Reaching high carbonation levels with force carb. method

[philbrasil]

Hi, I am into meads right now and I am considering doing a sparkling, champagne-like mead.

So my options are:
1) bottle condition it with sugar with a yeast layer on the bottom.
2) do a champegnoise method
3) force carb it.

I am afraid option 1) will give me a mead that could be cloudy if the bottle gets transported or people don´t know how to serve, so I dont want that. Knowing that option 2) is very hard and time consuming, I am left with option 3).

Now I know that meads don´t have the same protein level as beers and won´t form a lasting head. So my question is, could I force carb it to around 5 volumes and bottle it with a beergun with no problems? Is it possible to have that huge carbonation level bottling it with a beergun and have the bottle 'pop' as it does with campagne? Anyways, I will be using champagne bottles corked and caged.

[spiderwrangler]

I agree with your reservations on 1 & 2, but don't have beergun experience to speak on 3...

[siwelwerd]

I don't see why a beergun wouldn't work. You tend to lose a little bit of carbonation in the process, but not a lot. Normally I'd be concerned with foaming if trying to do that, but with a mead that shouldn't be much of a problem.

I say go for it and let us know how it goes.

[Ozwald]

I don't see why a beergun wouldn't work. You tend to lose a little bit of carbonation in the process, but not a lot. Normally I'd be concerned with foaming if trying to do that, but with a mead that shouldn't be much of a problem.

I say go for it and let us know how it goes.

+1, exactly my thoughts as well. Just let us know

[philbrasil]

Ok. You all convinced me.

Bottling is scheduled at the end of january (after one more rack + bentonite). I´ll post my experience here then..

[dstar26t]

For force carb and beer gun bottling, I would get the mead as cold as possible and keep it cold while bottling. If I'm bottling a full sixtel of beer, I put the sixtel in my old 10 gallon rubbermaid mashtun with ice water while bottling. It tends to warm up fast towards the end. It also helps to use cold sanitizer so the bottles are cold. I put the full sanitizer bucket in the fridge the day before. That all will help you keep the CO2 in the mead.

[brewinhard]

Also be sure to package your mead in bottles that can handle 5 vol or so. Typical bottles will not withstand that high of carbonation and could burst if not kept cold. Although I have bottled 4 vol in LHBS brown bottles with no problems (maybe just lucky).

[philbrasil]

Thanks for the tips guys, I´ll keep that in mind...

And happy holidays..