Braggot question on carbonization

Bains999 · Mar 1, 2017

I have made a braggot using a Steve Platz recipe – it has a whole grain beer component that reached the desired SG. I then mixed in about 9#s of honey and pitched Go-Ferm enriched yeast and the fermentation was off to the races. I have been stirring and ‘feeding’ the must based on a reasonable SNA protocol.

The yeast used was 71B-1122 and the final computed ABV is in the rage of 10%. I am approaching the final phase – bottling and have a question.

I want some carbonization – beer taste requires a few bubbles in my view.
The braggot will have reached the end of its fermentation at about 10%.
I do not have kegging equipment.
My notion is to bottle the mead in typical beer bottles with a small amount of priming sugar as if it were a beer and let it bottle age.

Will this approach work – put differently any suggestions??

Dadux · Mar 1, 2017

You can bottle and prime mead, yes. However you might want to let the gross lees sediment and rack, then bottle. The gross lees are most lees, that are inactive or dead after the ferment. Some yeast will still be active and in suspension however.
Also i think you mean "carbonation". If you want to prime some people do it with honey but its suposedly more safe/reliable to do so with normal table sugar.
Before bttling make sure the FG is stable
Rack away from the bulk of the lees into a new carboy, add the priming sugar (you can search for a priming calculator to find the exact ammount of sugar to add), stir to dissolve it and then bottle.
You can use champagne bottles too but yes, if you carbonate, beer bottles are the most common way. If the mead is still many of us use wine bottles, but its just personal preference.

bernardsmith · Mar 1, 2017

Using grains (or LME or DME) means that your mead (braggot) will have some residual sweetness because there will be unfermentable sugars but 10% seems very sweet. Isn't that 100 g of sugar (4 oz) per liter (qt)? That said, you might consider using carbonation drops (they look like candies but are designed to prime beer packaged in bottles - and enable you to prime each bottle individually)

Bains999 · Mar 1, 2017

Thank you for taking the time to reply -- it is much appreciated.

Yes, my intention is to siphon the mead off the lees at the transfer to the secondary and again on transfer to the bottling bucket.

You are correct about my spell checker -- it was in 'green' mode and not in mead mode. Note that it is the fault of the spelling checker and not the user

Thanks again.

Dadux · Mar 1, 2017

bernardsmith said:
Using grains (or LME or DME) means that your mead (braggot) will have some residual sweetness because there will be unfermentable sugars but 10% seems very sweet. Isn't that 100 g of sugar (4 oz) per liter (qt)? That said, you might consider using carbonation drops (they look like candies but are designed to prime beer packaged in bottles - and enable you to prime each bottle individually)

mmmm not a beer brewer but i think he means 10% ABV not 10% residual sugar
The carb drops are just sugar packaged so its easy to measure right? as far as i know you can do the same with plain sugar altough its recomended to measure it in a scale. Anyway just pick your poison there xD

dingurth · Mar 1, 2017

I believe common practice for carbonating a champagne sized bottle is adding a tsp of sugar during bottling. So a little less than half that for a 12oz beer bottle, or exactly 1/2tsp if you want to use honey.

Bains999 · Mar 1, 2017

To clarify, I was indicating 10% ABV, not sugar. In other words the ABV stopped short of the potential of the yeast because it 'ran out' of fermentable sugar and I am fairly certain that it has fermented to a dry condition.

For anyone interested, http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html is a good resource relative to amounts.

bernardsmith · Mar 1, 2017

Cannot be dry, I think, because like any beer, you are fermenting grains (or extract) and so there will be sugars that saccharomyces (the yeast ) cannot ferment. These sugars are too complex for the yeast to consume: they are not sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose or maltose and so I would expect the final gravity to be around 1.010 or thereabouts (equivalent to about 4 oz of sugar in each gallon or about 2.5% sugar) - which is one reason that brewers add hops or other fruit or spices to counter-balance the sweetness of every beer. With braggot, I think the greater amount of alcohol counter-balances the underlying sweetness

Bains999 · Mar 1, 2017

Thank you bernardsmith -- your clarification is very useful.

When I said fermented to 'dry' I should have said fermented until the 'fermentable sugars ran out' or some such phrase.

I actually wanted some residual sweetness but since I had no kegging equipment I thought I would have to let it go until it was 'dry' or have bottle bombs. Your response indicated that there would be some residual sweetness. The 'beer component' of this braggot has ample hops and is dry hopped. Now I am really excited to determine how it will taste.

Thanks again.

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