Time to keep mead in Primary?

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DRxAndy

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So i've only made 2 wines involving honey, but I have a gallon of cherry melomel with 3lbs of honey in it that has been sitting in primary for aprox 10 days.
From other winemaking I was thinking 2 weeks would be a good time to rack to secondary but decided to research and found some threads where people said they left mead in primary for 2 months for better results.

How long should mead be in the primary?
What would be the longest/best amount of time for maximum efficiency?
Is it based on the amount of honey used(guessing it could)?
Is mead ever racked a 3rd time (perhaps for aeration?) and if so how long would be appropriate for that?

I aerated the business out of this batch in a blender before putting in primary and adding yeast, and have been swirling its jug about twice a day (resulting in a large amount of bubbling from the blowoff) and it seems to be fermenting consistently but slow as i expected.
 
Depends on the honey used, other ingredients, nutrients etc. I imagine this being early and you not mentioning it, you did not used a staggered nutrient schedule. I would suggest you read hightest's mead FAQ's for your next batches, they are quite helpful.

Now for this one, I would go based on SG readings. What was your starting gravity for this batch? What was the whole recipe? If you expect it to get dry, then I would rack to secondary when it drops down to about 1.010, that way it should ferment 10 or so more points down to blanket it well with co2 in secondary.
 
really depends on what you are looking for and what you are working with, if you let it sit on the lees it will impart a butteryness that can be very pleasant,
i normally let my meads sit in the primary for about a month before i rack off

btw: tusch how is that capsicumel turning out, i've been meaning to make one
 
It's going well so far, going to be both strong and hot, so I fully intend and expect the need to age this one for a very long time. I used two habaneros and two saranos for one gallon, but this will be a 1-4oz sipping mead anyways.
 
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