Can you age without bottling?

rogermugs · 01-19-2012, 06:44 AM

I'm on my third and fourth batch of mead... and had a bottle bomb on batch two... so i'm a bit skittish even though I'm fairly certain the fermentation is complete (it's been like 6 months - I left home for a while and came back).

I'm curious if there is any way for the mead to age well without bottling. What is it that the bottling really does? Is it just keeping the air out? And if so, why doesn't mead age well in an airlocked carboy?

Any suggestions? I can drink it un-aged... but I'm not a huge fan.

cgenebrewer · 01-19-2012, 06:51 AM

I have never heard that mead does not age in a carboy.

Think of it from the mead's perspective. Being in a bottle and carboy are the same situation. Many people seem to have the belief that smaller quantities of beverage, be it mead, wine or beer, will "age" faster than larger quantities. As far as I know, this is false.

What dictates how a wine ages is temperature, temperature flux, and headspace. If you notice, those three things affect both bottles and carboys. Basically, bottles are just mini carboys, and carboys are just huge bottles.

Most people age in bottles because they want to free up expensive glass carboys for the next batch!

tl;dr, there is no difference between carboy and bottle aging.

Brew_Force · 01-19-2012, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cgenebrewer

tl;dr, there is no difference between carboy and bottle aging.

Unless the headspace difference is excessive. In a bottle, you add back some sugar, wait for a co2 purge, then cap. Percentage wise, headspace is usually much lower in a bottle, and it ages more well.

I do agree with your post though, don't get me wrong. Just trying to add some clarification for the OP.

cgenebrewer · 01-19-2012, 07:38 AM

Agreed, agreed, it all depends on how you top off carboys or how far you fill bottles.

gratus fermentatio · 01-19-2012, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogermugs

I'm on my third and fourth batch of mead... and had a bottle bomb on batch two... so i'm a bit skittish even though I'm fairly certain the fermentation is complete (it's been like 6 months - I left home for a while and came back).

I'm curious if there is any way for the mead to age well without bottling. What is it that the bottling really does? Is it just keeping the air out? And if so, why doesn't mead age well in an airlocked carboy?

Any suggestions? I can drink it un-aged... but I'm not a huge fan.

Sure, it's called bulk aging, I do it all the time, works great as long as you do things right. Don't age on the lees. Keep it topped up. Keep it under airlock. Sulfite when racking. I've bulk aged meads & melomels for a few years with great results.
Regards, GF.

rogermugs · 01-19-2012, 01:01 PM

wonderful
thanks everyone.

i guess i just was under the impression this wasn't kosher... but didn't know why.

truckjohn · 01-20-2012, 02:00 PM

Yep - the advantage of bulk aging is that when you do finally bottle - each bottle will taste more consistent than if you bottle earlier.... where if you bottle early - you may notice differences in flavor from bottle to bottle depending on where and how they aged...