Back sweetening and carbonation???

[ZeroLife]

Hey all! This is my first post regarding my first mead.
Nearly a month in. Mead is in a secondary and is clearing nicely on it's own, but I'm impatient so I'll probably add some Sparkaloid this weekend.
The gravity reads .980 and the taste is ok, but I prefer a sweeter mead and want to use more honey to back sweeten. I also want a champagne level of carbonation.
Questions:
If I bring the mead up to a sweetness I like with honey, and then use corn sugar for a primer, will the yeast choose the corn sugar before the honey to produce carbonation??? I'm assuming they'll choose the easiest food source???
After I've sweetened and carbed, is pasteurization my only option for stopping the yeast from turning an otherwise pleasantly carbonated semi sweet mead into gnarly bottle bombs??? I like fireworks and things, but not in my basement.
Also, have you any experience with the Grolsch style flip caps and bottles for carbonation??? They seem like an easy solution to corks and wire harnesses...a little to easy.
Thanks everyone!
Neal

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Sweet and carbonated are near impossible to achieve without force carbing in a keg. The yeast will eat ALL sugars it can indiscriminately, and there lies the issue.

If you add enough sugar to have sweetness left over, your yeast has hit tolerance and likely won't eat added sugars. If you just add enough to carb, its not sweet.

Swing-tops should be fine for carbing if they held carbonation before.
But yeah having a carbonated and sweet mead is close to impossible without force carbing.

PS* Sparkeloid will clear your mead but it will taste better if you age it. (Clear doesn't mean aged and done).

 

[ZeroLife]

Options for force carbing???
Thank you for the information!
Cheers

 

[thedirtychemist]

You can force carb ANY liquid. Beers, meads, wines, soda, tea, milk. Etc. not that anyone drinks carbd milk.

This an inexact science. This is what I do with excellent results.

1. Refrigerate mead to about 40 degrees or lower for a minimum of 2 days. This helps flocculate suspended yeast for clarity. Lower temps also allow co2 gas to go into liquid easier.

2. Siphon on to clean and sanitized keg

3. Seal all valves appropriately. Then attach co2

4. Gas to 30 psi until you hear no more gas movement

5. Turn gas off and disconnect

6. Take keg and place in its side

7. Vigorously rock it bad and forth to slosh liquid around for 1 minute.

8. Stand keg up and gas again at 30 psi per step 4

9. Repeat step 7. Unhook gas.

10. Let keg sit upright in refrigerator for a good 8 hours. If you try to tap now, it is essentially a bottle bomb.

11. At 8 hrs, burp residual gas from keg.

12. Set serving pressure and trial

I only do it thrice and I find that I have good enough carbonation. You can do more or less.

 

[ZeroLife]

I don't have all the neat gadgets and setups yet. Haven't gotten into beer yet. The bar isn't quite finished, so I have no place for a kegging system. It's in the works though so my buds and I can :rockin: and
If the alcohol content is to high for the yeast to continue their job, I can add a bit of water to dilute the alcohol content, sweeten my brew to just passed what I want, and restart the fermentation to provide carbonation right??? Then pasteurize the concoction after bottling to halt the yeast, hopefully the sweetness will be right where I want it???

 

[fatbloke]

I don't have all the neat gadgets and setups yet. Haven't gotten into beer yet. The bar isn't quite finished, so I have no place for a kegging system. It's in the works though so my buds and I can :rockin: and
If the alcohol content is to high for the yeast to continue their job, I can add a bit of water to dilute the alcohol content, sweeten my brew to just passed what I want, and restart the fermentation to provide carbonation right??? Then pasteurize the concoction after bottling to halt the yeast, hopefully the sweetness will be right where I want it???

No I doubt that very much. Yeast needs sugars, but also nutrients/energiser, O2 for yeast development, etc......

The tolerance levels are where the alcohol levels become toxic to the strain of yeast and die off, yeast pushed too hard gets stressed and can throw off flavours, etc etc.....

It may be possible but would likely need managing to the smallest degree and on an industrial scale.

Oh and pasteurisation is mainly for dairy and other food processing, not for booze where it can affect flavour and reduce the alcohol levels....