Back-Sweetening + Carbonating

[Malt-Forward]

Hi all,

I'm finishing up my first-ever mead right now (a metheglin with ginger and nutmeg), and wanted to carbonate it lightly before bottling. I think I've gotten myself into a bit of a checkmate, though.

Basically, the mead finished with a nice flavor, but is way too acidic/tart. I hit it with some potassium sorbate last week so I can back-sweeten it with some honey, but now I'm wondering how I'm going to carbonate it. Since I've stunned the yeast with the K-sorbate, I figure I'll need to re-yeast at bottling. But ... re-yeasting at bottling will just dry out the mead again as it eats the new sugars I've added, won't it? ... That, or create bottle rockets (?).

So what do all of you do if you find yourself in a situation in which you have to back-sweeten your meads before carbonating? Do you pasteurize your bottles after bottling? Or do you just back-sweeten and forget about carbonating that particular batch?

Any advice/suggestions are most welcome. Cheers!

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Yes, it will ferment dry and/or blow your bottles up. You can carbonate a mead and back sweeten, but you need to do it one of these 2 ways.

1. Force carbonate with a kegging set up.
2. Backsweeten with artificial sweeteners and not stabilize, then bottle carbonate as normal.

In your boat, since you've already stabilized and added ferment-able sugar. Kegging is the only way to go.

 

[Briatta]

Yes, it will ferment dry and/or blow your bottles up. You can carbonate a mead and back sweeten, but you need to do it one of these 2 ways.

1. Force carbonate with a kegging set up.
2. Backsweeten with artificial sweeteners and not stabilize, then bottle carbonate as normal.

In your boat, since you've already stabilized and added ferment-able sugar. Kegging is the only way to go.

I'm still new to all of this so forgive me, but why is pasteurizing the bottles not an option?

 

[revjester]

I'm still new to all of this so forgive me, but why is pasteurizing the bottles not an option?

What are you thinking of doing to pasteurize? Treating with heat to kill the yeast? Ok, at what point and how would you go about it considering the desire to both sweeten and carbonate? To carbonate you need live yeast eating sugar inside a closed bottle. Lets say that you have even figured out the exact amount of sugar/honey to add for the sweetness and the carbonation you want and solved the perfect time to kill the yeast. (That has not been done yet.)

If you heat the bottle you would increase the pressure of a bottle that is already under pressure and increase the chance of a bottle bomb. If you remove the cap/cork to relieve the pressure, the CO2 escapes and you lose the carbonation you wanted. Heating will cause the alcohol to evaporate first and not a good idea to have alcohol vapor near a heat source. You will lose or at least change the flavor.
I am not saying it is impossible, but there are more problems than answers.

 

[ong]

Bottle pasteurizing works pretty well. It helps to have a control batch in plastic so you can tell when it's ready (when the bottle firms up). I've done it with ciders a few times, never with mead. There's a good sticky about it in the cider forum. I don't know much about mead -- will pasteurizing mess with the delicate aromatics too much?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/