So you made a batch of mead, it’s all done fermenting, and you don’t like how it turned out. Oh well. No biggie, we’ve all been there, many times. The question now is, what to do about it?
(If it’s just plain nasty, not jet-fuel nasty which just usually means it’s too dry or needs aging, but raw sewage nasty, or it smells like burnt matches or rotten cabbage or burning rubber or other nasty things, that probably means it’s infected. In that case it’s probably a total loss, and you need to pour it down the drain and thoroughly disinfect any equipment that came in contact with it. This page is here to address less tragic, more rescuable reasons, many of which are just matters of personal taste.)
Of course, this depends on why you didn’t like it. The most common reasons are in the table below. If you have some mead available with the opposite problem, or at least firmly enough into the middle to fix by blending, you can blend the two together. (To predict how that will turn out, see the blending calculator.)
Other than that, in general:
- if it’s too weak, you’ll have to add more honey (and maybe some yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance) and let it ferment more;
- if it’s too strong, you’ll have to dilute it;
- if it’s too dry, you’ll have to add more honey, or something else sweet, than will be fermented;
- if it’s too sweet, you can dilute it, counteract the sweetness, or make it ferment more;
- adding anything (without alcohol) will lower the ABV, so if your yeast went dormant because of hitting their alleged alcohol tolerance, they may wake up and start fermenting again, which you might not want;
- and almost anything you do will affect both aspects, so it’s a balancing act, just like planning a batch in the first place.
Click a section to go to some more specific suggestions.
| Too Sweet And Weak | Just Too Sweet | Too Sweet And Strong |
| Just Too Weak | Something Else | Just Too Strong |
| Too Dry And Weak | Just Too Dry | Too Dry And Strong |
Too Sweet And Weak
If your mead is too sweet and too weak, there are two main causes. Check your SG and calculate the ABV from the OG. (Calculator page coming soon… ish. Meanwhile use: (OG - SG) / 0.007.)
If the ABV is at or above the yeast’s alleged alcohol tolerance, your yeast has probably hit its alcohol tolerance, with a lot of sugars left over. In this case, you can put in some yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance. The new yeast will chew through some of the sugars that your old yeast couldn’t, fixing both problems at once.
(I did this myself when I first tried making Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead, following the recipe straight off the web site. I didn’t like how sweet it turned out, so I added some Mangrove Jack M05, which brought the SG down from 1.04-something to a much more drinkable 1.020.)
If the ABV is slightly short of the yeast’s alleged alcohol tolerance, you might have simply gotten a slightly underperforming batch. Or it may be in need of nutrients. (Adding them after the start is tricky, and beyond the scope of this page.) Or other conditions may be less than ideal, such as temperatures well outside that yeast’s preference. Try moving it to a place with better conditions, and/or adding a little bit of nutrient. (Dissolve it in a bit of water first, to avoid the “Diet Coke and Mentos effect”, aka Mead Geyser.)
If the ABV is well short of the tolerance, you likely have a stuck fermentation. Dealing with that is beyond the scope of this page, but using your favorite search engine should get you some help. You may need to add nutrients and/or more yeast, possibly of a hardier strain than you started with.
Just Too Sweet
If your mead is too sweet but you like the strength, you can put in something to cut the sweetness, like lemon juice. Caveat: raising the volume, by adding something non- or less-alcoholic, will lower the ABV. Alternately, you can dilute it, but that will lower the ABV even more.
If you lower the ABV, and the yeast went dormant because of alcohol, they may wake up and start fermenting again. This could also help reduce the sweetness, but be sure to use an airlock. If you don’t want further fermentation, such as if you want to bottle it ASAP, then cold-crash, rack, and stabilize it, before adding anything.
Too Sweet And Strong
If your mead is too sweet and too strong, you can simply dilute it. The tricky part is whether the same dilution that gets you a sweetness you like, will also get you a strength you like, or vice-versa. You could try diluting to solve one aspect, see how you like the result, and if the other aspect is still bad, go back to the table.
To predict how blending will turn out, see the blending calculator. You can use that to blend batches of mead, or blend mead with plain water, honey, juices (approximate SG values coming eventually), etc.
Once again, though, since this will lower the ABV, the yeast may wake up and continue fermenting. If you are fine with this, just be sure to use an airlock. Otherwise, cold-crash, rack, and stabilize, before adding anything.
Just Too Weak
If your mead is too weak but you like the sweetness, again there are multiple causes, and you need to figure your ABV. Be aware, it may simply taste weak, but actually be strong, especially when it’s sweet. I’ll ass-u-me you really do want it stronger than it is.
In the most likely case, your yeast hit its alcohol tolerance, leaving a good amount of sugars unfermented, but not so much that you think it’s too sweet. (Otherwise you’d be looking at the “Too Sweet And Strong” section.)
To fix this, you can boost it with some existing alcohol, like vodka or Everclear. However, I for one consider that to be cheating! ;-)
Alternately, you can add some more alcohol-resistant yeast and probably some more honey. Why add more honey, you probably wonder? Because a lot of it will be fermented by the new yeast, in order to boost the strength. You need to replace that, to maintain the sweetness you like.
To predict how that will turn out, go to the batch planning calculator, and plug in the full final volume of water and weight of honey, and the alcohol resistance of the yeast.
If it didn’t hit at least near its tolerance, there must be some other reason why there are sugars left, such as a stuck/stalled fermentation. See Too Sweet And Weak, above.
Just Too Strong
If your mead is too strong but you like the sweetness, dilute it to your desired ABV and add honey to your desired sweetness. You may need to repeat that process multiple times. Diluting it will cut the strength and the sweetness, so you need to add some honey to get the sweetness back up. Also, once again, since this will lower the ABV (which in this case is the main point), the yeast may wake up and continue fermenting. If you are fine with this, since dilution plus further fermenting may result in a final strength you’re happy with, just be sure to use an airlock. Otherwise, cold-crash, rack, and stabilize first.
To predict how diluting and sweetening it will turn out, see the blending calculator.
To predict how diluting it and fermenting it more will turn out, see the batch planning calculator.
Too Dry And Weak
If your mead is too dry and weak, add more honey and let it keep fermenting. You may also need to add a more alcohol-resistant yeast, if it’s hit the ABV tolerance of your original yeast.
To predict how it will turn out, go to the batch planning calculator, and plug in the full final volume of water and weight of honey, and the alcohol resistance of the yeast.
(I did this myself, when I made a gallon-plus of sima, a weak Finnish lemon mead, that I didn’t realize was supposed to be drunk before it was finished fermenting! It ran dry, down to 0.996 SG at about 5% ABV. I decided to turn it into a cloved lemon mead, of low-normal sweetness and strength, so I added two more pounds of honey, and a second clove, and let it rip. It’s predicted to turn out at SG 1.011 and ABV 10%, but it’s still bubbling as of this writing, so…. <shrug/>)
Just Too Dry
If your mead is too dry, but you like the strength, you can back-sweeten it, with your choice of sweetenings. This is in fact how quite a lot of mead is made, on purpose.
Once again, though, anything you add will lower the ABV, so the yeast may wake back up. If you’re fine with this, and your sweetener is fermentable, use an airlock. To predict how further fermenting will turn out, see the batch planning calculator, and plug in the final totals.
Otherwise, cold-crash, rack, and stabilize it, before adding anything. However, if you plan to take this approach, remember that back-sweetening will lower the ABV, so maybe make it a pinch stronger than you want it in the end. To predict how back-sweetening it will turn out, see the blending calculator. You can use that to blend batches of mead, or blend mead with honey, juices, etc.
Too Dry And Strong
If your mead is too dry and too strong, you can dilute it. Of course this will cut the strength, but also, if the SG was under 1.000, this will make it less dry. If it’s still too dry (rather likely, as 1.000 is still quite dry), you can add some more honey.Â
Caveat: raising the volume (without adding alcohol) will lower the ABV, so if the yeast went dormant because of alcohol, they may wake up and start fermenting again. This could make it even drier! So, you probably want to cold-crash, rack, and stabilize it before adding anything. Or, you could deliberately let it keep fermenting.
To predict how just diluting and sweetening it will turn out, see the blending calculator. You can use that to blend batches of mead, or blend mead with plain water or honey.
To predict how diluting it and fermenting it more, with or without more honey, will turn out, go to the batch planning calculator, and plug in the full final volume of water and weight of honey, and the alcohol resistance of the yeast.
Something Else
Oh, come on, I’m not some kind of mindreader! ;-)