National Homebrew Club Ireland

Brewing Discussions => Cider, Perry, Wine & Mead => Topic started by: barney on December 28, 2014, 08:40:56 PM

Title: carbing mead
Post by: barney on December 28, 2014, 08:40:56 PM
Hi lads
Can I carb mead the same way as beer?
Either batch or with sugar drops in the bottle
I have aged it for a year and it is lovely stuff so want to finish it out as good as possible?
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: johnrm on December 28, 2014, 09:34:11 PM
Is mead carbed?
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: johnrm on December 28, 2014, 09:38:30 PM
Just googled, seems to be down to personal taste.
Yes, this should be possible in the same way as beer, what is your ABV? Your yeast might be knackered.
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: barney on December 29, 2014, 08:37:17 PM
Hi thanks for the response it's 12% and the yeast is probably knackered alright.
It was champagne yeast. But there is no activeity. In a while but it's so slow you cant be sure it on yeast since 25 Dec 2013.
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: johnrm on December 30, 2014, 01:17:38 AM
Simplest is to force carb.
Otherwise batch carb as normal seeing as you have already used champagne yeast.
Check the tolerance of the yeast first.
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: barney on December 30, 2014, 11:03:20 AM
Yes think I will batch carb thanks
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: Will_D on December 30, 2014, 11:15:41 AM
As always recommended:

Fill a 500 ml Lucozade bottle with the same mix then you can watch and feel it carb up or not!
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: Bzfeale80 on December 30, 2014, 02:15:03 PM
iirc when i used champagne yeast in mead it finished at around .990 sg. you may need to use a little yeast with the priming sugar to get it carbed. wills idea with lucozade bottle is good too. what was your final gravity?
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: johnrm on December 31, 2014, 12:49:36 AM
What gravity did the batch end up at? What volume of mead are we talking here?
It would be worth carbing a single bottle per Wills suggestion rather than committing the entire batch.
Title: Re: carbing mead
Post by: barney on January 04, 2015, 07:05:07 PM
Hi
Gravity of 25 ltr is  118
Gravity of other 6 ltr is 110 they were both treated the same way
The 25 ltr tastes lovely the 6 is too strong it will be mixed I think with the big batch