Aerating during racking

Hi everyone. I have put my first mead in a fermenter about a month ago. I am planing to rack it this week to my second fermenter. but I'm confused about the the aerating. some say you have to make sure no air is added. others say you could aerating it to give the yeast another boost.

Can anyone give me more info about this?

THX

You don't want to aerate after fermentation is finished (or in this case, finishing up.). For meads, you can aerate like crazy until fermentation slows (or about SG 1.030 or so in a to-be-dry mead). After that, it's important to protect it from aeration which will cause oxidation.

I think it's true that so long as the oxygen is going to be consumed by yeast that it won't be a problem. So if you intend to bottle carb. a batch of Apfelwein for instance a bit of oxygen will just help the yeast to oxidize the sugars to CO2. Only when there will be no further oxidation the oxygen will be harmful.

YooperBrew said:

For meads, you can aerate like crazy until fermentation slows (or about SG 1.030 or so in a to-be-dry mead). After that, it's important to protect it from aeration which will cause oxidation.

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I just brewed my first mead last night (10 pounds honey in 4 gal water, OG=1.092). Does your advice mean I should pop the bucket lid often (daily?) and aerate (~30 sec with a wire whisk), at least until the gravity declines ~ halfway (semi-sweet mead)?

BrewDoc_Md said:

I just brewed my first mead last night (10 pounds honey in 4 gal water, OG=1.092). Does your advice mean I should pop the bucket lid often (daily?) and aerate (~30 sec with a wire whisk), at least until the gravity declines ~ halfway (semi-sweet mead)?

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Every time you open that bucket and dink with your mead, you increase the likelihood of introducing infection. Mostly when you think you need to check up on fermentation you are wrong. That is to say that you CAN do this, but it'll be fine too if you just leave it alone.

I would suggest to the world that you use Campdon tabs as Yooper specifies. I had a terrible go racking a mead a few weeks ago (aerated like I was trying), and so far, knocking on wood, it seems to be fine, and I am sure it's because of the Campdon.

If you adequately aerate in the first 24 hours, you should never need or want to aerate later on. Not at racking, nor halfway thru primary.

I primary most wines, ciders and meads in a bucket without a lid (just cover with a cloth) for the first 5 days or so. So I do aerate and stir to break up the "cap" that sometimes form. So, I don't have a lid to take off or an airlock or anything like that. Maybe that's how I differ from some of the others. It's not wrong to cover and airlock in primary, my preference is not to.

I've been bulk conditioning mine for the last year...now ready to move to bottles and had a question.

I'm gathering from my reading that there is no need for degassing? Is that correct?

NewBlood said:

I've been bulk conditioning mine for the last year...now ready to move to bottles and had a question.

I'm gathering from my reading that there is no need for degassing? Is that correct?

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I don't....If you've bulk aged for a year, I'd be pretty confident that it's degassed itself.

BigKahuna said:

I don't....If you've bulk aged for a year, I'd be pretty confident that it's degassed itself.

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Appreciate it...looking forward to this and dont want to screw this up.

NewBlood said:

I've been bulk conditioning mine for the last year...now ready to move to bottles and had a question.

I'm gathering from my reading that there is no need for degassing? Is that correct?

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If it's had some way of releasing the CO2 (airlock or something) then as BK suggests, it might not need it.

Personally I'd get it in the bottles and as an experiment I'd use a vacuvin on one of the bottles to see if I get any CO2 out, if I didn't see much/any then I'd just stopper/cork the bottles, if I got some then I'd just vacuvin the bottles until no more came out then cork them.

regards

fatbloke