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Step one for us is always getting the carboy out of the crawlspace
and up unto the kitchen counter so the mead can settle. If there is
much sediment in the carboy the mead should be racked before it is
bottled, to keep as little sediment as possible from ending up in the
bottles. If the mead will be racked, start sanitizing the plastic
bucket and the racking cane first. If we want to try to sparkle the
mead we will also start boiling some corn sugar in water.
Carbon dioxide is a natural by-product of the fermentation
process. Bubble locks and blow off tubes allow the carbon dioxide to
escape, but once the mead is sealed in a bottle it can build up to
explosive levels. We have seen these glass grenades leave bits of
glass embedded in concrete.
Fermentation will stop naturally when the yeast has eaten all the
available sugar or when the alcolhol level kills off the yeast. With
a stuck fermentation neither of these conditions are true. Before we
built an insulated box to keep our fermenting carboys in, we had
problems with stuck fermentation in cold carboys. Since building the
box we have not had a problem with stuck fermentation. However, there
was one batch where added sugar to get a sparkling mead and then
forgot to stir it well. A couple of those bottles got too much sugar
and exploded.
We find that the risk of glass grenades is relatively low,
especially when compared to a delicious light, dry, sparkling mead.
So we often use yeasts with a high tolerance to alcolhol and add sugar
at bottling time to hopefully achieve a sparkling mead. Typically we
use 3/4 cup of corn sugar boiled in 1 cup of water for about 15
minutes to sparkle a five gallon batch of mead. The sugar water
will be poured into the sanitized and rinsed bucket and mead racked in
after. Did you remember to stir?
Sanitize:
Boil the caps for 15 minutes. Rinse the strainer and pour caps into strainer. Rinse racking cane and filler tube and attach filler tube to the end of the racking cane hose. Rinse bottles. Fill bottles. Cap bottles.
Wash out the empty carboy and fill it with bleach water. Cap with orange carboy cap. Store the carboy until needed. Label the bottles and store to age.
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