First mead questions...

[ckelly999]

Hi all,

I have my first mead sitting in a 3-gal carboy for about 8 months now and I'd like to bottle it; it's about 14% abv, I used locally produced honey and cider mulling spices to produce it. I want to bottle it now and have it ready to drink/gift by Xmas.

First question- I had been planning on putting it in wine bottles (3 gallons should give me 15-750 ml bottles); is there a standard practice for mead on bottle color and/or type?

Second question- I have also been considering naturally carbonating the mead; is there any reason I should or should NOT do this?

Thanks for all responses.

CK

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi ckelly, I will offer you an answer to your second question and that is if you prime your mead with even 1 oz of honey or sugar to a gallon of mead and cork the bottles using standard #8 or #9 corks I suspect that the build up of CO2 will be enough to pop those corks. If I were you I would use champagne type bottles, champagne caps and cages.
Others on this forum may have much better knowledge of wine traditions than I but I don't know that there is such a thing as a particular colored bottle (clear or colored) or shape for bottling mead. In my opinion, if your mead is crystal clear and has a pleasant color I would bottle it in clear glass. If the spices have added some cloudiness to it I would bottle it in dark glass. Personally, I use whatever bottles I have to hand.

 

[Matrix4b]

Something else to add here, matter of opinion. If you do prime it and the like, fermentation can start up again but you will end up with a much dryer mead. If you want a sweet mead AND carbonation then you are better off force carbing it. It's awful hard to stop the yeast once it gets going from eating all your sugar.

I believe what bernardsmith is referring to as to shape of bottle is a champaign bottle, it has a concave bell at the bottom to handle the pressure. Up to 3-4 atmospheres, I think, where as your normal wine bottle or beer bottle can only handle about 1.5 or so. Hence bottle bombs is a possibility. The bell shape can hold more pressure. But I could be wrong on the numbers

Matrix

 

[W0GWT]

Something else to add here, matter of opinion. If you do prime it and the like, fermentation can start up again but you will end up with a much dryer mead. If you want a sweet mead AND carbonation then you are better off force carbing it. It's awful hard to stop the yeast once it gets going from eating all your sugar.



I believe what bernardsmith is referring to as to shape of bottle is a champaign bottle, it has a concave bell at the bottom to handle the pressure. Up to 3-4 atmospheres, I think, where as your normal wine bottle or beer bottle can only handle about 1.5 or so. Hence bottle bombs is a possibility. The bell shape can hold more pressure. But I could be wrong on the numbers



Matrix

I think he means that the pressure will pop the cork out, unless you cage it in a champagne bottle. You can prime it and put it into beer bottles. Don't put anything carbonated in a wine bottle.

 

[ckelly999]

Thanks guys. I neglected to add, if I do carbonate it I'll use ceramic top beer bottles. I'm leaning towards not carbonating in any case.

 

[GDP]

Mead has always been a flat drink. The best way to make it carb is to force inject it ifvyou really want to go down that road. Too dangerous otherwise.

Best bottles for mead is usually clear wine bottles or swing top bottles. But it's a preference thing.