I originally wanted a sweet sparkling mead in bottles as (unfortunately) I sold my kegging equipment years ago. I've now been reading that it's not easy to do so.
My ingredients were (4/5/19):
12 lbs honey
5 tsp DAP
Enough hot and cool water to dissolve the honey to make 5.5 gallons
Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast
The fermentation seemed slow, sped up to 1 bubble every 5 seconds for a day, and slowed way, way down again. As a home brewer, this indicated to me that the fermentation was not great, but maybe it's different with mead. I'm guessing the temp was the issue as my house has been 50-65 depending on if I've been home/ outside temp. It definitely got down to 50 some nights in my house.
Today (4/15/19): Bubbling was once every 20 seconds. Added 3 lbs blackberry puree to primary, and within an hour the bubbling is every 5 seconds. Heat has been on too since I've been home today, so I assume that's a factor.
Plan on adding another 3 lbs blackberry puree to secondary when I decide to rack.
So I want a sparkling mead. Does the sweet mead yeast mean it peters out at a certain alcohol, or a certain specific gravity? Can a sweet mead yeast start with a relatively low 1.080 gravity and ferment all the way dry, or will it finish with a relatively high SG (sweet), regardless of alcohol content?
I guess what I'm asking is can I still save this batch and make a sparkling mead via bottle conditioning? I don't care at this point if it's sweet, but can I make a dry sparkling with what I have so far?
My ingredients were (4/5/19):
12 lbs honey
5 tsp DAP
Enough hot and cool water to dissolve the honey to make 5.5 gallons
Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast
The fermentation seemed slow, sped up to 1 bubble every 5 seconds for a day, and slowed way, way down again. As a home brewer, this indicated to me that the fermentation was not great, but maybe it's different with mead. I'm guessing the temp was the issue as my house has been 50-65 depending on if I've been home/ outside temp. It definitely got down to 50 some nights in my house.
Today (4/15/19): Bubbling was once every 20 seconds. Added 3 lbs blackberry puree to primary, and within an hour the bubbling is every 5 seconds. Heat has been on too since I've been home today, so I assume that's a factor.
Plan on adding another 3 lbs blackberry puree to secondary when I decide to rack.
So I want a sparkling mead. Does the sweet mead yeast mean it peters out at a certain alcohol, or a certain specific gravity? Can a sweet mead yeast start with a relatively low 1.080 gravity and ferment all the way dry, or will it finish with a relatively high SG (sweet), regardless of alcohol content?
I guess what I'm asking is can I still save this batch and make a sparkling mead via bottle conditioning? I don't care at this point if it's sweet, but can I make a dry sparkling with what I have so far?