On the 6th Day

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
That's a whole 'nuther process called sparkling, and can only (as far as I know) be safely done on a completely dry mead (which means these all might still be fermenting, especially that orange blossom which is very sweet. Could you please post those again with their original gravities as well and how long they have been fermenting so we can see if any are stuck?).

What you do is let this age and clear for a while then you're going to add a pre-measured amount of sugar/honey into the must right before you bottle. Some people at this time also pitch a new packet of yeast (don't use goferm on it though, just rehydrate it). Then you absolutely have to use a strong bottle, either a beer or champagne bottle, a regular wine bottle cannot take any pressure - what kind of bottle you use will depend on how much sugar you added, this is something you'll want to study extensively before attempting. Over a period of time after bottling the yeast will eat all the sugar you added, which will create CO2 and pressurize the bottle, thus giving you bubbles! (You have to either use crown caps or champagne corks wired down, or the cork will just shoot out)

It should be mentioned that this is perfectly safe if you know how much sugar to add for how much you want it carbonated (often measured in atmospheres) and what bottle to use, and you start with a completely dry mead so that the results are predictable. Otherwise you could get what are literally bottle bombs that can do serious damage to yourself and your property.

I'd recommend doing some searches on "sparkling" "bottle conditioning" and "priming" to get started learning about this. I've only done it a few times myself, so I'm no expert on it.
 
1/1/10 Star Thistle SG 1.100 today SG 1.002 Champagne Yeast
1/30/10 Killer Bee SG 1.094 today 1.024 D-47 Still Bubbling
2/1/10 Orange SG 1.106 today 1.030 Champagne Yeast still bubbling
Wild Flower SG 1.106 today 1.004 Champagne Yeast
Raspberry SG 1.106 today 1.000 Champagne Yeast

Was planning on racking the raspberry, wild flower and star thistle to get them off the lees. Seeing how the orange and killer are still brewing I was going to give them a week or two more.
 
You have one potential problem. The is Pasteur Champagne yeast, which only has an alcohol tolerance of 14-15% ABV. You've started these batches with gravity to generate about 14% ABV so you may or may not get carbonation if you add more honey. Most of these batches have not gone completely dry (with gravities below 1.000) so carbonation in this case is not a sure thing.

Ideally if you want a carbonated result, you use a yeast such a EC-1118 (Premier Cuvee) or DV10 and keep the ABV in the 12% range, and makes sure it goes completely dry. Then add the amount of fermentable sugar (by weight) to get the carbonation you want. This approach is safest and gives the most consistent, and predictable results.

The good news is that if it doesn't carbonate, you will be left with a sweet result.
 
Well that is very cool and will definitely try that on my next few batches.

I was also wondering if i rack these can I filter them through some cheese cloth to keep the lees out or is there a better method?
 
Cheese cloth won't catch much, unless you have some large fruit chunks. Most racking canes have a cap thing on the end that causes the fluid to be sucked from around the top of the cap, so you just rack from above the lees trying to avoid distrubing them, at least until the very end. Sometimes some gets sucked through, or there is still yeast in suspension, so you end up having to rack a few times (usually seperated by weeks or months) before you totally get rid of them.