Rack or leave it alone?

I have 2 meads bulk aging in 3 gallon carboys. They have both been in there for about 3 months and have cleared up really well. There is some lees on the bottom. Should I rack them one more time before I bottle? I'll have to rack them one at a time into a bottling bucket, clean the carboy and then rack them back. I want to make sure I get these as clear as they're going to get without getting much sediment in my bottles.

Any suggestions?

I am not an expert around here, but I think I'd want to rack it if there was a lot of lees in the carboy.

I was thinking the same thing but there isn't a huge amount of lees. Most of it came out in the primary. I'd call it a good coating on the bottom but not much more than that.

"good coating" like a sheet of paper? Or like a sheet cake?

If it's the former and you have a tip on the end of your racking cane like this, you'll be just fine without racking.

I'd say closer to a piece of paper. It's hard to tell in those carboys sometimes as it sticks to the curved bottom and from the outside can look pretty thick but looking in it looks really thin.

If the lees are 1/4 inch thick (or more) I'd rack. If not, I'd leave it alone. Regards, GF.

If you have a very delicate touch (or if you don't mind sediment in your bottles), you can bottle without stirring up the lees , but invariably I find I don't have that delicate touch. For me, I can rack it without stirring it up, but all the back and forth with bottling always causes me to stir some up. So I prefer to rack off all sediment before bottling.