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What % of carbonation to make this acerglyn

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Imperial Farms

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2018
20
0
0
New Hampshire
long story short I am not priming this recipe and I will force carbing in a keg. I used sulfates and sorbet to stabilize the mead prior to kegging. however I'm not sure what to carb it too.
looking for anyone's advice on their past experiences of what they have found.

Measured 1.176 OG
measure .999 FG
21.7% ABV - this didn't seem right, maybe I measured wrong in the beginning

5 gal water
10 lbs Wildflower Honey
5 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 packet Red Star Cote des Blancs Yeast
1 Medium Toast American Oak Spiral
64 oz (1/2 Gal) Grade B Vermont Maple Syrup
3/4 cup Corn Sugar
Directions
In a large brew pot, simmer 3 gallons of water.
Remove pot from heat and add 10 lbs honey and 32 oz maple syrup and 3 tsp yeast nutrient. Stir until fully dissolved.
Rehydrate the yeast in a sanitized cup, and cover.
Add the must to a 6 gal primary fermenter along with 2 gal cold water. Aerate it, and pitch the yeast.
Seal fermentor with airlock and store in a dark place at a temperature of about 70 degrees.
After 3 days, add 1 tsp yeast nutrient and aerate do this again after another 3 days.
After another week, add the remaining 32 oz of maple syrup and aerate.
Wait another week, then with a siphon, re-rack the mead into a sanitized 5 gallon carboy. Add the Oak Spiral.
After another 3 weeks, re-rack, then let age for 2 months.
Dissolve the corn sugar in 2 cup warm water, add to carboy, and stir lightly.
Fill sanitized bottles and let age for 4 months or more until your big celebration!
 

Stasis

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jan 10, 2014
1,123
13
38
Malta
Are you going to attempt bottling after kegging or will you be serving straight from the keg? The directions don't seem to match what you intend to do since there's mention of bottles but no mention of kegs.
Hard to tell what to do with this acerglyn. Abv seems to me to be a big factor on whether or not I want to make a mead sparkling and by how much. OG is possible but dubious. When was that OG taken? You mention adding "the remaining 32 oz of maple syrup and aerate" and you also mention adding a little corn sugar later on.
I don't know what you mean by % carbonation. Here's a chart used for kegging beers. You have psi vs temperature.
http://www.kegerators.com/articles/carbonation-table-pressure-chart.php

I wouldn't be kegging something super expensive if it's my first time. If you need this "champagne" for a special occasion and you want to serve it dry bottle conditioning serves your purposes very well. Bottling champagne for your first time is very difficult (and I could never get that champagne level of carbonation. perhaps something I did wrong) and if you do it wrong you have no champagne. If you're going to try anyway give it a try way before you actually need the bottles. If it goes wrong you can try kegging again or you can try bottle conditioning. Better yet, if you have a large enough batch you can try both methods and see which you like best. There's no clear better method for dry mead
 

Imperial Farms

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2018
20
0
0
New Hampshire
Thanks for the reply, I should have been more specific if my inquiry.

this isn't my recipe, the author was making it for a wedding, I am not. I have my own local honey and maple syrup that i am able to use and this sounded delicious.
I have altered it from what I found. it made a 5.5 gallon batch. I am currently on one of the last stages of the recipe, my final racking. I decided I would stabilize it with Metabisulfites and Potassium sorbate and I would force keg it to get the carbonation level I wanted before I'd bottle with my counterpressure bottle filler.

What I really wanted to know is if anyone has tried out the different carbonation levels on that chart. for example a lot of my beers I carb to 2.4% and my Kombucha I carb to 3%.
I didn't really want a champagne type carbonation level as I feel that may be too much, although maybe not. I was thinking I'd try a carbonation level around 2.4% and see how that felt before bottling.

Just looking for opinions if anyones tried different carbonation levels that they liked that I may be able to try.
 

Imperial Farms

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2018
20
0
0
New Hampshire
My fault for not being more specific.
I found this recipe, he was making it for a wedding toast, not sure its supposed to be champagne type carbonation though.

I decided to not use the priming sugar as directed in the recipe and keg it to control the carbonation and then fill bottles with my counter-pressure bottle filler before corking.

I was thinking that if anyone has had experience with this and has dialed in that % that would save me time with trial and error on the %. nothing worse then having something over carbonated and spending a the time to correct it.

Let me know your thoughts
I was thinking id start at a 2.4%.
 

dingurth

Worker Bee
Registered Member
May 23, 2012
489
3
18
Brooklyn , NY
Hey Imperial. I'm not sure what you mean by % carbonated. If you mean volumes of carbonation (like in Stasis' linked chart), 2.4 volumes sounds on the high side of medium. So pretty reasonable.
You'll notice in the legend of the linked chart is a key to what carbonation level goes with what style of beer, so its tough to say what exactly you'll need. It depends on your flavor profile and what you're going for, so it might take some experimentation. My only suggestion would be to start low and increase as you go until you like it.
For reference, I was going to do my session that you commented on at 2.5 volumes, which I myself took from the advice of the gotmead session podcast on 10-31-17.
http://gotmead.com/blog/gotmead-live/10-31-17-making-modern-mead-eric-lowe-meridian-hive-session-meads/

Also, be advised that standard wine bottles cannot hold a carbonated beverage. Since you'd be filling them carbed from the keg, I doubt you'd be able to cork it. Beer bottles and caps, flip tops, or champagne style bottles are necessary if you want to go from keg to bottle and keep the carbonation without bottle bombs or pushing your cork out.
 
Last edited:

Toxxyc

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Dec 21, 2017
377
12
18
Pretoria, South Africa
long story short I am not priming this recipe and I will force carbing in a keg. I used sulfates and sorbet to stabilize the mead prior to kegging. however I'm not sure what to carb it too.
looking for anyone's advice on their past experiences of what they have found.

Measured 1.176 OG
measure .999 FG
21.7% ABV - this didn't seem right, maybe I measured wrong in the beginning

5 gal water
10 lbs Wildflower Honey
5 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 packet Red Star Cote des Blancs Yeast
1 Medium Toast American Oak Spiral
64 oz (1/2 Gal) Grade B Vermont Maple Syrup
3/4 cup Corn Sugar

That recipe equates to around 1.076 as the OG. You measured wrong. That means your ABV is around 10%, which seems spot on for a mead.
 

Imperial Farms

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2018
20
0
0
New Hampshire
Hey Imperial. I'm not sure what you mean by % carbonated. If you mean volumes of carbonation (like in Stasis' linked chart), 2.4 volumes sounds on the high side of medium. So pretty reasonable.
You'll notice in the legend of the linked chart is a key to what carbonation level goes with what style of beer, so its tough to say what exactly you'll need. It depends on your flavor profile and what you're going for, so it might take some experimentation. My only suggestion would be to start low and increase as you go until you like it.
For reference, I was going to do my session that you commented on at 2.5 volumes, which I myself took from the advice of the gotmead session podcast on 10-31-17.
http://gotmead.com/blog/gotmead-live/10-31-17-making-modern-mead-eric-lowe-meridian-hive-session-meads/

Also, be advised that standard wine bottles cannot hold a carbonated beverage. Since you'd be filling them carbed from the keg, I doubt you'd be able to cork it. Beer bottles and caps, flip tops, or champagne style bottles are necessary if you want to go from keg to bottle and keep the carbonation without bottle bombs or pushing your cork out.

Thanks for the advice, I just assumed the number in the carbonation chart was % of dissolved Co2 in the liquid. thanks for the heads up on the bottles, all the comments on that recipe at meadist.com didn't mention anything about using champagne bottles, one even said hes had them bottled for over a year... interesting.
last thing I want is to ruin/lose all my mead to a bad recipe i found and lack of knowledge.

I think I will try have as a still mead and bottle those and look into champagne bottles

anyone have experience cocking champagne bottles? I have a floor corker that works great with straight corks but cant do champagne crorks
 

Imperial Farms

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2018
20
0
0
New Hampshire
That recipe equates to around 1.076 as the OG. You measured wrong. That means your ABV is around 10%, which seems spot on for a mead.

I knew I measured wrong, 10% will be much more enjoyable. where did you find the calculations for OG based off those ingredients?
 

Imperial Farms

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2018
20
0
0
New Hampshire
Hey Imperial. I'm not sure what you mean by % carbonated. If you mean volumes of carbonation (like in Stasis' linked chart), 2.4 volumes sounds on the high side of medium. So pretty reasonable.
You'll notice in the legend of the linked chart is a key to what carbonation level goes with what style of beer, so its tough to say what exactly you'll need. It depends on your flavor profile and what you're going for, so it might take some experimentation. My only suggestion would be to start low and increase as you go until you like it.
For reference, I was going to do my session that you commented on at 2.5 volumes, which I myself took from the advice of the gotmead session podcast on 10-31-17.
http://gotmead.com/blog/gotmead-live/10-31-17-making-modern-mead-eric-lowe-meridian-hive-session-meads/

Also, be advised that standard wine bottles cannot hold a carbonated beverage. Since you'd be filling them carbed from the keg, I doubt you'd be able to cork it. Beer bottles and caps, flip tops, or champagne style bottles are necessary if you want to go from keg to bottle and keep the carbonation without bottle bombs or pushing your cork out.

Glad I posted here, otherwise I may have had a very sticky situation on my hands after bottling...
I think I am going to procure some flip top wine bottles and do 50/50, still and carbed.

Thanks for the clarification of volume of Co2 - I always just assumed those number is the box were % of dissolved Co2
 

TicToc

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 30, 2017
12
0
0
This may be useful to some, comes out of the wine world, sorry I don't have the link or credentials for the source, but believe is accurate & applicable to cider & mead as well as wine. Still equals 0 to 1 volume CO2, Petillant 1.5 to 2.5 volumes & Sparkling 3.5 to 5.5 volumes. The charts previously linked in this post will provide a temperature/pressure relationship for volume. My experience is even with a counter pressure system you are actually are bottling at or very near atmosphere (i.e. the pressure is released as you move the cap into place). Bottom line difficult to obtain Sparkling level CO2, without bottle conditioning, which of course is also difficult.
 
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