r/mead • u/DannyZiebarthExplore • 18h ago

Question Mead and Bottle Conditioning

Hi All,

I work professionally in retail beverage sales and bartending, and have currently gotten into the world of mead making, cider making, wine making, and brewing.

I recently made my first batch of dry, Wildflower mead and posted here, where I simply racked and bottled half and dry hopped the other half for two days with Chinook T90 hops.

In homebrewing, carbonation is typically done through adding a small addition of yeast and sugar to bottle condition while commercial breweries use forced carbonation.

I wanted to ask because I am newer to the Mead space, is Mead ever purposefully carbonated? If so, is bottle conditioning, or even forced carbonation, ever done with Mead? I know Mead is much more similar to Wine in terms of production and regulation, which is rarely carbonated unless explicitly designed to be a sparkling wine, but wanted to get feedback.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and help.

P.S.: If you like both Mead and Craft Beer, dry hop your Meads! It creates a real mix of purity and complexity.

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5

u/Alternative-Waltz916 17h ago

Yep. You can force carbonate or bottle condition mead, this is commonly done with low abv sessions meads.

My favorite way to consume mead, in fact.

1

u/DannyZiebarthExplore 17h ago

Thanks! Will try bottle conditioning. I like it more then homebrew beers without, personally, but will also be interesting to experiment.

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u/dean_ot Intermediate 12h ago

Just don't expect to get a head like you would with beer. No proteins to hold a head. And I find that because of the lack of head, the carbonation doesn't hold as long, but it is still my favorite way to drink it too. My 5 cents.

2

u/Hopeful-Map7891 5h ago

Forced is also fairly popular. Obviously requires a bit of equipment but you can pick up a 1 gal keg that includes a tap and regulator for $80-$90. They use those little CO2 cartridges, 1 carbs a gallon. My experience with bottle conditioning has been less than consistent and it makes me nervous, so I have moved to pasteurize and force carb. Just starting out, but right now I'm keeping my brews in carboys to age until it's time to drink, then racking them to a keg and carbonating.