Thanks for all the advice. I am just being extra careful because the first batch I made had a nasty "rubber tire" taste and I didn't want to wast more honey as it's kind of expensive. :)
But what about the air? I can't get the last 5 inches without pumping the siphon constantly. It puts about as much air into the carboy as it does mead.
O.k. so, I'm siphoning my mead off the lees and most of it went very smoothly with minimal aeration. Unfortunately, the nice even flow stopped with about 4 or 5 inches of mead sitting on top of the lees (5 gal carboy) I could pump it out but I'm afraid that will add too much air.
Any advice...
I'm very new to mead making so I don't know what smells are off and what are normal. When I racked my mead into the secondary fermenter (which I fear I did too soon) The yeast and mead had a funky, fruity smell and taste. It reminded me of over-ripe bananas (though not quite a banana smell). The...