Recipe 2: Sack mead (continued 5) - adjusting pH

Long time since since I did anything to my meads, but last weekend it was time to try to adjusting the taste by acid addition.

Opening the fermenter with sack mead I am still surprised about how pleasant the smell is. The last yeast has precipitated on the bottom and it is now totally clear.

The basic measurements:

pH: about 3.5

density: 1.015

I was hoping that the pH had raised a bit due to degassing of CO2 but I cannot see any difference from my last measurements. The density is still 1.015, so there is absolutely no indications of even slow fermentation - great :o)

The mead was then racked to it final "resting place", a plastic carboy for maturing, and to get rid of the last precitipate. And then it was time for tasting, but...........

Tasting the mead was not so pleasant. The acid taste is very stringent and overwhelming for my taste. My initial idea was to adjust acids by adding citric acid, malic acid, or tartaric acid (or a blend of these), but I skipped the plan and decided to add base instead to raise pH.

For this purpose I used K2CO3. The carbonate is already an intricate part of the mead and potassium is without taste and has no limits in terms of food safety.

Only question was how much acid to add. To be a little systematic I prepared a stock solution of K2CO3 (0.30g of K2CO3 to 4 ml of water using a 10 ml disposable syringe)

Then I just took a few samples of mead (10 ml again with a 10 ml disposable syringe) repeated added 0,10 ml of stock solution (using a 2 ml disposable syringe) until the taste was just right. To make sure that I did not suddenly get a taste of something very basic I measured the adjusted mead with pH strips before tasting.

After adding 0.1 ml the acid taste was reduced significantly but still there, and the mead had a very different and much more appealing mouth feel, so I did not feel that I had to add any more. pH was now about 4.5 measured with strips. 

Since my batch is now reduced to about 17 L this means that I would have to add 170 ml to get the same effect. With a concentration of 0.3/0,004=75g/l that corresponds to adding 12.75g of K2CO3. To be a bit on the "safe side" I decided to add 10g dissolved in 100 ml of water. Capping the carboy and giving it a good shake followed by about 30 min rest. A final check of pH was about 4.5 - as expected :o)

Finally, the airlock was attached and the carboy put aside. I did not add CO2 since a lot of CO2 was released when the carboy was shaken. I guess that this would be enough to cover the surface. 

Next step is bottling so now I will have to see where I can get some adequate bottles for this.