I have just started trying to make some mead.

The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of citric acid but I read that as 4
tablespoons. There are 26 litres of must, containing 8 kg of honey.

It's been fermenting now for 10 days and is down to 1050 from an
initial 1110.

Is there anything I should do to fix it? I do have another similar
size batch of vanilla mead working with no citric in it.

Thanks for any help

Charlie

First recommendation is that there is a meadmaking group. Your question is
very valid for the wine making group as mead is just a type of wine but you
might get some specific help on the mead site. -- rec.crafts.meadmaking

Now to your questions. IF you have too much acid, after it is finished (and
you may not) you could try reducing the acid with calcium carbonate. This
would not be my suggestion but it is something you could do. The second
thing you could do is to use it to blend with other meads.

Honey is a very good buffer. That means that you cannot determine before
hand using common titrations for acid, what the final acidity will be as you
would with a regular wine. I generally make my mead with the least acid I
think it may need and then add acid to taste at the end. Even when I add
the acid called for in most recipes, I generally find that I need to add
more at the end. I would never follow this procedure with my regular wines.

What I would recommend in your case is that you let the mead finish. You
might find that it is not too bad. If acidity is it's major fault, then I
would just put it back to bulk age and save it for the next batch of mead I
made and use it to blend with to bring the new meads acidity up.

Ray

"Charlie" <charliedatiinet.net.aus> wrote in message
...
>I have just started trying to make some mead.
>
> The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of citric acid but I read that as 4
> tablespoons. There are 26 litres of must, containing 8 kg of honey.
>
> It's been fermenting now for 10 days and is down to 1050 from an
> initial 1110.
>
> Is there anything I should do to fix it? I do have another similar
> size batch of vanilla mead working with no citric in it.
>
> Thanks for any help
>
> Charlie
>
>
>
>

Not sure if cold stabilization reduces citric acid or just tartaric,
but if it does in fact reduce citric this could be an option.

Nope, just tartaric which precipitates out (if you added potassium) as
cream of tartar.
i am pretty sureit is goignto taste pretty tart. If you plan on making
more batches of mead with similar character I would jsut blend it.


Or you could let it age for about 10 years.

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 15:44:24 GMT, "Ray Calvert"
> wrote:

>First recommendation is that there is a meadmaking group. Your question is
>very valid for the wine making group as mead is just a type of wine but you
>might get some specific help on the mead site. -- rec.crafts.meadmaking
>
>Now to your questions. IF you have too much acid, after it is finished (and
>you may not) you could try reducing the acid with calcium carbonate. This
>would not be my suggestion but it is something you could do. The second
>thing you could do is to use it to blend with other meads.
<snip>
>What I would recommend in your case is that you let the mead finish. You
>might find that it is not too bad. If acidity is it's major fault, then I
>would just put it back to bulk age and save it for the next batch of mead I
>made and use it to blend with to bring the new meads acidity up.
>
>Ray

Thanks Ray, I'll suck it and see, also thanks for the mead group

Charlie
>
>"Charlie" <charliedatiinet.net.aus> wrote in message
.. .
>>I have just started trying to make some mead.
>>
>> The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of citric acid but I read that as 4
>> tablespoons. There are 26 litres of must, containing 8 kg of honey.
>>
>> It's been fermenting now for 10 days and is down to 1050 from an
>> initial 1110.
>>
>> Is there anything I should do to fix it? I do have another similar
>> size batch of vanilla mead working with no citric in it.
>>
>> Thanks for any help
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>>
>>
>>
>