant experiment. I'm a complete noob so I have been trying to remain on the side of caution.
Forgive me if this question has already been answered, this coffee just isn't helping the hamster wheel turn today. I've had this batch in the fridge for 3 weeks settling after back sweetening. I don't have enough air locks so I'm using balloons. Should I take the Mead out of the fridge and let it settle? I've carefully syphoned twice for clarity. I back sweetened with a mixture of honey and Body Armour (for color). I will have to syphon again and potentially one more time depending.
If you are looking for it to settle, keeping it in the fridge should help with that.
I made a 5 gallon batch of cyser with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in secondary. Finished dry so I added BROWNED monk fruit sweetener... most delicious apple pie tasting mead I've ever tasted
Your guys's videos are so informative and they REALLY help. I asked another question about backsweetening on another videos comment section, but I think between watching both videos, my questions have been answered. Thank you VERY much..
Glad this helped! Sorry if I missed your question!
Can my homebrew wine go bad in the fridge? about 3 weeks ago i put my 1g fermentor in the fridge to cold crash the grape wine, but then I had surgery and only just now got back to it. It seems in the 3 weeks its been in the fridge untouched that its gotten bitter and unpleasant from when I first tasted i. Fridge temp sits around 38-40F
Your wine shouldn't have gone bad in the fridge. Something else caused the bitter unpleasant taste.
Would it be possible to do a short video on how you guys do your dried orange zest strands and give some info on how to store/how long they will store etc? It would be helpful!
We zest oranges and then put them in a dehydrator. Dehydrate at 135 degrees F for roughly an hour or until they are dry and crisp. Depending on environment they should last from four months to a year. We keep ours in mason jars.
I’ve been waiting for this!!!
Thanks so much for the videos! I love the further clarification that you both do. You both do an excellent job of educating and explaining.
I used a concentrated unsweetened cherry juice to back sweeten making a quick and dirty vikings blood. Also covered up the straight alcohol taste of mesquite honey.
About to do this next week! Great timing!
...sweet!
First two batches I’m going to leave as is. If they need sweetened I’ll do it as I drink it. Slow and steady.
❤️the science moment🤣
Now doesn't carbonation make things taste like they're sweeter? So would it also be valid to ferment dry, and add priming sugar to make it bubbly, and thus tasting sweeter?
Assuming carbonation safe bottles of course.
Thanks for your videos I just got into this hobby I just make my first batch of mead and another of ginger beer both are fermenting right not and looking good.
would have liked more details on sugar, vs, honey, non fermentable alternatives and their effects on taste AND aging.
try it then because each persons taste buds are different
I appear to have high abv and a bit astringent wine. How long does it take to alleviate the CO2? Mine have sat in conditioning over five-10 months. Does it depend on yeast involved? I have had to backsweeten most of my wines. How do I fix it? My first tried wines were with premiere blanc. Lately I used 71B. Not as harsh. The mouth feel is great.
High ABV alone can make the brew feel more astringent. After that length of time, the degassing should be done. You can gently manually degas it if you wish to make certain. If you are not happy with the result perhaps oaking might help it mellow more. Back sweetening can also help limit the additional alcohol's affect on taste.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank You!🙃
Mentioning the gas explosion, I'm reminded of a brewery I worked at years ago. I was the bartender and one night the tap room was full, music was blaring and everyone was having a grand ol time. One song ends and before the next song begins theres a LOUD explosion, like a bomb went off, from the brewing room. One of the 50 gallon aluminum kegs exploded and sent shrapnel through brick and cinderblock.
Hope no one was hurt!
I love your channel, I’m planning on brewing a batch of red cherry mead and a white cherry mead both made with Well water
I always wondered how you guys back sweetened your products. I did not know that Brian is a diabetic. So sorry to hear that. My mother is a diabetic and it effects everything including her medicines that she has to take. I use a 1/4 teaspoon of Potassium Sorbate and 1/4 teaspoon of Potassium Metabisulphite which is following the exact doseage from the manufacturer and is enough for a 5 gallong batch. Once I use that and the Spakalloid Hot Mix clearing agent and the Still Spirit's Turbo Clear, my batches usually look like water by the next day. After that I distill it.
Thanks! Great info!
I have a question but it doesn't pertain to backsweeten. Can stone carbon be used to filter meads and wine, like with distilled spirits?
I have no idea. Perhaps? We have no experience with this to answer honestly. We also don't filter our meads or wines.
I know you touched on backsweetening dry brews and pastuerizing, but what are your thoughts on oversweetening(vs step feeding) when racking and letting the yeast ferment to tolerance?
That's just letting a fermentation finish... nothing wrong with that. You just have to mess with yeast tolerances and be cautious to not add to much.
Hi dear, how to "backsweeten & carbonate" the brew?
question: the brew gone dry because no more sugar left, but the yeast didn't reach tolerance, so yeast still active.
What is the best way to backsweeten to reach the desired sweetness and carbonate it as well, avoiding the explode, coz of much sugar I added for backsweeten.
Good Luck, wishing you all the best
This video answers this question in detail and is applicable to more than just cider: czcams.com/video/tvvuVJNn2jM/video.html
Almost answered my question... :) Back sweetening, pasteurizing and killing more than just the yeast. Does your 140F target do that on finished, back sweetened cider (or wine or mead)? You know... critters like acetobacter and (my nemesis) malolactic bacteria (I know it's not everyone's or all my brews nemesis, just in MY apple cider). :)
Well, yes and no. MLF can be somewhat avoided with over 80f or below 60f, but... it's not really fermentation, it's more of a chemical reaction. Acetobactors don't like heat much either. Bit of research shows 140f and higher should stop them too.
@@CitySteadingBrews From what I can find, MLF is bacterial. I've seen that you can actually buy the dang things for encouraging specific strains. I realize it's not fermentation, but it is a bacteria eating malic acid and pooping out lactic acid. Good to know pasteurizing to 140F should do the trick. Thanks for that! :)
Hello, I am really new to all this and I am also a fellow diabetic (type 1) I am wondering how you figured out the carbohydrate and sugar content of the brew plus the added sweetness. (Was wondering if you could make a video on this, as I'm sure lots of people have the same question. If you haven't made one already that is.)
Perhaps at some point. Honestly it's just a lot of math, so maybe just an article in our website.
HI! U two are great
Thank you for sharing all the info. Have you ever tried or considered using tannin liquid? If not, is there any reason? 🙏
You can use tannin liquid if you wish. We don't because we have lots of tea. As in, multiple cabinets of tea, lol.
Long setup question.. I started a peach wine 10+/- months ago. It is a 3 gallon batch I made with about 5 pounds of fresh crushed peaches in a muslin bag. It's still in the primary fermenter because of one thing or another preventing me from getting it racked to secondary. So it's been still for months and the peaches are still in the bag settled at the bottom. I haven't opened it, gravity tested it or tasted it, but it looks fine. My main question was regarding whether or not it would be safe since I never removed the peaches? I didn't find anywhere on the web whether or not you can just leave the fruit in there for that amount of time or not. Thanks!
As the peaches have settled on the bottom you should be fine. If they were still floating I would be more concerned. When you remove the fruit, smell the beverage, give it a thorough visual inspection and if both seem fine, give it a little taste. If something is wrong then your nose and eyes should tell you before it ever reaches your mouth.
This may turn out amazing. I'd like an update...
@@CitySteadingBrews wait so you can leave yeast fermenting in primary for 10 months and nothing will mold?
Molds are obligate aerobes. This means that they need oxygen to survive. As the OP stated that their bag of fruit is at the bottom of their vessel, mold should not be an issue.
Have you two ever cold crashed a wine for a week, racked(it was clear), then test tasted it then had to add some corn sugar, then put it back in the fridge and noticed 5 days later there was slimy looking stuff on the sides and floating up from the bottom of the carboy. I think the corn sugar was not dissolved all the way from continuous cold temperature and still hanging around. I am going to heat the carboy to 78 degrees and see if it goes away. Yes I clean and sterilized everything in all the processes.
Sounds like it wasn't mixed. Also, cold doesn't stop or prevent fermentation.
It is remarkable how much a person's palate can change over time. I used to find cabbage disgusting, now I eat it all the time.
Hello! I’ve been watching your videos and brewing ciders for a few months now but each batch comes off the lees smelling like a fart. I use 2 grams of fleischmann’s for a single gallon carboy. After a 14 day fermentation, I rack and degas. At that point, it’s very dry and I usually backsweeten with concentrate on hopes to ameliorate the funky smell and strange funky flavors. Is that just what one should expect from a young batch or am I doing something wrong? Thanks for all the help you guys are the best.
I really don't know what to tell you. Did you oxygenate at the beginning? Did you take any gravity readings? What was your recipe?
@@CitySteadingBrews I oxygenate in the beginning by giving it a solid 3-5 minute shake with my handy “thumb saver bung”. My final abv sits typically at around 7-8%. I used to follow your more recent basic cider video for a recipe, but have started to add 1 cup of light brown sugar up front to dial up the abv and add some complex flavors. Do different yeasts yield substantially different noses?
Great topic. Have any advice in how to backsweeten by taste for 5 gallons of mead? In other words, what is a good method for adding sugar to a small amount of the mead until you are satisfied, and then doing the math so you can figure out how much to add to the 5gal carboy?
If you know the volume of your glass you can scale it up. You can do some preliminary tastings without measuring to get a rough idea, then do another with exact measurements and scale it up.
I had a peach wine that measured way too high on spg. Like 21%.(how?why,?) Was real dry, only used bread yeast. I back sweetened w homemade peach syrup .
I have no idea how/why that would occur. I think we might be missing some information.
Brew started At 1. 165 SG FINISHED at 0.996, =21.7 % my hydrometer sank to bottom. It is wicked strong
BTW, I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS, MADE MY FIRST MEAD *CYSER* LAST YEAR. I USED CHARRED CHERRY CHIPS ABD 1 TEABAG AT THE END FOR A 5 DAY AGE. 18% ,TASTES LIKE A MILD APPLE BURBON
i am so glad i found your guys channel!! i am finally, after aaaaages of thinking about it, just about to start my first cider brew! my question is, if i want to use sugar to carbonate the brew, how or when would i back sweeten it? if it does indeed need sweetening? much love, from sunny Yorkshire in the UK x
We have this covered in many cider videos. It's not a really simple answer most times. This may help: czcams.com/video/0fy0bbWaOEc/video.htmlsi=jsdVB319nGpZcxuq
@@CitySteadingBrews as soon as i started watching that video i remembered that section!! i am a fool but thank you very much for jolting my brain!! :)
I'm not sure if anybody's already asked this question but I wanted to know if the pasteurization process affects the aging process? When you're trying to enhance flavors.
It shouldn't, no. There is a difference in flavor though, not a huge one, but we did a video on it: czcams.com/video/ALR-S3oKWjQ/video.htmlsi=pmQtfOnfANmp-CTJ
What are your thoughts on using Xylitol in hard cider? I'm a total newbie and want to sweeten my brew but don't want to feed the yeast or have glass grenades go off in the basement.
Wife gets cranky when I cause small explosions in the basement...
Xylitol would fall under the non-fermentable sugar category. We talked about that in this video.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you for responding. You didn't mention it by name so I was just curious if that meant it was poison or not. Lol! TY again.
Great video since I think I need to back sweeten. I was following your video (How to Make Cheap Easy Wine from Store Bought Juice at Home) and after the 13th day I moved the juice from the jug to a glass jar. I took reading and tasted. It was not as sweet as I hoped. I like a spiked grape juice taste. My readings were start - 1.110 and finish - 1.010. For the next time do I need to cut the fermentation short or will back sweetening always have to happen?
Back sweetening only needs to happen when you feel your brew needs to be sweeter. As we stated in this video, you have three choices for making a sweet brew. 1) Brew to dry then Back Sweeten 2) Do the math and start off with more sugar than your yeast can ferment out, or 3) Step feed
I know this is an older video. But hopefully i can pickthe brains of my fellow mead heads. I made 5 gallons of what i call viking sunrise, of mead hsing 5 large quartered oranges. The only problem is there is a lot of orange rhine flavor in it. While not bad id like for it to be sweeter. What is the best thing i can use to give it a good sweetness. This is going into secondary 3rd weel of july 2023 and into a barrel for aging end aug 23 for a viking party in october
Generally we use honey to sweeten mead.
thx for the vid....new to your channel, and just tasted our first brew with welches.....the misses likes sweet so after it was finished we tasted...ok for me , but not sweet enough for her, so thx!
So I'm curious. What what happen if I added a few drops of liquad smoke (which the base is vinegar) to a 15% brew to give it a more smokey flavor. Would the vinegar in the liquad smoke screw the brew up?
Depends when you add it really. It "could" alter the flavor pretty badly or make it amazing. I don't think it would activate acetobactors if you had enough ABV (15%) but it might be worth a try?
@@CitySteadingBrews I might just try it. I made an attempt to make a Scottish mead. I used peeted malted barley, elderflowers, rose petals, orange zest, 6 allspice, one clove, cup of vanilla Chai, and a cinnamon stick for a 5 days. The taste was almost exactly like a scotch, it just needs a bit more smokeyness to it and it's conditioning with French oak. I was hoping to beef up the smokeyness with a few drops of liquad smoke. Not too much, just enough to give that backend a more peety flavor.
For some reason I cannot find the video where you talk about the formula when working backwards based on the alcohol tolerance of a yeast, if you could possibly link the video or just refresh my memory I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for all the information you guys put out!
Wonderful video! I have a question about step feeding/back-sweetening mead. If you want to add more honey to a brew that went dry, how do you actually dissolve the new honey to the mead without oxidizing it? If you just add more honey to the fermenter and give it a shake or swirl, won't this cause weird off-flavours? Thanks!
I stir it carefully. Sure, there's some risk, but it's not that big of a risk to be honest.
The way I do it is I mix the honey with water to make a sweet honey syrup then pump it into the brew with the siphon. From there I swirl it into the brew and use sulphites to stop fermentation. I need to learn how to pasturize
How would you back sweeten a flavor such as blackberry. I have a hibiscus mead and wondering whether I should use a blackberry juice or juice concentrate, and how it will affect the clarity. Thanks love yalls videos!
Juice will dilute your brew more than concentrate. Sadly there's no one size fits all answer. It mostly depends what you started with and what you want it to end up as.
If you cold crash a brew then rack that now cold brew. Will there be enough Yeast still in suspension to referment? Can cold crashing be a way to clarify and stabilize at the same time by racking off?
I would not rely on cold crashing and then racking as a reliable method of stabilizing a brew.