carlo rossi bottles to store mead?

hey guys i am wanting to brew some mead soon and unfortunately we dont drink much wine, so no corkable bottles, however we do have quite a few one gallon carlo rossi jugs sitting around that we use for bbq basting. would these work with their regular screw cap to age mead in?

I have used them to ferment in... but I wouldn't use one for long aging. Why not just bottle in beer bottles? It's a better portion size for mead IMHO.

LazyPBar said:

hey guys i am wanting to brew some mead soon and unfortunately we dont drink much wine, so no corkable bottles, however we do have quite a few one gallon carlo rossi jugs sitting around that we use for bbq basting. would these work with their regular screw cap to age mead in?

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I've used Carlo Rossi jugs to age wine & mead, but I always use a stopper & airlock instead of the orig screwcap. I've never had any problems. Regards, GF.

THe problem with long term storage (ie - slowly serving from the bottle) is that every time you open the cap, oxygen is getting in. Much like any other beverage, once you open it - it starts going bad. I don't know that it's quite like wine in that you must drink it within a few days or it starts going bad, but I can say that each consecutive tasting from that open bottle will likely get progressively worse until it's oxidized.

Because you typically drink less mead than normal in a sitting, it would be much preferable to bottle in smaller vessels (ie- beer bottles).

Honestly, wine bottles aren't too expensive from the LHBS or online, and get some Zorks for ease of use and up to five years of storage before you have to start worrying about the seal. If nothing else, they look cool and make good gifts!

This may not be the best practices model but I do use screw top 40OZ for bottling when my glass stock is low. I'm sipping a year old mead right now from a 40 and i have to say, for a two dollar beer and bottle, the pressure inside was loud enough for the neighbors to hear. It has even worked for bottle conditioning of ales. I would be very cautious of your FG so that you dont create a hazard but in general it can be done in tight budget conditions. PS santize very very well.