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Priming Sugar

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hepcat

hepcat

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Feb 7, 2012
282
4
18
Central Florida
So, I have a gallon I've been bulk aging for about 2 months and I intentionally have not added any stabilizing chemicals so I can make some sparkling mead with it. I am ready to bottle.

My questions are:

What do you use/is your preference for priming sugar?
Do you just use the honey you used to make the batch or some other kind of sugar?

And, do you add any yeast at this point to ensure fermentation in the bottle?

Thanks, as always, for your input!
 
With beer I've always used corn sugar. I've never added any yeast -- seems to me that's just begging for Bottle Bombs.

I'm curious to see what The Hive Mind recommends for sparkling mead...
 
I mostly use either corn sugar, honey, or corn sugar and honey for priming. I have added yeast at bottling, but only if it has been aging a long time, and then usually use the same yeast that was used to ferment it out.
 
Yeah, adding yeast at bottling time only risks sediment, the risk of bottle bombs only comes from adding too much sugar. If it's only been in secondary a couple of months, I'd assume there's enough yeast left in suspension to do the job, but much longer than that and I'd add a bit of rehydrated yeast (either whatever yeast you used initially or something like K1V or EC-1118 with a kill factor and a high tolerance) with my priming sugar, whatever it happens to be.

I would tend to add whatever honey I used in the recipe because I know it will work well with the flavours. I think you want to use approximately 1 cup of honey per 5 gallons.
 
OK thanks Skunkboy and Chevette Girl. It's really not been aging quite two months so hoping there is still viable yeast in it and don't plan to add any more. I'll use the honey I made the batch with. Newbee guide says to use 2.5 T priming sugar per gallon. Wish me luck. I'm bottling into champagne style bottles with the plastic champagne corks and wire hoods. Using that tool (for the first time) to twist on the wire hoods should be interesting.
 
Neato! When I finally do a sparkling batch that's not coolers destined for beer bottles, I've been collecting bottles from carbonated fruit juices for years... nowhere near as pretty as champagne bottles with the proper corks and cages... Do you have actual cork corks or plastic ones? I always wondered how the corker for those cork ones works. I suppose I could always look it up on da internets, I'm sure someone's posted it on youtube :p
 
Chevette Girl said:
Neato! When I finally do a sparkling batch that's not coolers destined for beer bottles, I've been collecting bottles from carbonated fruit juices for years... nowhere near as pretty as champagne bottles with the proper corks and cages... Do you have actual cork corks or plastic ones? I always wondered how the corker for those cork ones works. I suppose I could always look it up on da internets, I'm sure someone's posted it on youtube :p
Click to expand...

I have the plastic champagne bottle corks and they seem to have worked. I didn't have any trouble putting on the wire hoods either. I bottled into two champagne style bottles I bought at my LHBS and one other used champagne bottle and two flip-top beer style bottles. All three champagne bottles were 750mL. And I'm drinking the second glass of the dregs(that were pretty clear) and it tastes great! Guess I'll have some carbonated sparkling mead in a couple of weeks.
 
The mead looks so still in the bottles this morning, no bubbling or any activity at all. I guess it takes a couple of weeks.
And no bottle bombs yet, lol.
 
I've never really seen any action in the bottle when I've carbonated. Just leave it sitting there for a couple weeks and then crack open one of the flip tops.
 
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