Making braggot "Sparkle"

[Anthony]

I have 6 gallons of Ginger-Maple Stout Wheat Braggot thats ready to bottle, gravity 1.026, abv 12% and the yeast gave up the ghost, it's clear now.

I'm going to prime with a 12 oz blend of honey, maple syrup & LME (mostly honey), for 4.5 - 5 volumes of CO2. Since this braggot is still, clear and without lees, I'm thinking it should be inoculated at time of bottling.

I'm thinking EC-1118 may be the best choice to kick off a tertiary fermentation for carbonation.

Any thoughts or advice on this?

Thank's,

Anthony

[Ben Brewcat]

It never hurts to pitch a well-aged mead with some healthy priming yeast. Champagne might ferment more than the priming sugar though (with alc tolerance to/over 18%), and start into the residual sugar causing overcarbonation, but it could be OK too. Why the mix of different sugars for carbonation?

[Anthony]

Hey Ben,

After pouring the sugars in the pot, I turned the jars/cans in a funnle to collect what was left. That filled one of the 12 oz jars the honey was in.

The gravity was at 1.130 so rather then add that to the must I set it aside for priming.

Hadn't thought about the residual sugar causing overcarbonation, I should reduce the amount of priming suger.

Anthony

[Aspera]

12 ounces seems a bit much to me, and honey is rather slow to prime. Would you consider using 1/2 a cup each of honey and dextrose. I think that you'll be happy with the result. 1118 works very well with nice tiny bubbles. The 'chico' West Coast ale strain is very good as well (1056).

[Anthony]

Hey Aspera,

Thank You for the yeast tips, I knew nothing of West Coast ale 1056, I may use it for my next braggot.

I've used honey to prime every braggot/sparkling mead I've made with good results. And yes, I would consider using a 50/50 - honey/dextrose blend to prime.

Started in the hobby about 7 months ago. Still having more question then answers and lot to learn, I take advice.

I always measure priming sugar by weight rather then volume, and use this tool - http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/brew/widgets/bp.html - to calculate how much is needed, I don't like guessing.

Anthony

[Ben Brewcat]

I always measure priming sugar by weight rather then volume Amen to that. Ray Daniels weiged several volumetric samples and found (if I recall correctly) that they varied by up to 50% by weight.