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jdw03n

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 11, 2010
156
0
0
Tallahassee, FL
A funny story to tell -

I got married two weeks ago. I made 375mL bottles of Peach-Ginger mead for wedding favors. I really screwed up the backsweetening when I was making this (my first attempt) and ended up with a product that tasted pretty good, but it was in the upper end of dessert wine sweet. I followed the sulfiting / sorbating instructions, there was no gravity drop over a few weeks after the backsweetening, and I was running way low on time, so I was ok with bottling it.

Opening a few bottles after the wedding, I was suprised that a few of them had bottle carbonated a bit. Not soda-esque, but certainly noticeable. Great, possibly gave out bombs for wedding gifts.

So I had a friend over last night that had gotten a bottle at the wedding, and he says "oh, by the way, your mead blew up." I thought "Oh, hell, there's 49 more bottles blowing up all over the US right now." Not quite - turns out he left it in his car....for a week....in Florida....

I asked him "So, did the bottle shatter, or did the cork blow out?" He said "Just the cork." ...which was heat-sealed in...

Don't heat the mead, man!
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
Congrats on the marriage, from a fellow newlywed!

I played it safe and made the table wine and gave out preserves as favours instead...

But I did have something very like that happen with my first batch of mead. Which I distributed as presents for Xmas that year.

I ended up making phone calls to everyone to warn them to either drink it soon or store it in the fridge...

It's all in the name of learning!!

:)
 

jdw03n

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 11, 2010
156
0
0
Tallahassee, FL
So the one-year anniversary came, and we've been getting reports back on this mead. Universally, they've been good. Only one person reported having a bottle that tasted "spoiled." About 10 people said it was the best thing they've ever tasted.

My observations were that I REALLY really screwed up the backsweetening - two or three more bottles went poof in folks' homes, but there were only isolated instances.

Going to do this one again, but I'm going to plan it a little better this time :)
 

Medsen Fey

Fuselier since 2007
Premium Patron
Don't heat the mead, man!

True words.
There's a thread over on homebrewtalk where some genius decided that the best way to make a sweet carbonated cider is to let it ferment, bottle it, let it carbonate, THEN stick it in a pot of hot water to pasteurize it. I actually contacted a moderator over there to suggest that in the interest of safety they may want to intervene with that thread, but they really didn't seem concerned. Reading the thread, folk are having capped bottles spew, and a few broken one and yet no one seems worried. I added a post pointing out the high pressures this would generate and that it can easily exceed a beer bottle's pressure tolerance, and folks there just pooh-poohed it. Someone's going to lose an eye, but I reckon you can't save people from themselves.

As for your batch, it can be tough to stabilize a sweet mead. I did post some useful info on stabilization HERE (a patron's thread) which you might want to read.
 

mmclean

Honey Master
Registered Member
Jul 22, 2010
1,135
2
38
Tennessee Valley
There's a thread over on homebrewtalk where some genius decided that the best way to make a sweet carbonated cider is to let it ferment, bottle it, let it carbonate, THEN stick it in a pot of hot water to pasteurize it. I actually contacted a moderator over there to suggest that in the interest of safety they may want to intervene with that thread, but they really didn't seem concerned. Reading the thread, folk are having capped bottles spew, and a few broken one and yet no one seems worried. I added a post pointing out the high pressures this would generate and that it can easily exceed a beer bottle's pressure tolerance, and folks there just pooh-poohed it. Someone's going to lose an eye, but I reckon you can't save people from themselves.

Medsen, you should know that you can't fix stupid!
 
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