braggot not carbonating ?

[bernardsmith]

I made a batch of braggot (my first ever) and I bottled it about two weeks ago after adding about 3 oz of sugar for the 3 gallons of braggot. The honey had fermented and aged many months but the beer I made and added to the honey only in the month or so before I bottled. I assumed that there would be enough active yeast in the beer to ferment the sugar I used to prime the braggot in the bottling bucket.

Typically, when I make cider it takes two weeks to carbonate. Should I expect to have to wait significantly longer for the carbonation to fully take place? There was SOME evidence of carbonation (the sound when I opened bottle and a kind of vapor rise from the open bottle, some bubbles in the braggot but no head. Is this a failed carbonation or am I expecting the works too soon?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Two weeks should be okay. Where have you been storing the bottles the last two weeks? If they were stored in the fridge, the yeast may be working much slower. If they were stored room temp, they should be carbed by now. How long did you leave the barely carbed bottle in the fridge? If it's there for at least a day it should give the CO2 enough time to dissolve into the braggot from the head space.

The only other think I can think of would be yeast viability. What ABV was the mead you added it to, and I guess more importantly what was the ABV of the blend. It may be too high an ABV to have the yeast go for it.

 

[bernardsmith]

I think the yeast is still viable. The room temperature is around 60, but I think the issue may be the gravity of the braggot. The honey fermented to about 12 percent ABV and I created a high gravity beer to try to maintain the gravity of the mead. I wonder if the gravity of the braggot may be inhibiting the carbonation.