How To Secondary with only one carboy?

Hey,
I want to run something by you folks before I make an expensive mistake. I've got a three gallon cherry vanilla mead going right now. Started it in a six gallon bucket. After a couple of weeks I moved it to a 3 gallon carboy.

A month later and it's still bubbling, albeit quite slowly. The lees have been building up for a while and I think it may be time to transfer it off the lees.

My thought is to carefully transfer it to a 5 gallon bucket, clean the 3 gallon carboy then put it back in the glass carboy to age another month or so. I would of course be careful to add as little oxygen as possible with the transfer.

The other option is to wait up to another two weeks till it stops bubbling, then bottle it.

What do you think?

groundling said:

Hey,
I want to run something by you folks before I make an expensive mistake. I've got a three gallon cherry vanilla mead going right now. Started it in a six gallon bucket. After a couple of weeks I moved it to a 3 gallon carboy.

A month later and it's still bubbling, albeit quite slowly. The lees have been building up for a while and I think it may be time to transfer it off the lees.

My thought is to carefully transfer it to a 5 gallon bucket, clean the 3 gallon carboy then put it back in the glass carboy to age another month or so. I would of course be careful to add as little oxygen as possible with the transfer.

The other option is to wait up to another two weeks till it stops bubbling, then bottle it.

What do you think?

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Even if it stops bubbling in two weeks you will not want to bottle. You will want the mead to no longer be fermenting and to be clear, degassed and no longer dropping sediment before you even consider bottling. I typically see 2-3 rackings over six months before I even consider bottling; though I bulk age for another six months. Makes a huge difference.

But, to answer your question: you can definitely rack your mead to a clean, sanitized primary and transfer back to now clean, sanitized carboy with no fear of oxidizing it. Just take care not to splash rack it, make sure the mead is transferred into bottom of containers, not the walls, and avoid letting it 'fall' into the bottom. Many people who do not have extra carboys available like to keep a basic plastic water bottle on hand for this, the interim transfer; because just in case you have a delay you can slap an airlock on water bottle and promptly transfer it to your glass/BetterBottle carboy once your reason for delay has been resolved. I do the exact thing when I do not have an empty carboy and no wine has oxidized.

Thanks. You gave me more info than I asked for, but clearly needed. I love this forum!

Saramc,
One more question. You said you typically rack 2-3 times in 6 months. What is your criteria for racking? Time? Height of the lees?

Depends somewhat on the yeast you use, some will breakdown and give you nasty flavors(71B-1122), others will give pleasant flavors if left for a while(D47). I usually just wing it, if I don't have anything else to do and it's been a couple months since the last racking I'll consider racking it again. I think most folks just follow their instincts but always err on the side of procrastination, mead takes many months and lots of patience.

Oh and mead is quite resistant to oxidation, especially while fermentation is still active. I've transferred to an open top vessel to clean and re-rack into the same carboy several times with no troubles so far.

groundling said:

Saramc,
One more question. You said you typically rack 2-3 times in 6 months. What is your criteria for racking? Time? Height of the lees?

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This is what has worked for me, going on year three. I prefer to use straining bags with any fruit, this saves some racking to me. Fruit typically removed from primary bucket by day 8, rack to carboy/apply airlock when SG drop by 2/3..I do not count this as #1 because it was required transfer. If GROSS lees greater than 1/4" rack. Other than that I will rack for first time one month after wine was transferred to carboy AND if it is dry. If not yet dry, I wait. Fine lees that involves no pulp is no worry to me. After first racking once dry, I will rack approx every 60 d until wine clear and no longer dropping sediment. After 2nd racking, carboy is placed in an area with at least 10F difference to the cooler. This aids in clearing. Two months later, I rack for third time and usually have no addl sediment drop. Wine is 5-6 months old by now. Then I bulk age until time to backsweeten. If backsweetening, I do rack after adding kmeta/sorbate/sweetener, just prior to bottling weeks later.
So...three plus one prior to racking. If working with cocoa powder, all bets are off! And there are still the occl times I rack more than three, it just depends. I have learned which fruits get double bagged, etc. Works for me.

I find that I rack about every other month to once every 3 months.

My answer to your question is "Lees" the height of the lees or noticable sediment. Off of the Secondary it's about 1/4 inch but not less than 2 months out. The next racking after that is all about lees height, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch is good to rack. And I try to have almost no lees for 2 weeks prior to bottling. At this stage I actually put in the oak for about a month, then rack a month after I take out the oak and bottle if no lees 1 week after the last racking. So yes 2-3 times over 6 months is good, about 5 rackings total if you include the first racking is what I usually see.

Matrix