Beekeeper wants to make mead

[Wildeman]

Hey, I have several hives of bees and I home brew partial grain beer. I would like to make some mead that has the C02 level of beer. Any advice, I don't want it too dry and I think I would like it a little sweet.
Thanks

 

[Arpolis]

If you are bottle priming and letting the mead carb in the bottle it is hard to not get a dry mead unless you bottle pasteurize. This is because honey is 100% Fermentable. Here is a link to a great thread on pasteurizing:

pasteurizing

So since you have your own bees then I would do a good traditional at an OG of about 1.07. Let it ferment dry then once completely clear raise the gravity back up to 1.016 and bottle check carbonation every 12 hours or so and pasteurize when ready. Let that age in the bottle for another 6 months and then enjoy.

A recipe could look like:

1 gallon

2lb honey (more or less to get you to 1.07 gravity)
Spring water to one gallon (go ahead and spend some money on really nice good tasting water)
1tsp yeast nutrient (DAP)
1/2 tsp yeast energizer (any tan colored powder nutrient)
Yeast (lalvin 71b is good for producing good young meads)

Also check out the thread:

mead basics

And look up the staggered nutrient additions. That will be important in a good traditional.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

As stated above its hard to have a sweet + carbed mead unless you can force carb it with a keg. If you have a kegging set-up, it will be easy as pudding. Make a mead as you would. Stabilize it, and force carb it in the keg.