Sweetening with honey

[Rocky]

Has anyone back-sweetened their wines with honey? I know that honey is used to sweeten mead but I am not sure about wine. Would there be any issue with clearing? Any other problems that anyone foresees? Thank you.

 

[Runningwolf]

Rocky, thats a great question. Another question is would it be better to add it before fermentation for body or back sweeten with it for flavor. I know a number of people use honey instead of sugar for back sweetening.

 

[Julie]

Never used honey for backsweetening but I have used corn syrup for backsweetening on wines that were on the thin side.

 

[pwrose]

backsweetening with honey changes the flavor of a given wine. that is not saying that its bad, however it will have a diferent taste than if you backsweeten with sugar.

 

[mmadmikes1]

Some stores sell what they call mead and it is just wine that was back sweetened with honey. Before doing the whole batch, add some honey( you will need to figure out the ratio) and taste it with honey, then sugar and see what you like best. if you like them both, do some of both. I love to experiment. Some times it works sometime it doesn't. But all the recipes you see some one experimented to get. Have fun

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Some stores sell what they call mead and it is just wine that was back sweetened with honey. Before doing the whole batch, add some honey( you will need to figure out the ratio) and taste it with honey, then sugar and see what you like best. if you like them both, do some of both. I love to experiment. Some times it works sometime it doesn't. But all the recipes you see some one experimented to get. Have fun

I very much agree with this.

 

[Rocky]

Thank you all for the excellent input.

I like to experiment also and what I am planning is entirely an experiment. I have a 23 liter kit of Malvasia Bianca coming tomorrow from George. I plan to split the kit into a 4 gallon batch of wine and a 2 gallon batch of wine. The 4 gallon batch will be the garden variety of Malvasia, except that I will add white raisins and lemon zest along the way.

I am really getting crazy on the 2 gallon batch. I want to make a wine that will be a "pseudo" Vin Santo ("pseudo" because it is not from grapes dried on straw and wine that is allowed to oxidize in a barrel for 3 years!). I am going to take the 2 gallon's SG and up it to 1.110, add red raisins (for color, body and a little more ABV), ferment it to dry and back-sweeten it with honey and flavor it slightly with almond extract, bench testing of course.

If all works as planned, it will be a nice dessert wine. If not, I will have a lot of exotic pancake syrup! I will let you know what happens.

 

[djrockinsteve]

I used honey to my apple cider wine. It has a different flavor all together as I also made a batch with inverted sugar.

Can't recall but I believed I warmed the honey just a bit. Never bring to a boil. Definitely have pectic enzyme in there to ferment. The ratio is different than sugar. It's like 80% but I can't recall now if you need more or less of which one. I got halfzymers.

As far as backsweetening it may need a lot longer to rest to fully clear. If you added it up front then used inverted sugar in the end the flavor will be brought back.

 

[Rocky]

Thanks, Steve. I saw on another thread that 1.25 cups of sugar is the equivalent of 1 cup of honey. I was going to heat the honey to decrease the viscosity and your suggestion of adding the honey up front to raise the SG rather than at the back to sweeten is worth considering. I am trying to pick up some of the honey taste, as this is characteristic of Vin Santo, and it seems it would be more readily cleared. Hmmm...

 

[ArdenS]

Some stores sell what they call mead and it is just wine that was back sweetened with honey.

Actually mead is fermented honey, not just wine that has been sweetened with honey. Some people call it "honey wine". In order for fermentation to take place, the honey has to be diluted because undiluted honey will not permit bacterial (or yeast) growth. That's one reason why wounds are sometimes dressed with honey. Some of the things with which honey can be diluted for making mead are water (mead), grape juice (pyment), apple cider (cyser), or maple syrup (acerglyn - probably needs some water too).

Arden

 

[mmadmikes1]

I do know that, I have made at lest 20 batchs of mead in last 2 years. I was pointing out some store backsweetin with wine with honey and call it mead. the Original question was has anyone ever backsweetined with honey

 

[mgmarty]

Hi Rocky. This thread came up on a google search. Did your wine cloud up after adding the honey? Should I wait to bottle? I would like to back sweeten my spiced crab apple wine with honey, (from my bees), I'm hoping it would add a characteristic to the wine I would like. How much potassium sorbate did you add per gallon? Thanks for any help.

 

[Rocky]

Hi Rocky. This thread came up on a google search. Did your wine cloud up after adding the honey? Should I wait to bottle? I would like to back sweeten my spiced crab apple wine with honey, (from my bees), I'm hoping it would add a characteristic to the wine I would like. How much potassium sorbate did you add per gallon? Thanks for any help.

MGMarty, I only made the one batch of Vin Santo a couple of years ago. It cleared very nicely but the wine is just too sweet for my taste. It is a dessert wine and some people really like it. I made 3 gallons of the wine and added 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of K Sorbate before sweetening the wine. I bottled it in 375 ml bottles and we use it occasionally for dessert and sometimes cooking. Not my best work, but I don't think the honey was the cause of my issues with the wine.