stonehead

Recipes 

If I want to carbonate my mead in the bottle and I keep the alcohol under 10% which I have heard I need to in order to have enough live yeast to properly carbonate has anyone ever thought of using Maple syrup instead of priming sugar? or any good insight into carbonating mead would be greatly appriciated .. Thanks

issack

Recipes 

you can have a carbonated mead by simply bottling it at a 1.020 gravity. and using D1118 yeast.

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YooperBrew

Recipes 

Well, you can also have a bottle bomb by simply bottling at a 1.020. That's really not a good way to have dependable carbonation.

You can use maple syrup if you'd like- I don't know the measurements for that, so someone else can chime in on that.

Once the mead is done fermenting, you can also simply add 1 ounce of priming sugar per gallon of mead to give you a carbonation level similar to beer. Make sure you use either champagne bottles, or beer bottles, because wine bottles aren't designed to hold pressure. Plastic soda bottles work, too, if you'd like to use those.

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Broken Leg Brewery

issack

Recipes 

I have not personally done it. But a guy in our club does it a lot. he bottles at 1.020 with no bottle bombs.. he did how ever have bottle bombs when he bottled at a 1.040. So now he sticks to 1.020.

But you are right. it really is not accurate.

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YooperBrew

Recipes 

Well, I assume you can "guestimate" it by guessing the probable attenuation of your yeast. The problem comes in that usually meads will finish dry- at .990 even. So, you may have a dry, overcarbonated mead. Or, it might finish at 1.010, so you'd have a sweet undercarbonated mead. Unless, it really did finish well, and you get a dry bottle bomb. Definitely NOT worth risking, when it's super easy to let it finish and add an ounce of priming sugar per gallon.

I know that you can also prime with honey. Remember that whatever you add to prime with will ferment out, leaving no residual sweetness. Maybe some maple syrup would leave some faint residual maple flavor, but if you want maple flavor in the mead, it might be better to use some maple syrup in the must. Just my $.02.

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Broken Leg Brewery

gratus fermentatio

Recipes 

Hi stonehead: You might find some useful info here: How to Brew - By John Palmer - What Sugar Should I Prime With? It's for beer, but as far as the carbonation goes, it should be about the same for wine; unless you're going for a champagne level of carbonation, then the amount of sugar would be slightly higher. I've seen a table/chart on how much of various sugars to prime with, including maple syrup, but I can't remember where I saw it. Seems like someone on this site posted a link to it & that's how I found it. Maybe somebody will remember & post a link for it in this thread. Sorry I couldn't remember, but at least you know the info IS out there, somewhere. Regards, GF.

lapaglia

Recipes 

Just some comparisons for people. Watch the teaspoons VS the tablespoons. cane sugar and maple sugar are basically the same sweetness per tablespoon. The difference is in what kind of sugar it is.

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