Still Mead

Will a still mead age in the bottle?

Yes.

It will only get better over time.

Agreed. It will mellow and the flavors will age with time.

Time makes good mead great and great mead unreal. Let it age as long as you can in bulk before bottling though.

I know of people that don't bottle until the mead has been in process for 6-12 months. Usually, waiting at least a few months from when fermentation has finished, and it's been racked at least once or twice to get really clear.

I have four batches of mead that are about 5-1/2 months in. I might be ready to bottle some of it in the coming month. Doesn't mean I'll be looking to drink it anytime soon though. Well, unless the melomel is ready that is. I plan to add another ~18oz of fresh blackberries to that in the next few days (could be Sunday), letting it ride on those for a week (or so) before racking off of them and then letting clear again. Once clear, I might bottle... I'm giving serious thought to getting some kegs to put them into for longer term storage and then bottle in the fall.

BTW, whatever you do, set at least a few bottles (I would do 6-12 if possible) aside from any batch you make. Have one every year from when you started drinking them. Keep notes to document the changes so that you can see for yourself...

That is what i was worried about. Its been a month and it tastes decent but i didnt have an open secondary so i just bottled them. I wanted a still mead so i added campden tablets and potassium sorbate. I plan on letting it age a long time i was just didnt know how big an affect the yeast has on aging. This is my first mead and first non carbed bottles. I will have to dedicate a carboy to mead from now on.

IMO, a month is not nearly enough time for a batch of mead to be ready for bottles.

I would suggest visiting the Got Mead? site/forums and asking the great folks there for advise. There are several people from there here, but you'll have a higher concentration of great mazers over there.

Golddiggie said:

IMO, a month is not nearly enough time for a batch of mead to be ready for bottles.

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Urgh, tell me about it. I've been making mead almost 17 years and with the newer 'quick mead' concepts (SNA, degassing, pH monitoring) I thought bottling at 6 weeks would work.

Thankfully I used synthetic corks so I didn't have glass grenades, just pyment on the carpet and a bunch of corks workign their way out.