[dannyjed]

I need to back-sweeten my melomel and I was wondering how this should be done? The gravity for this 5 gal batch is 0.994 and I want it around 1.020-1.030. I was planning on adding some potassium sorbate, then after a day or two add 3-4 lbs honey mixed with a couple cups of boiling water to the bottling bucket, add the melomel and gently stir before bottling. Does this sound right or should I back-sweeten and bottle at a later date? Would this affect the clarity? I don't want to screw this up because I've invested a lot of $ in this batch.

[BrewArk]

That sounds rather sweet to me.

When I've done it, I've pulled a taster & added honey manually (w/a spoon) until I get the ratio I want.  Then I'll back calculate how much to add to the batch.

Then weigh that out and keep tasting after adding 1/2-3/4 of what I've weighed out until I reach the taste I'm looking for.

Keep in mind, you can add additional honey much more easily than you can remove it.

[erockrph]

I like to backsweeten at the beginning of the aging process. The "raw honey" flavor never fully ages out, but it does tend to mellow with time. I generally pull a sample, and prepare a range of samples (1.010, 1.020, 1.030 or 1.010, 1.015, 1.020, etc.) Sometimes one is perfect, and sometimes I need to do a second run in a narrower sample range.

Once I find the right level I will scale it to the full batch. I generally add it while racking to tertiary and let it age after that. If needed, I adjust the acid level after backsweetening.