Bottle Conditioning

[Insomniac]

At the start of this week I bottled by raspberry mead, which is supposed to be carbonated. It's a 5 litre batch, I added 60g sugar and bottled in plastic. Should I be able to see activity? How long does it take to carb up a bottle when the wine was cleared? Or will I have to reopen and add some yeast to each bottle?
I plan on leaving them another few weeks before acting but not sure what I should expect.

 

[Dicky]

I'm not sure, but it think it takes longer than a week. I've read hat ut taks as much as a month.
I've only every bottle carb'ed once, and it was by accident. That took about 2 weeks.

I wouldn't add yeast. Just be patient and wait until your bottles are newly-bought-bottle-of-coke hard to press, then pasturise.

Also, I wouldn't age it for too long in plastic.

Dicky

 

[WIP]

Open one in three weeks (from bottling) and see if it is carbed. If it isn't, add two or three grains of yeast to each bottle and let it sit for another three weeks. If it isn't at least somewhat carbed by then, it won't carb. Did you use sorbate or kmeta? Those may make this difficult.

 

[Insomniac]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. I didn't stabalise at all and backsweetening was with xylitol so I don't need any residual sweetness and the amount of sugar added the bottles should be able to take so shouldnt need to pasturise at all.

I was planning on waiting at least 3 weeks before doing anything anyway, interesting you say 3 grains of yeast, is that really all it takes?

 

[Blanchy]

The yeast will multiply in the bottle. Three weeks is pretty much the standard amount of time for bottle conditioning, but it can take longer for meads or wines with a higher alcohol content.

 

[WIP]

You also have to realize that each grain of yeast is dozens of yeast cells.

 

[BeerEagle]

You also have to realize that each grain of yeast is dozens of yeast cells.

More like thousands, if not millions.