Secondary for Mead

My first batch of traditional mead has been in the primary for under a month, but my SG is at 1.000, OG was 1.115. Should I rack to a secondary or keep letting it go in the primary for another month?

I would rack it to secondary and bulk age for a long time....

+1 rack and age

That was a fast ferment, so the alcohol could be hot and take a year or more to mellow. It will probably drop a few more points in secondary, and you can rack again later to clear it.

What yeast?

Lalvin 71b-1122. Used half a pouch for 1 gallon

Oh, that's plenty of yeast for such a small batch so you might not have to wait a full year or rack to tertiary, but definitely rack off all that extra yeast. Then taste it once it falls clear (or clear enough).

Seems like a good time to rack to the secondary for 4-5 more months...

Yeah, I can already tell the yeast falling out of suspension and clearing out. The must definitely tastes good, but I can taste that 15% abv.

I planned on aging this stuff for 8 months before cracking some open... if I can be patient enough.

Is there any disadvantage to leaving in the primary the entire fermentation, like described in JAOM?

From what I remember hearing, it's yeast based. Some yeasties like to be left on the fallout, others develop off flavors sitting on the dead yeast.

But I can't remember where I heard it.

Leaving it on the lees for an extended period can absolutely impart some flavor the the final product, particularly if/when the yeast being to undergo autolysis.

Whether or not this is good depends somewhat on the yeast and somewhat on your tastes. Real champagne must be aged for a minimum time on the lees and part of its unique character comes from yeast autolysis byproducts. The yeast you used isn't described as a champagne yeast, however. I wouldn't try it, but you never know

There's a link to a PDF in the mead forum sticky relating to autolysis.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/sticky-mead-making-faqs-83030/

I agree that you should rack and bulk age. Get it off the yeast cake to avoid any autolysis flavors and add some campden tablets to prevent oxidation while it ages.

you'd need to be looking into "sur lie" or battonage (I think that's spelled correctly), but I also know that you wouldn't normally do that with 71B. I understand that it's a ferment and rack off yeast......

So I'd also go for rack, clear and age......