Racking questions

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

barleyhole

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
115
Reaction score
1
Location
Silver Spring, MD
I have a melomel that has been fermenting 13 days (my first mead attempt). Still fairly active. It was 12 lbs honey brought up to just under 5 gallons, and a bunch of grated ginger root (1.092 gravity). Used RedStar Premier Cuvee, so I'm expecting it to ferment out.

Primary has been in a carboy...my only carboy. My perceptions about racking mead are:
Use carboys if you can. However this is my only carboy. I have some 5 gallon buckets I could rack to, but is it okay to keep them in there long term? I could rack there for a couple weeks and then rack back to the carboy, that way I can see when it clears up...probably in many months. Or should I just buy another carboy.

When to rack? The fermentation is still pretty active. When should it go into secondary? My impression is when it has really slowed (still bubbling about every 10 seconds), then I rack. Or should I rack now, then again in a month...and every month til it clears. OR should I take a gravity reading and rack if it's below some threshold?

Thanks for any advice.
 
barleyhole said:
Primary has been in a carboy..my only carboy. My perceptions about racking mead are:
Use carboys if you can. However this is my only carboy. I have some 5 gallon buckets I could rack to, but is it okay to keep them in there long term? I could rack there for a couple weeks and then rack back to the carboy, that way I can see when it clears up...probably in many months. Or should I just buy another carboy.

When to rack? The fermentation is still pretty active. When should it go into secondary? My impression is when it has really slowed (still bubbling about every 10 seconds), then I rack. Or should I rack now, then again in a month...and every month til it clears. OR should I take a gravity reading and rack if it's below some threshold?

Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...

I would purchase another carboy if you have the money. Bucket are fine for inital fermentation and short term transfers back into carboys. I always bulk age and secondary/teriary rackings into glass. I think it is easier to watch your mead clearing and no off chance of plasticy aftertaste (so I have been told). If you fermentation is pretty active, I would wait. Do you have a specific gravity (SG) you want to finish at or are you just gonna wing this batch & see where is lands?
 
Thanks for the reply. I've been pondering about what FG I'm shooting for. Probably anything under 1.005 would make me happy. What is the chance that it stops the fermentation when I rack it? Should only slow it down and I imagine it needs to ferment out before bottling, in case it starts again in the bottle and makes a mess. For me, beer seems more predictable about when to rack, when to bottle.
 
Let it ride...don't fear the mythical yeast autolysis monster...let it finish up with any visible activity, then wait another week or two before moving it. I think a month is a short primary for mead -- I've heard it said that primary is for fermenting, and secondary is for clearing; ie, you really shouldn't in most cases be transferring to secondary until you've reached your FG. In some (perhaps rare) cases you may not even need to transfer...my cyser last fall cleared so well in primary that I just left it alone for months and actually bottled it right from primary...it's one of the best meads I've made to date, IMHO.

I agree with MeadWitch...I only use glass for mead (except for bottling) since the times are so much longer than for beer (especially if you are a lazy/relaxed brewer, and let things bulk age more at each stage...)

I used to be more strict about how long I'd keep things going before bottling, and would pretty routinely rack after about a month at each stage, and bottle at 3 months, but I've been more hands-off about it recently, and I like it better this way. Mead generally needs pretty long aging times, so it's just as easy to bulk age (unless you need the carboy) as to bottle age, and ultimately, I think you end up with clearer mead if you bulk age.
 
barleyhole said:
Thanks for the reply. I've been pondering about what FG I'm shooting for. Probably anything under 1.005 would make me happy. What is the chance that it stops the fermentation when I rack it? Should only slow it down and I imagine it needs to ferment out before bottling, in case it starts again in the bottle and makes a mess. For me, beer seems more predictable about when to rack, when to bottle.
Click to expand...

Don't rack until fermentation is done. If you want to be certain that fermentation won't start again in the bottle, simply add 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate per gallon to your mead, mix, and bottle it. This prevents the yeast from budding again (doesn't kill them) and severely inhibits refermentation. This is typically what you'd do if you wanted to backsweeten.

Just rack once you get to your FG (if you're not sure of a target, just take measurements every 5 or so days and when it doesn't change at all between two measurements, you know it's done) to get it off the lees & fruit, then let it clear.

I recently used Superkleer KC for the first time and am REALLY impressed at how well it clears mead. I HIGHLY recommend it. So here's what I'd do:

1) wait till you hit your FG, then rack into another container that contains 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate per gallon (make sure you consider how much volume you're losing in what's left behind)
2) wait a day to ensure everything is well-mixed
3) add superkleer KC to make it brilliantly clear. Takes 48 hours.
4) bottle
 
biochemedic said:
Let it ride...don't fear the mythical yeast autolysis monster...let it finish up with any visible activity, then wait another week or two before moving it. I think a month is a short primary for mead

....

I agree with MeadWitch...I only use glass for mead (except for bottling) since the times are so much longer than for beer (especially if you are a lazy/relaxed brewer, and let things bulk age more at each stage...)

I used to be more strict about how long I'd keep things going before bottling, and would pretty routinely rack after about a month at each stage, and bottle at 3 months, but I've been more hands-off about it recently, and I like it better this way. Mead generally needs pretty long aging times, so it's just as easy to bulk age (unless you need the carboy) as to bottle age, and ultimately, I think you end up with clearer mead if you bulk age.
Click to expand...

Hm. If you do proper nutrient additions & degass, primary should be shorter than 2 weeks. Also, I don't use much glass at all - we use Better Bottles for nearly everything. If we're going to age something beyond a few months, we move it to a keg. But really, better bottles are JUST FINE for mead.

Finally, mead doesn't need long aging times. I've had very, very good young mead (as well as very good old mead). The KEYS to making very good mead that's easily drinkable at a young age are degassing and proper yeast nutrition. Take care of your yeast in the first 2 weeks of fermentation, and you'll end up with mead that is ready to drink in about 2 months.
 
KCWortHog said:
Hm. If you do proper nutrient additions & degass, primary should be shorter than 2 weeks. Also, I don't use much glass at all - we use Better Bottles for nearly everything. If we're going to age something beyond a few months, we move it to a keg. But really, better bottles are JUST FINE for mead.

Finally, mead doesn't need long aging times. I've had very, very good young mead (as well as very good old mead). The KEYS to making very good mead that's easily drinkable at a young age are degassing and proper yeast nutrition. Take care of your yeast in the first 2 weeks of fermentation, and you'll end up with mead that is ready to drink in about 2 months.
Click to expand...

Well, my techniques are largely driven by the need to be hands off and let it do it's thing; ie, I barely have time to wipe my own a$$ most of the time (2 young kids and a weird work schedule). I don't doubt that you can finish quicker and need less aging to have a more quickly "drinkable" mead, but I bet even that mead would be better with a year or two of aging.

I guess my point is that you don't necessarily *need* to worry about racking at a specific time...the mead takes care of itself just fine. I also bet that the quicker you ferment, the more you need to worry about whether or not your fermentation temps are too high, and be doing something, even if it's just a swamp cooler technique, to keep it into range...

I use Better Bottles for beer, and I wouldn't have a problem with them for primary with mead, but I'd still prefer glass for extended aging of any brew, whether honey or barley based. The BB's are better than buckets, but still have a certain degree of gas permeability that glass or kegs do not.
 
Ah, yeah, well I've let mead sit in primary on the lees for 5-6 weeks. Still tastes fine. And I'm sure others have left theirs for longer. :) Don't worry about it if your schedule doesn't allow you to rack earlier. I was primarily answering the question of "when to rack" ... you said it takes a month, my experience differs. It doesn't NEED to take a month, and mead doesn't NEED to age for a long period of time. It certainly can take a long time for each, but it doesn't HAVE to be that way. But if your schedule accommodates extended time periods, that's OK too of course. :) RDWHAHB.

The speed of fermentation, if you ferment in the high 60s or low 70s, has everything to do with proper yeast health. You're right that you can get a fast fermentation if you ferment in the 80s :) but then you get all those fusel alcohols and no one wants that. Fast, healthy, and clean fermentation can absolutely be done if you tend to your mead early in fermentation. That's all I was saying :)
 
I might take a gravity reading today just to see where it's at and what it tastes like. I went out and bought another carboy, mainly b/c I need to rack an IPA to secondary. Then probably next week when I bottle that, I'll rack the mead if it's finished. I got like 5 5-gallon food grade buckets from a bakery that I was hoping to be able to use for fermenting, both short and long term, but I am having trouble getting the butter cream frosting smell out. I certainly can't rack my mead in there! Probably do another round of baking soda on them, or oxy clean.

My fermentation has been in the low 70s. But I haven't been degassing it.
 
Barleyhole,
I am still wondering about this degassing thing myself. I had never heard of it until I came to this website. I have been making mead for over 10 years now pretty much on my own, with some verbal help from friends and a few tips from the guys up at the LHBS. I keep reading everything I can find online about it. There seems to be a lot of different outlooks on it.
 
It is frequently done for wine and is no different, really, for mead. CO2 is held in suspension during fermentation and can inhibit your yeast as the concentration of it increases in the fermenter. De-gassing your mead is simply removing as much CO2 from suspension as possible to help your yeast continue doing the job they're there to do.

You don't HAVE to degass. But, I find it does two very important things for me:
1) fermentation is much faster
2) if I add my nutrients after degassing, no volcano :) That's because there isn't much CO2 left in the mead to latch onto the nutrients and cause a fizzy mess.
 
Do you just stir the mead with some rod to agitate and release the CO2?

I did a gravity reading tonight...down to 1.004 after 2 weeks. Had a taste. Underneath the fusel alcohols there was honey and ginger. Trying to think what it best tasted like...sort of like sake. I think this one will take a while to mellow out. Gonna let it go for another week in primary and then rack it.
 
depends on what point in fermentation you're in. If it's fermenting, it won't matter because that headspace is filled with CO2. If it's aging, though, the effect is oxidation unless you purge the headspace with CO2 yourself.
 
KCWortHog said:
I have one of these and it works fabulously - http://morewinemaking.com/view_product/19688/103222/Lees_Stirrer

Just put it on the end of a drill & whirr away. Once you see the CO2 bubbles stop rising (it'll be a few minutes of stirring), you're done. You can stir manually (some people use a whisk), but the lees stirrer is WAY more efficient. And doesn't wear you out. ;)
Click to expand...

This looks a bit nicer than the compound joint attachment that I use to add air into my mead before fermentation. Got tired of using the swisk and figured it was just sitting out in the shed not doing anything since the reno, so what the hell.

Question: what is the different between adding oxygen before fermention and degassing or are they the same thing? It I am putting oxygen in, is that forcing the Co2 out?
 

Similar threads

S
Apples in seconday, massive sediment overnight.....
Replies
0
Views
199
shanes66charger
S
J
Questions about first mead
Replies
9
Views
1K
Midway Island
Midway Island
D
Restart fermentation to fix my mead?
Replies
9
Views
745
Raptor99
Raptor99
superpig0
Mead Recipe Concern
Replies
2
Views
587
Dan O
Dan O
M
Blowoff tube on mead?
Replies
4
Views
434
macscoot
M
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top