I have produced mead for 4 years now I believe. My typical aging process has been primary, 2-3 months to secondary. sit for 1 year. Bottle. Wait a year, drink. Obviously I have not carbonated any, though I tried once and I am preparing to try again but I would like solid advice on this. The meads aging currently are in secondaries and were all started in 2015. I have a sweet, medium, dry, melomel, and metheglin - all waiting to be bottled.
The one time I tried to carbonate the mead was dry, about 13% and 0.997. A year old. I corn sugar primed and put into champagne bottles with tie downs. waited 6 months. Nothing was carbonated AT ALL. I wont say what I did with the batch but lets just say it didnt stay in champagne bottles but rather moved into a copper... hmmm. ya. I like brandy.
I brew beer (started a year ago) and have become familiar with priming more than I was - but that mead experience still vexes me. Am I willing to bottle 30 gallons of 2 year old mead (with honey from my own apiary) without more advice or secure knowledge that whatever system I use will work? I think not. A bit of help would be greatly appreciated. Ill pose the questions.
1: if I try bottle priming / carbonating again - I have read I will need to add yeast, and also read I dont need to. Which is it? Most of my meads are 11-14% and were fermented with EC1118, KV-1116, or Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast. Obviously anything I bottle condition will be dry (.998 or less). But they have been in carboys for 2 years. Primary, secondary, and even a 3rd after I was satisfied that they were clear and wanted to put into a clean space for long term aging.
2: If I choose to not bottle prime (which given my first failure, this is ideally what I would like to do), what should I use? I have read about this Fizz Giz but it looks great for soda, not for meads in champagne bottles. I have read about kegging and bottling but I have only seen references to exact setups related to beer. And I keep seeing "dont do this because its too expensive". I have the means to spend some cash on kegging systems so unless we are talking thousands, it doesnt bother me. I want it right. I want it to work.
3: Lastly - I plan on using the same system for carbonating cyser / hard cider I intend on producing this fall and will likely bottle in a year or two. Never done hard cider before. Any major pitfalls given I have done beer / wine / mead for a few years? Acid, yeast, etc. Will cider / cyser need to age 2+ years before I bottle as well?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The one time I tried to carbonate the mead was dry, about 13% and 0.997. A year old. I corn sugar primed and put into champagne bottles with tie downs. waited 6 months. Nothing was carbonated AT ALL. I wont say what I did with the batch but lets just say it didnt stay in champagne bottles but rather moved into a copper... hmmm. ya. I like brandy.
I brew beer (started a year ago) and have become familiar with priming more than I was - but that mead experience still vexes me. Am I willing to bottle 30 gallons of 2 year old mead (with honey from my own apiary) without more advice or secure knowledge that whatever system I use will work? I think not. A bit of help would be greatly appreciated. Ill pose the questions.
1: if I try bottle priming / carbonating again - I have read I will need to add yeast, and also read I dont need to. Which is it? Most of my meads are 11-14% and were fermented with EC1118, KV-1116, or Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast. Obviously anything I bottle condition will be dry (.998 or less). But they have been in carboys for 2 years. Primary, secondary, and even a 3rd after I was satisfied that they were clear and wanted to put into a clean space for long term aging.
2: If I choose to not bottle prime (which given my first failure, this is ideally what I would like to do), what should I use? I have read about this Fizz Giz but it looks great for soda, not for meads in champagne bottles. I have read about kegging and bottling but I have only seen references to exact setups related to beer. And I keep seeing "dont do this because its too expensive". I have the means to spend some cash on kegging systems so unless we are talking thousands, it doesnt bother me. I want it right. I want it to work.
3: Lastly - I plan on using the same system for carbonating cyser / hard cider I intend on producing this fall and will likely bottle in a year or two. Never done hard cider before. Any major pitfalls given I have done beer / wine / mead for a few years? Acid, yeast, etc. Will cider / cyser need to age 2+ years before I bottle as well?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
