Living Dangerously

[Evergreen]

Hi I'm new to the thread. Currently my favorit brew is a sparkling mead. However, I don't have a keg set up to force charge my brew with CO2. So I've been letting it ferment to finish, then add a little sugar before bottling.

However, I've been trying to make a sparkling sweet mead. Using this method essentially requires me to add sugar in excess of what will ferment. But then I'm never quite sure when the fermentation will stop. And I'm a little worried about blowing up bottles. Currently if I think the brew is bcoming too carbonated I invite a lot of friends over to finish off the batch, but I would like to be able to hold onto some of these bottles longer.

Any advice for a non-keg-owning brewer to make a sweet sparkling mead?

 

[McKBrew]

Can't help you with the mead, but I can welcome you to HBT. Good luck on all of your brewing endeavors.

 

[Revvy]

Hi I'm new to the thread. Currently my favorit brew is a sparkling mead. However, I don't have a keg set up to force charge my brew with CO2. So I've been letting it ferment to finish, then add a little sugar before bottling.

However, I've been trying to make a sparkling sweet mead. Using this method essentially requires me to add sugar in excess of what will ferment. But then I'm never quite sure when the fermentation will stop. And I'm a little worried about blowing up bottles. Currently if I think the brew is bcoming too carbonated I invite a lot of friends over to finish off the batch, but I would like to be able to hold onto some of these bottles longer.

Any advice for a non-keg-owning brewer to make a sweet sparkling mead?

2 options are stopping fermentation yourself (with I believe a camden tablet, or potasium metabisulfite, I get them mixed up) and backsweetening with more honey.

Or adding a nonfermentable sugar like lactose to get the added sweetness..

Welcome to hbt

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Bottle several small beer bottles for testing, and test one bottle each day after bottling. Once the desired level of carbonation is reached, put your bottles in the refrigerator which will cause the yeast to go dormant and halt CO2 production. Don't wait too long before you put them in...or BOOM!