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Need opinions on clairification and sweetening
Okay, my first "quick and dirty" mead is well underway. Had a good primary fermentation and transferred to secondary carboy after about two weeks. It's approaching three weeks now. There's about a 3/4 inch layer of sediment at the bottom of the carboy, and the mead overall is looking pretty good. I plan to draw a sample this weekend to exmaine the clarity. My question is should I consider adding some bentonite just to be sure of getting a good clear mead? Or would I be okay just waiting and letting gravity take it's course for another week or two? Would racking one more time be a good idea? I do plan to transfer it back to my bottling bucket in any regard, but I'm not in a big hurry to bottle.
Also, I tend to prefer wines that are sweeter rather than drier. With that it mind, what might be the best way to sweeten my mead before bottling?
Thanks in advance for any and all insights.
No nead to transfer again. I'd let it sit another week or two and let it clear by itself. If your mead isn't sweet enough you can add sugar to sweeten it and use potassium sorbate ot kill any yeast so it won't ferment the sugar. It would prevent the mead from being able to carbonate if you wanted a sparkling mead but I assume you don't. I make wine quite a bit and I use potassium sorbate to stablize the wine before bottling so it stops fermentation and I can add sugar to sweeten the wine to my liking that way. Make sure if you do decide to add sugar to boil it in water before adding it. Use 1/2 tsp of Potassium sorbate per gallon to stablize your mead and wait a day to add the sugar. Potassium sorbate will prevent fermentation but it will not stop fermentation, so you need to add it first and wait to add the sugar.
DC
Many people are allergic to PS and sulfates so I tend NOT to use these things in my meads. The key to this is patience! Most "full strength" meads need adequate time to sit before trying to back sweeten. Depending on how much honey I use, some of my meads are racked four or five times CAREFULLY as to not oxidize them. I would take a gravity reading and see where you are compared to your OG. If it is low enough, you are ready to rack again and back sweeten with a honey/water solution. How clear is your mead currently?
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