Methods to kill yeast/stop fermentation

[Evan B]

So I'm posting this question for a buddy of mine. He's been making mead for a while now, but has found out his fiance is allergic to the sulfite or whatever it is you add to the mead to stop the yeast (i don't do much with mead, so i'm not sure what it is he's actually adding). He asked me if there's a way to pasteurize his mead with minimal affect to the flavor/character of the mead.

What other methods should I suggest to him?

[manwithbeers]

Possibly a yeast with lower attenuation?

Filtration?

[beerdrinker]

Maybe adding gelatin and cold crashing when he wants the fermentation to end? That should slow the yeast down and pull it out os solution. He would just have to worry about bottle bombs if it was to be stored at a higher temperature.

[squirrelpirate]

Your friend is referring to potassium sorbate. I bottled a mead a few weeks ago, a sweet mead kit from NB, that fermented to .997. I just assumed the yeast wouldn't attenuate as far and that I'd have some residual sugar in the mead... that obviously wasn't the case.

The helpful man that runs my favorite shop is a wine/mead guy, and he mentioned that I could backsweeten the mead with honey, or even make a simple syrup and sweeten to taste in the glass. From his advice and my grandfather (a veteran winemaker) it seems like the fermentation would be very difficult to stop under normal circumstances without chemicals, but beerdrinker's suggestion of cold crashing might work.

[thatguy314]

I would beware of cold crashing, unless you're planning on drinking it soon. If you don't get all the yeast it can start fermenting again slowly in the container.

[beerdrinker]

Would the beer/cider continue fermenting even if the beer/cider was kept at a cold temperature?

I figure with this tecnique you would just have to keep the beer/cider in the fridge.

[Bert]

hey all, I'm the buddy Even was asking for.

So my dilemma is this:

I'm fairly certain that my better half is allergic to Sulfites. She generally has a reaction to drinking wine, so to be on the safe side I'm looking into alternatives.

I've thought about pasteurization, but I would really rather not. First, I have concerns about it changing the character of the mead I'm making and second, I'm kind of a foodie nutrition nut and generally shy away from pasteurization in other products since it denatures a lot of the beneficial aspects of them.

Cold-crashing sounds interesting, possibly following up with potassium sorbate to inhibit the yeast from re-activating later. Has anyone had luck cold-crashing their mead? Would using potassium sorbate in this manner work?

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

[Henning1966]

What about using a yeast with less alcohol tolerance and letting the high alcohol stop the yeast.