Hypothetical Sweet Hydromel

[Freezeblade]

So I was thinking how to do a sweet hydromel, which is a low-gravity mead. Usually these turn out bone-dry, as they are sometimes as low as 1.050 OG. So with much musing I figured on doing an experiment; Make a 3-gallon batch of sack strength sweet mead, age it for 9 months or so, then put it into a 5-gallon carboy with 2 gallons of water, which would bring down the abv, and make it so the mead was not as strong, but keep the sweetness left in the sack mead. Normally I'd be worried about the lowering of abv would start up the yeast again, but after 9 months all the yeast that didn't die or go dormant from the alcohol would be too old to be viable at all. This would leave you with some lowish abv sweet mead, that's quite refreshing and light. what do you all think, possible?

 

[BigKahuna]

Just make a normal hydromel, and either sweeten with a non fermentable, or stabilize and back sweeten with more honey.

Either way, You should be ok. Use the non fermentable sugar if you intend to carbonate.

 

[Freezeblade]

I figured this would be a way to do it without having to stabilize, letting time run it's course to stabilize it naturally.

 

[CBBaron]

I figured this would be a way to do it without having to stabilize, letting time run it's course to stabilize it naturally.

I wouldn't trust even 9 month old yeast to be dormant. Brewers of big beers have reported success with bottle carbonating beer that has been in the secondary over a year.
Stabilize and back sweeten if you want a light sweet mead or wine.

Craig

 

[BigKahuna]

YA...I've gotta go with CB....There is no amount of time that I would consider safe for yeast to "Naturally Stabilize". It's just too hearty of a bug.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Also remember that you're not just cutting the abv, you're cutting the entire mixture - it's likely to not be nearly as sweet as you'd expect.