Raspberry Mead

Well three months ago I made a Sweet Raspberry Mead (1 Gallon batch) using the following recipe:

•Yeast: EC-1118 - Replaced with Youngs Wine Yeast
•1 Gallon Water
•4.5 pounds clear honey
•1.5 pounds red raspberries
•The juice from 1 lemon
•The juice from 1 lime
•3 Tablespoons of strong tea
•1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

It has had 2 racking's - the 1st racking was off the fruit after 3 weeks and the 2nd was as week 8. Since then its has cleared really well and appears to have stopped bubbling. I forgot to take an original gravity so haven't got a clue on the alcohol level but will be taking a reading in the next couple of days.

My question is when I racked it at 8 weeks I tasted the sample and it was very dry. I'm just a bit confused as this was supposed to be a sweet mead. What could have caused it to go so dry? Could it be the yeast change I made?

Yes, EC1118 will eat everything, its a very strong yeast. If you backsweeten with more honey do not forget to add both sulfite and sorbate or any yeast left will revive back to life and eat the rest of your honey while you are waiting for it to age. WVMJ

Sorry if I've caused some confusion I couldn't get hold of the EC1118 so used 1tsp of Youngs wine yeast instead. I've never used this yeast in a mead before so am not sure whether this was the cause of the dryness.

The cause of the dryness is that your yeast, whatever one you used, ate all your honey, the ultimate cause of it going dry is that you didnt add enough honey if you wanted it to end up not dry at the end of the ferment. You can either leave it as it is until it clears, you can add a little more honey to get a higher alcohol level, or you can stablalize it after it clears and sweeten it a little with honey. WVMJ