Kegging mead to be served in 3 days

[scott_m]

Hi there,

I have 10 gallons of mead that I would like to serve carbonated at an event this Sunday evening (July 6th).

- I am interested in backsweetening a little bit... is it just a matter of adding some campden tablets to the mead, then adding the honey? If delay the time to serve it on Sunday then I probably won't bother.
- I am brand new to kegging. I have the gear to serve 2 kegs.
- I don't think I'll be able to chill the mead. It is most likely going to be served at whatever the ambient temperature is (mid 70s...?) That being said I am not concerned about the serving temperature.
- I want the mead to be anywheres from slightly carbonated to moderately carbonated... I guess between 1.5-2 volumes of CO2? Just using this table to give me an idea


How do I go about being able to force carbonate the mead so that it is ready to drink on Sunday? Is this possible? I am reading some articles that say it still takes a week? The opportunity to keg just came recently to me, so I am a bit unprepared in terms of knowledge and I could really use some help here before Sunday. Thanks!

 

[hezagenius]

This works better when the liquid is chilled.

To force carb, you set the psi pretty high on the regulator, 30psi seems to be common. Hook up the gas line to the keg, but not the liquid line. Make sure the pressure relief valve is closed and it is sealed up. Put the keg on the floor sideways and rock it back and forth for 10 minutes. Set it upright again. Turn off the gas and disconnect the gas line. Carefully pull the relief valve to vent all the excess CO2 in the headspace. Give a small tug at first to make sure mead isn't going to erupt out of the valve. Get all the excess CO2 out. Now dial down the psi to serving pressure and hook it back up to the keg. It should be carbed now. Let the CO2 stay connected to maintain pressure.

I've never done this for a room temp beer so I don't know how well it will hold its pressure at room temp but you can give it a try.

 

[Yooper]

Campden doesn't kill wine yeast, so adding campden won't do anything to stop fermentation from recurring. Generally, a clear mead is racked onto sorbate and campden (sorbate works better in the presence of campden), and then a few days later it is sweetened. You won't have enough time for that, I don't think.

Keeping it cold means it wouldn't referment, but that doesn't sound possible either so I'm not sure which way to go here.

You can probably have it carbed up in a couple of days, but it will be foamy I think at warm temperatures.