Surprised by carbonation

[jkuhl]

Anyone know why my blackbriar mead might have gotten carbonated? I opened a bottle and it foamed. Nothing major, nothing explosive or gushy but there are definitely bubbles as if I carbonated it. The recipe was 2.5 lbs honey, 1 gallon water, cloves, cinnamon stick, rosehips and blackberries, I used lalbrew premium series ale yeast and it's also one of the first meads I made, started fermentation on 10/02/20 and bottled 12/05/21 after seeing an FG of 1.010 (10% ABV) twice with a week between readings. It started at 1.085. It was in fermentation for 3 months with almost no activity, still in the bottle (until now). Nothing added in secondary. I brought three bottles home after bottling, temperature here is about the same as it is in my apartment, so they only spent maybe 3-4 hours at whatever temperature my car was while traveling.

I don't mind that it's carbonated (it's not carbonated much) and in fact I might purposely carbonate the next batch, but I don't really get why it carbonated. Was it perhaps stuck and I didn't recognize it?

I will say being one of my first meads, I didn't follow a lot of best practices, or add nutrients since I didn't know about it at the time, it was a very slow ferment.

 

[CKuhns]

Yep, your FG was 1.010 and even though a week of steady readings sounds like it wasnt completely done. If you didnt inhibit, remove or kill the yeast they can very slowly still eat some of the remaining sugars.

 

[pdhirsch]

Yep, your FG was 1.010 and even though a week of steady readings sounds like it wasnt completely done. If you didnt inhibit, remove or kill the yeast they can very slowly still eat some of the remaining sugars.

+1 at 1.010 it probably just wasn't done fermenting yet. I sometimes bottle on purpose around that SG level, in order to get some carbonation -- as you mentioned.

So -- pretend that you did it on purpose, and declare victory

 

[jkuhl]

Yeah, it was otherwise delicious and the carbonation added to it.

I did however worry about it since I had a bottle in my apartment and I was 300 miles away at my parents house for two weeks and I didn't want that bottle to explode. Fortunately came home, found the bottle intact, opened it to burp it a bit, and then put it in the fridge.

Surprise carbonation is fine, but surprise exploding bottle not so much lmao.

 

[CKuhns]

Just a couple observations and general rules I live by.

When I bottle I do so in beer bottles. (They can handle some pressure)

If i want carbonation i will bottle at 1.005 SG. Then I get about 2.5 volumes of CO2 if it drops to 1.000 while in the bottle.

If i want a sweet mead "still" then i bottle, cap and immediately kill the yeast through heating to 160 Deg F.

Note-Refrigeration does slow the yeast. Some yeasts (D47 as an example) still can very, very slowly can eat the remaining sugars. (Months)

 

[jkuhl]

I'll be drinking it fast enough that any yeast activity that continues while refrigerated won't cause a problem. Lalbrew Nottingham's lower bound for temperature is 50F (10C) so it should be safe for the time being.

I'll keep in mind 1.005 for any future carbonation plans, though I might use fizz drops or other methods.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

Hah, don't believe published tempertures. I once used a yeast for soda that had a lower temp of 59F. Put it in the fridge at below 40 and had the first one wrap the cap around the opener. Other yeasts will stall out 3 degrees above the lower temp. I bought kegs because of this.