How is the best way to top off a carboy?

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Androshen

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I was wondering what methods experienced mead makers use for topping off their carboys after racking ....
I have been using water but my wife complains that I am ruining the mead by "watering it down".
What other methods do people use?
 
I've read that you can use sterilized marbles. I need to look into getting some myself. I'm gonn need a lot of marble, hopefully I don't lose them either.
 
I was wondering what methods experienced mead makers use for topping off their carboys after racking ....
I have been using water but my wife complains that I am ruining the mead by "watering it down".
What other methods do people use?

I make 5.5/6g batches so that they fit very nicely in my 5g secondary. No top up needed.
 
I use 6 gallon carboys ..... also, when I rack a second or third time, I lose volume ... how do I make that up? Or do I just assume that the CO2 produced will fill the void and buffer the mead from oxidation?
 
If you're using 6g carboys for both primary and secondary, then you'll probably need to look at another way.

You could flush the carboy with co2 to fill some of the void, or probably look at topping up with water or a water/honey mix.
 
Adding crushed campden tablets during racking should also aid in preventing oxidation if there is a little too much head space.
 
I haven't done it myself, but I've read about folks that will make an extra gallon and put that in a 1 gallon jug with an airlock. Then when they rack their carboy, they top up from the smaller jug.

+1 on a smaller secondary though.
 
I've heard using marbles are pretty popular..but I actually prefer to heat up a little water and mix in some honey, and top up with honey water.
 
Stabilize and use the top-up as a little bit of backsweetening.

I ferment in a bucket and make sure I've got plenty to get up into the neck of the BetterBottle. When I rack, I normally have to add under 4oz of fluid to get back to that level. So I've never much cared about fermentation taking off again. It will ferment out what I've added, but at that small amount, the yeast in suspension will do it. It will prolong clearing a little. But not much.
 
I've heard using marbles are pretty popular..but I actually prefer to heat up a little water and mix in some honey, and top up with honey water.

I read a suggestion somewhere that if you're going to use marbles, use the flattened floral marbles available at craft stores. Round marbles are more likely to roll around the bottom of your carboy, kicking up sediment.

Dave
 
Apparently I've been very lucky. I've made more that 15 five gallon batches and have often aged in secondary with lots of head space for more than a year without incidence.

A good friend invited me over one day to see if I could "rescue" a mead she'd made and then forgotten about. It was still sitting in the primary bucket and all the water had long evaporated from the airlock. It was wonderful. Not a trace of infection or oxidation.

Weird.
 
i just started mead making and was also thinking about this. i had to top off with water. but i was thinking about making a set up with some hose and a shortened racking cane to purge the carboy with co2. oxidation should not be a problem if there is no oxygen to attack the mead. does anybody use this method ?
 
I've seen a couple posts about people topping off with the fog from dry ice.
Not a bad idea, if you've got the dry ice.
 
I've seen a couple posts about people topping off with the fog from dry ice.
Not a bad idea, if you've got the dry ice.

I wondered about that. You might get enough CO2 from mixing baking soda and lemon juice in a separate bottle and piping the gas in, but I don't know how you'd tell if it's working because you can't see it.

Dave
 
That certainly works. But if you have mead in a bottle that is ready to drink, it seems a shame to have to sacrifice it like that just to top up a carboy.

I plan to bottle a very neutral tasting mead and apple wine in those little Belgian stubby bottles for use as top up wine.
 
I only have two 6.5 gallon carboys and no immediate plans for more. When I rack my first 6 gallon batch to secondary how bad would it be to top off with a vodka/water mixture of a similar ABV to the mead?

this is how much head space I have:

PB040065.jpg
 
The wife and I have been at this for a couple of years now, and even won some medals at comps. So we must be doing something right.

What we did is to get one of those little C02 keg chargers, shown here. The cartridges are $3 apiece and last for quite a few blasts.

We rack to secondary and then shoot a little c02 in there. Works just fine as far as we can tell. Sometimes we even forget to do that. We did our own tasting with score sheets last night and nothing had any oxidation issues.

IMHO topping off with water or anything else for that matter defeats the purpose of making good mead. You measure everything at the begining to get a desired result. Why add other factors later that can make all the difference? Time and aging are also your best friends :)
 
I haven't done it myself, but I've read about folks that will make an extra gallon and put that in a 1 gallon jug with an airlock. Then when they rack their carboy, they top up from the smaller jug.

This is what we do. We're planning on switching to a full 5 gallon batch, letting it completely finish fermenting then kegging it. This way we won't have to worry about starting fermentation up again in the meads we top up.
 
If the head space is not too large you could use a de-gassing whip to gently pull some CO2 out of solution. I usually use finished wine. Of course, then I have to drink what is left in the bottle.

When racking from primary to secondary there is very likely going to be some fermentation taking place and producing CO2. That is going to create a protective blanket on top of the wine without any help from you.
 
Thanks all for the ideas to consider. I have a 1 gallon batch I started back in august, but I hated the idea of pouring my first mead into my big batch (esp. when it is tasting pretty good...). In the future I will start a small batch for use when topping up.
 
I've got a small batch (1 gallon) of mead in primary that won't be ready to rack for another few weeks. I was thinking of topping off with a honey-water mixture of approximately the same proportions as the original batch. Is this an acceptable practice?

I've seen a few posts here concerned with restarting fermentation in secondary- is this bad? If so, why?
 
Bringing an old thread back. I just racked to my secondary (3 gal carboy) and didn't have enough mead to fill it so I boiled some RO water I had and added about 6oz of honey and a crushed campden tab to it once it cooled to 78ish. The SG of what i added was about 1.012 and i added about a quart. Is this going to have any ill effects?
 
Since this thread has been resuscitated...

What about "pouring" CO2 from the primary into the secondary, since CO2 is heavier than air?
 
No tank. I meant racking your mead from primary to secondary then tipping your "empty" primary vessel, full of air and CO2, over your secondary. The Co2 should, theoretically at least, flow down into the secondary, displacing some of the air in the secondary and settling into a blanket over your must.
 
I make 2.5 gallons in a 3gallon Better Bottle carboy. When I rack, I rack into another 3gallon carboy that has been purged with CO2 for about 20 seconds then do a top off with CO2 just in case. Don't know if it's necessary or not... but, I do it anyhooo.

When I make 1g batches of beer, I rack into another 1g jug and top up with CO2 and marbles. Again.. it's what I do.. necessary or not.
 
How are the marbles? I was considering getting some, but I feel like as they will displace some liquid, some will be lost between the marbles at the bottom of the fermenter. Is this the case? Do you feel they do more good vs the loss of must? Do you bury your siphon between the marbles when racking? As far as the "pouring" of CO2 goes, I dunno about you but I have a lot more than CO2 left over in my primary when I transfer to a secondary. I would be pouring chunks of fruit and yeast debris, which is exactly what I am racking the must off of.
 
I have been doing a lot of 1 gallon batches and to deal with the top off problem for either ciders or meads I bought a 5 liter dhama jug to use as the primary. It leaves enough to completly fill a regular 1 gallon carboy for secondary.
 
The marbles are a bit pricy unless you can find some free ones.. I tried with no luck. The marbles pack so tightly together that I think, IIRC, that I only lost about 1 cup of liquid. Some of the remaining fines cling to the marbles.. like dust the house to the top surfaces.. but it's very minimal.
 

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