Carbonation and Mead

[stonehead]

If I want to carbonate my mead in the bottle and I keep the alcohol under 10% which I have heard I need to in order to have enough live yeast to properly carbonate has anyone ever thought of using Maple syrup instead of priming sugar? or any good insight into carbonating mead would be greatly appriciated .. Thanks

 

[issack]

you can have a carbonated mead by simply bottling it at a 1.020 gravity. and using D1118 yeast.

 

[Yooper]

you can have a carbonated mead by simply bottling it at a 1.020 gravity.

Well, you can also have a bottle bomb by simply bottling at a 1.020. That's really not a good way to have dependable carbonation.

You can use maple syrup if you'd like- I don't know the measurements for that, so someone else can chime in on that.

Once the mead is done fermenting, you can also simply add 1 ounce of priming sugar per gallon of mead to give you a carbonation level similar to beer. Make sure you use either champagne bottles, or beer bottles, because wine bottles aren't designed to hold pressure. Plastic soda bottles work, too, if you'd like to use those.

 

[issack]

I have not personally done it. But a guy in our club does it a lot. he bottles at 1.020 with no bottle bombs.. he did how ever have bottle bombs when he bottled at a 1.040. So now he sticks to 1.020.

But you are right. it really is not accurate.

 

[Yooper]

I have not personally done it. But a guy in our club does it a lot. he bottles at 1.020 with no bottle bombs.. he did how ever have bottle bombs when he bottled at a 1.040. So now he sticks to 1.020.

But you are right. it really is not accurate.

Well, I assume you can "guestimate" it by guessing the probable attenuation of your yeast. The problem comes in that usually meads will finish dry- at .990 even. So, you may have a dry, overcarbonated mead. Or, it might finish at 1.010, so you'd have a sweet undercarbonated mead. Unless, it really did finish well, and you get a dry bottle bomb. Definitely NOT worth risking, when it's super easy to let it finish and add an ounce of priming sugar per gallon.

I know that you can also prime with honey. Remember that whatever you add to prime with will ferment out, leaving no residual sweetness. Maybe some maple syrup would leave some faint residual maple flavor, but if you want maple flavor in the mead, it might be better to use some maple syrup in the must. Just my $.02.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

If I want to carbonate my mead in the bottle and I keep the alcohol under 10% which I have heard I need to in order to have enough live yeast to properly carbonate has anyone ever thought of using Maple syrup instead of priming sugar? or any good insight into carbonating mead would be greatly appriciated .. Thanks

Hi stonehead: You might find some useful info here: How to Brew - By John Palmer - What Sugar Should I Prime With? It's for beer, but as far as the carbonation goes, it should be about the same for wine; unless you're going for a champagne level of carbonation, then the amount of sugar would be slightly higher. I've seen a table/chart on how much of various sugars to prime with, including maple syrup, but I can't remember where I saw it. Seems like someone on this site posted a link to it & that's how I found it. Maybe somebody will remember & post a link for it in this thread. Sorry I couldn't remember, but at least you know the info IS out there, somewhere. Regards, GF.

 

[lapaglia]

One teaspoon of table sugar (sucrose: 50% glucose and 50% fructose) contains 4g sugar, about 2g glucose and 2g fructose.

One tablespoon high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS: 45% glucose and 55% fructose) contains 5g sugar, about 2g glucose and 3g fructose.

One tablespoon pure corn syrup (100% glucose) contains 5g sugar, hardly any fructose.

One tablespoon honey contains 17g sugar, about 8g glucose and 9g fructose.

One tablespoon maple syrup contains 12g sugar, about 6g fructose tied up in sucrose.

Just some comparisons for people. Watch the teaspoons VS the tablespoons. cane sugar and maple sugar are basically the same sweetness per tablespoon. The difference is in what kind of sugar it is.

 

[JReynolds]

I am making wine and am trying to carbonate it. I think I have the measurements figured out but I was wondering if one of the welches sparkling grape juice bottles would suffice to bottle and carbonate in.

 

[manbrandon28]

you can have a carbonated mead by simply bottling it at a 1.020 gravity. and using D1118 yeast.

Do you do something to kill the yeast or cold crash it or how do you stop it from fermenting more once you reach 1.020????

 

[Bluespark]

First, bottle in pressure approved bottles, like swing top, beer or champagne. I've done several batches of cider where I ferment to dry, allow to clear, rack onto the ferment able sweetener of choice, then bottle. Always fill a plastic pop bottle at the same time. When the plastic bottle is hard, either pasteurize the whole lot (there is a thread on that in the cider section), or put it in the fridge and drink fairly quickly.

I don't trust ec1118 not to carbonate in the fridge, I've had it happen before.

If you bottle while still actively fermenting, you will have murky wine, by clearing first you have minimal sediment.

Their is a complex traditional method that involves alowing sediment to fall into the neck, then freezing and cleaning it out, then recorking, and a way to force carbonate, neither of which I know much about.

 

[Kshock]

Yooper what is your 2 cents on carbonating with honey.?..ratio per 22oz bottle? Want some of my bottles to carb but not the whole batch.

 

[Yooper]

Yooper what is your 2 cents on carbonating with honey.?..ratio per 22oz bottle? Want some of my bottles to carb but not the whole batch.

I'm sorry- I just don't know. I've never done it and I like my mead still anyway, so I"m not planning to do it. I'm sure others have and have a good answer!

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure that this is a good answer but rule of thumb is that a pound of honey will raise the gravity of 1 gallon of water by 35 points. A pound of sugar raises the gravity of the same volume of water by 40 points. If the amount of priming sugar is one teaspoon then there are about 87 teaspoons in a pound of sugar so 1 t = 40/87 = approx 0.5 points, so to raise the gravity of mead by the same amount using honey you might need to add about 6.4 grams of honey (apologies for the change in units but ounces don't "divide" as easily as grams).

 

[Maylar]

A little over 1 oz of honey per gallon will get you 2.5 volumes of CO2 at 68°F.