Airlock issues, possible oxidation

Hey everyone. I started a few batches a long time ago (ranging from 9-12 months ago I'd say) and have kept them in my cellar to age. I put 3 piece airlocks on them, and planned on checking them every so often to make sure they were still full of water and the meads were doing fine. Long story short, life caught up with me and I promptly forgot them.

Now I just remembered them and the water in the airlocks is completely dried up and gone. Is there a pretty good chance they've been exposed to oxygen and oxidized by now? Damn, I hope not, I have a lot of small batches going at the moment haha. Anyway, any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

If you haven't agitated the fermenter and they've been undisturbed then they've got a nice pillow of CO2 and should be protected, but 9-12 months is a crazy long time on the yeast cake... I think the longest I've see on here is like 7 months... and no off flavors but you may have some with that length of time... dunno

... but only one true way to find out!
Bottle them and/or give 'em a taste.

acuenca said:

... but only one true way to find out!
Bottle them and/or give 'em a taste.

Click to expand...

That's what I was going to say.

Oxidation isn't the threat that it's made to sound like by all the warnings and reminders we read. Sure, you want to be careful, but you want to be careful going out in the summer sun so you don't burn too. But a little overexposure isn't the end of the world. Same with oxygen.

Dave