Super Sweet Sparkling Mead

Hello All,

I'm actually searching for a recipe. I'm trying to make a dessert mead. Honey flavors only, no fruits or spices. I was looking for some help because I plan to age this for a while, and I want to make sure it right.

Again, Super Sweet I mean Sack mead or Sweeter, Like a sparkling Juice but with Mead. Plus lots of carbonation, even if I have to add dry ice I really want a festive dessert wine come the holidays.

The only thing I can think of so far is adding more honey after fermentation like a "Must" but I'm afraid that would kill the fermentation. I have flip top chamapagne bottles

I'm thinking 8-9 months carbonation in a cool dark cubboard in my basement (never above 70F) I have a cooler if it needs colder.

Please help by contributing recipes or tips. Also, the local brewer's supply store has cask/ small barrels and kegs. Should I think about using one?

Thanks:fro:

15 lb. honey
White Labs WLP720 - sweet mead yeast
2.5 tsp yeast nutrient
3 tsp Gypsum

this turned out to be what i would consider a very sweet mead.

Thanks Tipsy,

How was the carbonation?

Buckshott00 said:

Thanks Tipsy,

How was the carbonation?

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You'll probably need to keg it and force carbonate then bottle if you want it bubbly.

From what I understand sweet mead is very difficult to carbonate. The normal way to get sweet mead (from what I understand) is to either up the alcohol to the point that the yeast are killed off or use sorbate to kill the yeast off.

If your alcohol is so high that it kills yeast it is going to be tough to get the mead to carbonate. However, If you sorbate the original yeast and add more for bottling you obviously risk bottle bombs.

The best way, in my opinion, would be to keg/force carbonate for reliable carbonation and no risk of bottle bombs.

i didn't carbonate this batch. once the mead is clear enough to read through you can bottle it with some honey or corn sugar. if your using corks i would suggest looking into champagne cages to hold the corks on.

babalu87 said:

You'll probably need to keg it and force carbonate then bottle if you want it bubbly.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm sure the procedure for how to do that is on here somewhere do you have a link? Is force carbonating similar to the systems for making pop/soda?

nealf said:

From what I understand sweet mead is very difficult to carbonate. The normal way to get sweet mead (from what I understand) is to either up the alcohol to the point that the yeast are killed off or use sorbate to kill the yeast off.

If your alcohol is so high that it kills yeast it is going to be tough to get the mead to carbonate. However, If you sorbate the original yeast and add more for bottling you obviously risk bottle bombs.

The best way, in my opinion, would be to keg/force carbonate for reliable carbonation and no risk of bottle bombs.

Click to expand...

sorbate doesn't kill yeast. it prevents fermentation from starting. if fermentation is already going sorbate will do nothing. adding more yeast after adding sorbate is a waist of time because no new fermentation will occur.

Buckshott00 said:

Thank you! I'm sure the procedure for how to do that is on here somewhere do you have a link? Is force carbonating similar to the systems for making pop/soda?

Click to expand...

to my understanding its exactly the same. you rack the mead into the keg and seal it. hook up a canister of CO2 and turn it on. the amount of pressure you add depends on how much carbonation you want to add and the temp at which your are carbonating your mead. once you purge the air out of the keg and pressurize it you shake the keg. when you shake you should hear the hiss of gas entering the keg. keep shaking till the hissing stops. then disconnect your CO2 and let it sit for how ever long.

Buckshott00 said:

Thank you! I'm sure the procedure for how to do that is on here somewhere do you have a link? Is force carbonating similar to the systems for making pop/soda?

Click to expand...

Kegging's easy. Put it in a keg on gas for a few weeks, and voila - it's carbonated.

If you're looking to bottle carbonated mead from the keg back into bottles, then you'll need some sort of apparatus to bottle from the keg. There's plenty of resources in the kegging/bottling area.

Look at "We don't need no stinking beer gun" or search around for the BMBF (Biermuncher Bottle Filler).

If you're bottling, you'll have to decide on either 12oz beer bottles, or champagne bottles with cork & cage, as a wine bottle can either explode, or just pop the cork and ruin a bottle.

TipsyDragon said:

sorbate doesn't kill yeast. it prevents fermentation from starting. if fermentation is already going sorbate will do nothing. adding more yeast after adding sorbate is a waist of time because no new fermentation will occur.

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This is correct, thanks for setting me straight.

nealf said:

This is correct, thanks for setting me straight.

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any time

jezter6 said:

Kegging's easy. Put it in a keg on gas for a few weeks, and voila - it's carbonated.

If you're looking to bottle carbonated mead from the keg back into bottles, then you'll need some sort of apparatus to bottle from the keg. There's plenty of resources in the kegging/bottling area.

Look at "We don't need no stinking beer gun" or search around for the BMBF (Biermuncher Bottle Filler).

If you're bottling, you'll have to decide on either 12oz beer bottles, or champagne bottles with cork & cage, as a wine bottle can either explode, or just pop the cork and ruin a bottle.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm trying to use flip top bottles. I have another thread on here trying to find virgin ones for cheap online, right now I'm getting them full of sparkling juices or wines and washing them.

TipsyDragon said:

i didn't carbonate this batch. once the mead is clear enough to read through you can bottle it with some honey or corn sugar. if your using corks i would suggest looking into champagne cages to hold the corks on.

Click to expand...

You're talking about adding additional honey when you bottle right? On a scale from flat pop to alka-seltzer where does that rate on a effervesence scale?

Buckshott00 said:

You're talking about adding additional honey when you bottle right? On a scale from flat pop to alka-seltzer where does that rate on a effervesence scale?

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it depends how much honey you add. the more you add the more effervescence you will get. but be warned if you add to much the bottles may explode on you. there are plenty of carbonation calculators out there and i've seen some that give you amounts for different sugars like honey, corn sugar, table sugar, and DME.

The problem with adding honey in an attempt carbonate a sweet mead is that, in order for the mead to finish sweet you have to have had enough sugar (honey) in it during fermentation to overwhelm the yeast. Since the yeast will have died out prior to all the sugar being eaten (leaving a sweet mead) there will be no viable yeast left to eat any added honey at bottling time – therefore, no carbonation.

On the other hand, if you have less honey during fermentation, thereby leaving yeast to eat added honey during bottling and cause carbonation, the mead will be dry because the yeast will have eating all the sugar during fermentation.

I think the only sure-fire way to have a sweet, carbonated mead is with force carbonation, as other have already stated.

I'm thinking the best way to get what you want is to use a non fermentable sugar to bring the sweetness factor. However, it won't be the all honey no fillers idea that you want. Something like Lactose or Splenda added will allow you to have a sweet sparkling mead. It all depends on what you want for taste and how much you want to spend on your mead. Kegging systems can run around 200 or 300 or 500 hundred dollars for initial setup. One pound of lactose is about six bucks. So I would go with that first. You might get lucky and have a sweet mead that everyone loves.

If you are going to keg the mead you will find that the mead out of the tap is going to seem better then the stuff in the bottle. Just because you will loose some of the head pressure when you fill the bottles.