First batch of mead and I want to make it a sparkling. I have 2 gallons with stable gravity and crystal clear. It's been in the primary (secondary) for more than 2 months now. I'm ready to bottle but don't know the amounts of sugar I should use. I'd like to go with more honey, but since I am more than a noob at mead, whatever I'm told would be best is what I'll use. Thanks
sparkling Mead
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If you give us more details, like the SG, current gravity, and yeast strain, that may help you to get some better answers.
To calculate priming the rule is 4 grams per liter of sugar gives 1 volume of CO2. It is definitely best to go by weights when making calculations. You can estimate that honey is 80% sugar by weight. So for a 2 gallon batch (7.6 liters), to get 3 atmospheres, you'll need 12 grams/liter of sugar, or a total of 91 grams of sugar, which would be approximately 114 grams of honey.
If would be a bad idea to go higher than that unless you use Champagne bottles.
Medsen
To calculate priming the rule is 4 grams per liter of sugar gives 1 volume of CO2. It is definitely best to go by weights when making calculations. You can estimate that honey is 80% sugar by weight. So for a 2 gallon batch (7.6 liters), to get 3 atmospheres, you'll need 12 grams/liter of sugar, or a total of 91 grams of sugar, which would be approximately 114 grams of honey.
If would be a bad idea to go higher than that unless you use Champagne bottles.
Medsen
What temperature have you been maintaining for this batch? I ask because with a champagne yeast and a starting gravity of 1.078 I would have expected it to finish bone dry with a gravity below 0.995.
When you add more honey the yeast just might ferment it all, and also some of the residual sugar here causing over-carbonation.
Perhaps you can provide the rest of the details of this fermentation, including nutrients added, and other additions? Did you aerate it?
It might be wise to age it a bit longer before carbonating it.
Medsen
When you add more honey the yeast just might ferment it all, and also some of the residual sugar here causing over-carbonation.
Perhaps you can provide the rest of the details of this fermentation, including nutrients added, and other additions? Did you aerate it?
It might be wise to age it a bit longer before carbonating it.
Medsen
I had it at 74 for 3-4 weeks, then moved it to a closet and the temp rose to 80+ for some parts of the day. I added nothing other than honey and water. I aerated no more than I do beer (shake the hell out of it for several minutes at the begining.)
"Show meads", which are made with only honey, water, and yeast can be notoriously difficult, and can be agonizingly slow. If you let it sit, it just may continue to drop the gravity over the next couple of months with virtually no visible activity. You might be able to stimulate the yeast by adding some boiled yeast (perhaps a tablespoon) to see if that causes the fermentation to move along. If it is still sitting on some lees, stirring them up and racking it again to aerate them a little might help it finish. If it drops the gravity on down, then you can safely carbonate it without worry.
I don't think I would try to just add honey to carbonate this as it sits now. If it works, you may have yeast that will ferment this on down to dry. If you add enough honey to give it 3 volumes of CO2, and it ferments down to 0.994, that'll give you another 4 volumes and could raise the pressure enough to explode even a Champagne bottle (Trust me, it can be done).
You could consider keeping it still, in which case I'd suggest stabilizing with sorbate and sulfite, or let it age at least another 6-12 months (or more) under airlock before bottling.
Medsen
I don't think I would try to just add honey to carbonate this as it sits now. If it works, you may have yeast that will ferment this on down to dry. If you add enough honey to give it 3 volumes of CO2, and it ferments down to 0.994, that'll give you another 4 volumes and could raise the pressure enough to explode even a Champagne bottle (Trust me, it can be done).
You could consider keeping it still, in which case I'd suggest stabilizing with sorbate and sulfite, or let it age at least another 6-12 months (or more) under airlock before bottling.
Medsen
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