bubbly mead

[ambere]

I started a mead batch in the summer 08 and just bottled it in December. Just had my first glass and noticed it was bubbly! Is this normal for mead to be carbonated?

[olivesaxer]

Hi Ambre,

Just means that when you bottled it, there was still a little bit of sugar left and yeasts are doing what yeasts were meant to do... You can see the yeasts in action as you watch your airlock bubble and burp while it is initially fermenting, as well as watching the "fizz" come up the sides of your carbouy...

Yeasts will continue to chew on sugar even after you bottle your wine. The byproduct of this is both Alcohol (the good stuff), and Carbon Dioxide. This effect has been used quite often to make very tasty, interesting drinks. You probably had one on New Years Eve!

The only thing to caution you about is that pressure can build up in these bottles while the yeasts do their thing. That's why Champagne bottles have the wire "lock" on their corks and use substantially heavier, thicker glass. Too much pressure and you might have an issue with corks popping out and wine leaking, or you could have some exploding bottles to deal with.

[sequoia]

I had a surprise like this too with my last batch. The bottles of mead that I drank soon after bottling were not carbonated, but those I had saved for later were. It was an interesting effect, but I think I preferred it non-carbonated!

I find it's tricky to know exactly when to bottle it; before that I'd left a batch in the secondary fermenter a bit longer and it was not sweet at all anymore. I wonder if it's possible to have a mead that is still sweet, but not carbonated at all, even after having been bottled for a time. Any thoughts?

Sequoia

[olivesaxer]

there are ways to shock it out of fermentation, but the easiest way is to control your sugars prior to fermenting.

I prefer a completely dry product, so the easiest way for me to tell is to wait until it stops bubbling, then i know it is finished! But if you have less sugar to begin with (this is where people use hydrometers), then you will have less food for the yeasts. They will starve themselves out.

Another interesting trick is to go the opposite way. Depending on your selected yeast, they will usually die off around 14 - 16% alcohol. If you have initially more sugars than the yeasts can chomp on, the left-overs will still be in the wine, and you will have a seriously high-octane product. This can also be achieved by fermenting out your wine completely dry (bubbles stopp bubbling), and adding regular flavorless white sugar to taste.

I did a maple-syrup ferment once where I dilluted the mix too much. I fermented it dry, but the flavor was too watery for my tastes. Having not racked it off the yeasties in the mix, i just added more maple syrup and shook it. A day or so later, the bubbles were back.... after that was dry, it was a much better product.