For kicks, I’m planning to make a champagne mead with a target of some Belgian beer bottles that I’ve got sitting about. I think there are 6 bottles available and I’m planning to get the plastic champagne corks and some cages. This mead is very plain, just bargain clover honey and water. From instructions on prepping for a proper champagne mead, I’m taking the advice on Mead Made Complicated and targeting a 1.085 gravity for 11% ABV. According to the site, 10-11% is real nice for the bubbly because of CO2 absorption rate and restarting the yeast in pre-fermented alcoholic environments. I don’t buy the absorption rate bit because the beer process is the same with lower ABV, but I thought it would be fun to play along and try to really nail a gravity target. I hit a temperature adjusted 1.075 with my first try and moved that up a bit with sugar syrup. The starting gravity should be fairly on target when I pitch the Premier Cuvée yeast. Other than honey and sugar, only the usual suspects of citric acid and irish moss are present.
Updated: Sometimes I even amaze myself. As of pitching I’m able to get a more trustable reading. It’s exactly 1.085, how awesome is that!? I added the perfect amount of sugar syrup to the mix and guestimated just what was going on with the gravity/heat differences as I was going. Awesome.
Meadmaking
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