bottling noob mead question

this is my first mead and i really have no idea what i am doing!

here's my recipe i put together on 5/4/13:

5 lbs honey
2 gallons h20
2 tsp yeast engergizer
2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet dry champagne yeast

i transfered to secondary on 6/10/13 where it currently is resting.

my questions are these:

1) can i go ahead and bottle this now?
2) i'd like to carbonate this, but how much sugar do i use?
3) are regular 12oz or 16oz beer bottles ok to use if i plan to carbonate? or do i need swing tops?
4) how long to store after bottling?

i know these are a lot of beginner questions so i appreciate any feedback. thanks!

and i'm sure the longer in the bottle, the better it's going to be!

thanks again!

Hey BurgerBrew,

Great questions! My answers may vary from others', but here you go:

1) Yes, you can bottle it now. While some people prefer to let higher alcohol meads age / condition in secondary for a little longer, it is still okay to bottle now if you choose to do so.
2) The amount of sugar will depend on the amount of carbonation you're looking for. Meads can be served flat, or effervescent. Let us know if you'd like a highly carbonated mead, or just a slight amount of carbonation?
3) Regular bottles should work fine, but if you want a high level of carbonation then the bottle might need to be "heavier duty". Now I have no idea where to get heavy duty bottles, but "bottle bombs" are not as uncommon as we'd all like them to be...
4) Store them in the bottles as long as you'd like! I would personally wait at least a month. My meads that I've done before I'll start drinking after about a month, but if the first couple are too hot / need to settle out, I'll wait another 4-6 weeks before trying another.

Hope this helps - and let us know if you have any more questions!

thanks for the warm welcome and the quick reply!

i think that a medium carbonation, aslong as the regular beer bottles could handle such, would be perfect. i've got quite a bit of bottles laying around! otherwise, i suppose a light carbonation would do.

thanks for the help!

i was planning to bottle soon, work permitting, and try to sample one around xmas, so that might work out.

BurgerBrew said:

1) can i go ahead and bottle this now?
2) i'd like to carbonate this, but how much sugar do i use?
3) are regular 12oz or 16oz beer bottles ok to use if i plan to carbonate? or do i need swing tops?
4) how long to store after bottling?

thanks again!

Click to expand...

Missing a few details about the mead before we can really answer.

1. Is it clear? Can you read through it?
2. Has the gravity been stable?

Yes Beer bottles work great. I would not use a higher amount of pressure than the original beer held. There are calcs online, but I add 3/4 tsp of sugar per bottle (12oz) and 1.5 tsp for 22oz. You don't need swingtops.

You can store it as long as you want.

I have not consecutively checked the gravity, but I will.

How would I test to read thru it? Just put a piece paper on the other side of the carboy?

It appears to be pretty clear to me, but I'll test it further.

I am at work now but I will test it when I get home.

Like a newspaper or a nutrition facts label will do fine. A lot of people rush early into bottles. Then 2 months later they post.

"HELP! Bunch of crap in my bottles. Is it ruined?"

Don't be that guy. Should look like this

Got ya! Cool, thanks for the photo! I'll move it into some more light tonight and test it out. I'll also try to take a gravity reading as well.

Thanks again!

so...i have been unable to test the gravity because i need to replace my thief and have not yet done so, but it is not very clear. atleast not nearly as clear as the above photos.

i suppose that's a sign to let it sit?

BurgerBrew said:

so...i have been unable to test the gravity because i need to replace my thief and have not yet done so, but it is not very clear. atleast not nearly as clear as the above photos.

i suppose that's a sign to let it sit?

Click to expand...

Or add finings or filter or both.....

You don't need a thief, a sanitised turkey baster works fine with a testing jar/tube and hydrometer.....

sorry for the delay guys. i got sent out on a last second job for the past week or so. i was finally able to take a gravity reading today, and once i did, it was absolutely clear and read 1.000!

i don't have time to bottle today but i plan on doing so next weekend!

i guess the next question is how much dextrose to use?
it tasted very alcoholy to me, so i'm inclined to think that some fizzy carbonation would help that out...so i guess a medium carbonation...any thoughts?

thanks again guys!

BurgerBrew said:

sorry for the delay guys. i got sent out on a last second job for the past week or so. i was finally able to take a gravity reading today, and once i did, it was absolutely clear and read 1.000!

i don't have time to bottle today but i plan on doing so next weekend!

i guess the next question is how much dextrose to use?
it tasted very alcoholy to me, so i'm inclined to think that some fizzy carbonation would help that out...so i guess a medium carbonation...any thoughts?

thanks again guys!

Click to expand...

If you use MB's numbers above, you shouldn't be far off.......

Oh got ya.

I've never added sugar to each bottle individually, do I need to boil it down first? Or just scoop it in?

Thx

I guess that was a dumb question?

Not a dumb question at all. I prefer to batch prime rather than doing each bottle individually. For my sparkling mead I use 1 oz of priming sugar per gallon. It is quite effervescent but not over carbed, to me.

As for back sweetening, a 1/4 cup of sweetener per gallon cuts down on that alcohol flavor while staying in the semi-sweet range. The biggest effect on flavor will be aging time. I have some need that is a year old now and tastes a lot better than it did 10 months ago.

Awesome! Thx for the replies!

I think I will batch prime and give it some age.

Thanks again everyone!

Yeah adding the total to the batch is actual standard convention I believe. But Mr. Beer taught me otherwise, so I've always just added to the bottles. Never had a bottle bomb so I guess I was doing it right.

Yeah, whatever works!

Marshmallow blue, when you do that, do you boil it down first, or just use standard dextrose and put it in? I'm just curious. Thx.

yeah I just put a funnel on the bottle (so it doesn't make a mess) and pour the tsp or whatever of straight table sugar in. Repeat for every bottle.

If I were going to add priming sugar to a full batch, I would dissolve it in some water first, add it, and stir well to make sure its equally incorporated before bottling.

BurgerBrew said:

it tasted very alcoholy to me, so i'm inclined to think that some fizzy carbonation would help that out...

Click to expand...

if it tasted hot ("alcoholy"), it suggests that this brew needs more time to settle out. i'd hold off on bottling for a few weeks or months, if you can. your mead still has some maturing and transforming to do, you'll get a more consistent product if you let it bulk age. if you bottle it, you run the risk of unevenness - certain bottles might age well while other might not.

MarshmallowBlue said:

If I were going to add priming sugar to a full batch, I would dissolve it in some water first, add it, and stir well to make sure its equally incorporated before bottling.

Click to expand...

it's probably a hold-over from my beer-making ways, but i prefer to boil the priming sugar in a little water and let that cool before adding to the batch.

i think that adding sugar directly to the bottle is very iffy. you're dealing with a small amount and a rather imprecise measurement tool (who has an actual 3/4 teaspoon? so instead you're guestimating how much 3/4 is...). seems like a recipe for uneven carbonation to me.

1/2 + 1/4 = 3/4, and Again I've never had a bomb, and never been able to notice a difference in carbonation between bottles.

seems rather inefficient to use two measuring spoons for each bottle, when you can measure once, mix and the whole batch is primed. but we all have different processes!

Oh I totally know its inefficient, its just a weird old habbit I have.

It also may have appeared to taste "hot" to me because I don't have much experience with mead tasting. I've had some b.nektar stuff but that's quite a bit different I am guessing.

This is is sort of an old thread at this point, but I still haven't bottled this as I've been giving it more time to clear and bulk mature.

Do any of you guys use the carbonation tablets for your meads?


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MarshmallowBlue said:

Like a newspaper or a nutrition facts label will do fine. A lot of people rush early into bottles. Then 2 months later they post.

"HELP! Bunch of crap in my bottles. Is it ruined?"

Don't be that guy. Should look like this

Click to expand...

What do you call these types of bottles. Look pretty sweet and don't have to deal with a capper.

kf

BurgerBrew said:

Do any of you guys use the carbonation tablets for your meads?

Click to expand...

are you looking to make your mead sparkling? that's a whole new kettle of fish. you need active yeast in your mead to make carbonation possible, and if you've been aging for a long time and/or you've hit your yeast's alcohol tolerance, you won't have any active yeast left. force-carbonation is the better way to go... there's a lot of information here about carb'ing mead, happy reading

but to directly answer your question: no, i don't used carb tabs because all my meads are still (uncarbonated).

Yeah, I suppose I was trying to carbonate. Didn't think of the yeast dying off...


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