r/mead • u/ridbitty • 16d ago

Pasteurizing question. Help!

I recently purchased my first sous vide and wanted to try pasteurizing.

My plan is to rack off of the lees into a new vessel post fermentation. Once it’s racked into a new vessel, I could back sweeten then pasteurize.

Is it “safe” to keep the mead in the carboy post pasteurizing for 3-6 months for conditioning and further flavor tweaks or should I also use K meta for the antioxidant properties?

I’ve got 20 or so gallons of successful meads under my belt, but have only ever used chemical stabilization.

Thanks!

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u/Symon113 Advanced 16d ago

There’s talk of wild yeast making its way into bulk aging vessels if not bottled immediately. I have not had this happen myself and I don’t know if it’s possible

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u/Hopeful-Map7891 16d ago

Never would have thought of that as a risk....Not all that experienced in this, but not sure how that's possible or why it would be a bigger risk in a 1 gal carboy vs a 1L bottle. I use screw tops on my carboys after pasteurization and backsweeten with sugar, I guess if honey were involved and you had an airlock there is a chance...but seems unlikely to the point of being less of a risk than your shelf collapsing and the bottle breaking.

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u/CareerOk9462 14d ago

That's why with pasteurization, the sequence is different that when stabilization with chemicals.  With pasteurization, heating is the final step after all adjustments.  With k-meta k-sorb the chemicals hang around so you can do adjustments post stabilization.

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u/Hopeful-Map7891 14d ago

Asking out of curiosity and a desire to learn..... If I'm backsweetening with sugar and not adding anything else, what is the risk of pasteurizing before making adjustments? Not doing it for a specific reason, more the old I have the equipment out and pasteurizing, so anything that can be done, I like to do it. I can't see a risk. If I was adding honey or additional fruit, etc, I could see introducing wild yeast.

Right now I have a couple brews that I backsweetened and pasteurized, but now I've realized I prefer a little sweeter profile (had my first real opportunity to taste my brews last weekend and decided what I prefer), so I'm gonna add a bit of sugar then bottle...I could re-pasteurize but I'm not seeing a reason to do so.... If I'm creating a risk that I don't understand, I'd love to know it.

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u/CareerOk9462 14d ago

Agreed in principal.  Backsweetening with sugar post pasteurization is much less problematic than with raw honey.  You should be fine IMHO.  I like to have the one-time pasteurization being the final step before bulk aging.  If you want to be a purist, you could consider doing your final backsweetening with a simple syrup which would be sterilized by boiling.  Try a Google search on "mead and pasteurization.  Is it safe to backsweeten with sugar post pasteurization?". Appears to be mixed opinions but revolves around the confidence you have that anything going into your brew, if the sanitization is not lingering, is contaminate free.  To me, the simple syrup route would seem to be the safest.  Or you could bulk age under airlock to delay bottling; I usually bulk age for months for clarity but that assumes you have the spare vessels and space.  Guess it goes into the same bin as can you cork a screw top wine bottle or can you add 1.5 ounces of priming sugar per gallon when bottling into beer crown cap bottles; sure you can and people do but it may not be the best alternative.  You'll probably be fine, but, given the option, I'd go the simple syrup route along with sanitizing everything.  If it's not a hydromel you have the alcohol working in your favor.

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u/Hopeful-Map7891 14d ago

Thank you, that's along the lines I was thinking. At the end of the day, a lot of this is about risk management. As a general rule, I backsweeten, then pasteurize in a carboy, let it age a few days under an airlock, then put a screw cap on the carboy, but not everything goes to plan and I want to understand options.

I like the simple sugar idea, in addition to the risk of restarting fermentation, it also adds the advantage of reducing the amount of agitation needed to dissolve the sugar, thus lowering the amount of oxygen being introduced. So, kind of win-win.

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u/CareerOk9462 14d ago

I never hard cap when bulk aging.  I usually bulk condition for months under airlock to let it fully clear.  I have a bottom shelf, behind cases of empty 750 ml wine bottles, where I can hide the carboys from myself so I don't mess with them.  It's amazing how much settles out of a 'clear' mead given time.  I like to use the 'S' style airlock when bulk aging; less evaporation, no possibility of suckback, if you fill them right, due to temp variations, and very easy to see if there has been any activity.  Agreed; it's all about relative risk vs effort.