Amount of priming sugar for 1 gallon

[frogguruami]

I have a gallon of Capsumel that I am going to back sweeten with lactose or Splenda (still haven't decided) and then I want to carb it. I have never carbed a mead OR a 1 gallon batch.

How much priming sugar should I use??

 

[malkore]

OG?
FG?

is the yeast even going to be capable of carbing any sugar? sparkling meads can be a real trick to pull off.

 

[frogguruami]

OG?
FG?

is the yeast even going to be capable of carbing any sugar? sparkling meads can be a real trick to pull off.

Yeah! I guess that info would have helped. OG was 1.104, FG is 0.999

That should put the ABV at around 13.5% I used Cuvee yeast so the yeast should still be active.

 

[WyldWillie]

Any answer on this?

 

[m00ps]

This is a beer tool. but if you know the desired Vol CO2 you want it will work fine:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

[bernardsmith]

I would use about 20 g of sugar / gallon but you can do what some brewers do and that is add carbonation drops to your bottles. I believe that one "drop" primes one 12 oz beer bottle and two drops is good for a wine bottle (750 cc)

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

I would make a priming solution by bring half a cup of water to a boil, then adding 3 table spoons of sugar. Let that cool, poor it into a one gallon glass jug, rack your mead into it, then bottle it from that resulting mix. You can also add your non fermentable sugars to that boil. Ive done this with session mead before and got a nice carbonation out of it. ( I pulled these measurements from the book "True Brews")

 

[WyldWillie]

That's what I'm aiming for...priming 12 oz. Bottles of vanilla session mead. Shooting for a pseudo cream soda - ish beverage.

Thanks for the answers, I ended up using 2 oz. Of priming sugar to a cup of boiling water. I'll update this with the results if anyone is interested.

 

[bernardsmith]

Two oz of sugar to a gallon to prime seems like a lot of CO2. Brewers use twice that amount for 5 gallons of beer... what kinds of bottles and caps were you planning on using to hold back the kind of pressure that such a volume of gas will produce?

 

[WyldWillie]

It might be less...I estimated that amount. I measured by volume in a measuring cup instead of by weight.

I am using 12 oz. Beer bottles and crowning them with regular old bottle caps.

No bombs as of yet after a week in the bottle. I think I'm safe.

 

[mneilson]

I'd recommend always measuring priming sugar by weight, rather than by volume. More consistent/precise that way, and you'd have more confidence that you won't have any glass grenades.

I'd also recommend putting all your bottles in the fridge once it hits your target carbonation level, just to be safe...

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I've used honey and maple syrup to prime 1-gallon batches. Two tablespoons is usually enough; three tablespoons tends to over-carb for me, but not dangerously.

 

[m00ps]

It might be less...I estimated that amount. I measured by volume in a measuring cup instead of by weight.

I am using 12 oz. Beer bottles and crowning them with regular old bottle caps.

No bombs as of yet after a week in the bottle. I think I'm safe.

Every bottle bomb I've had has been at least a month out from bottling. Make sure to keep them relatively cool as well. The warmer beer gets, the less CO2 it can hold which builds head spressure in the bottle

 

[WyldWillie]

Thanks for the advice...I have them in the refrigerator as of a few hours ago.

I plan on keeping them there until I drink them this weekend.

If I can remember, I'll post about the results.