ruined batch

I had a batch of cyser referment after being bottled. I back sweetened after campden and sorbate with juice. What happened? All corks pushed out.

It sounds like it started fermenting again. If you provide the full details of the recipe including yeast strain, gravity, and so forth, you may get better answers.

more info needed, yes.

but also we need timelines. cool fermentation temps in the winter leaves CO2 in the mead. corking (especially synthetic corks) a lightly CO2 infused mead can pop the corks back out, especially as the temperature warms up.

you don't hear about degassing mead much since the 'normal thing to do' is a long secondary which gasses off the CO2. but if you get a pretty fast and clear primary, you can get carb'd mead in the bottles still.

Its not 'ruined' unless it tastes noxious!

One more thing - if any bottles still have the cork in them, please handle them with care and place them in a cold refrigerator to reduce the chance of a bottle explosion. If you don't have a cold place for them, cover them in a 5-gallon bucket or some other container that will not be harmed by flying glass.

The recipe was the autum spiced cyser from the "complete mead maker". I think I used red star champagne yeast if I remember right and I did add juice after stabilizing. Malkore may be right about degassing, the conditions were as he stated. There was some sediment in the bottles that made me think that it refermented,but that could just be sediment I guess.

Zadig-

RS Champagne has a very high ETOH tolerance. Timelines, info on nutrient use and gravities (start, rack, bottling) will be critical to making any kind of educated guess as well.

Sorbate won't stop a fermentation that hasn't actually ceased. Adding more juice at bottling to a high-ETOH-yeast fermented mead would explain pushed corks.

Ken

Thank you very much Mr. Schramm. That answers a few questions. I did save a few bottles with flip top lids. They taste pretty good at this point, a little age should do them well.