Skip the aging due to blunder?

[Drinksahoy]

I have several batches going in 1 gallon fermenters but I have only one 6 gallon plastic primary glass secondary fermenter pair.

I am a total noob and pour my blended up raspberries directly into the primary. When I transferred to the secondary I managed to siphon out quite a bit of fruit gunk but I simply cant get even close to clearing it all up.

My plan was to age this batch until this summers annual boat trip amongst my friends.

I can't afford another glass at the moment so I was thinking of bottling this mead as soon as it's done fermenting fully and enjoying an ageless murky mead rather than tossing it so i could start again on a big batch for this summer.

I did much research and couldn't find a single post on drinking mead with zero aging.

I'm guessing this is for a good reason.

Though when I sample the mead when I take gravity readings it tastes very good to me! Is there another reason no one drinks right off the ferment?

Will drinking plenty at a time make me sick?

 

[BGHSmt7]

It shouldn't make you sick, however mead needs time to age for the flavors to mellow, mingle, and develop. Drinking it young will just be rough. I'd say leave the must in the bottom, then when you rack it again, try to stay away from the bottom with your siphon. Another option is a auto siphon filter or a clean fine mesh nylon bag to act as a filter.

 

[Drinksahoy]

Hm well I really want to do a separate batch to minimize any chance of residue. I'll grab a nylon bag, great idea!

I do have enough bottles for the batch... could I bottle it up and let them age there, thus freeing the carboy for a new batch?

I have turbo clear I could use first.

 

[BGHSmt7]

I wouldn't because then you're taking the mead off of the yeast too soon and not allowing it to clean up after itself. If you have some time, this podcast has a lot of awesome information in it about mead making.

It looks like you said you have 2 fermentors, 1 plastic primary and 1 glass secondary. Leave this one in the glass for a month or so and make the next batch in the plastic one. Let it age there for a month. Then you can bottle this batch and transfer the newer batch to the glass for bulk aging.

 

[Drinksahoy]

I was under the impression that I should move rack out of the primary as soon as it reaches an SG of around 1.0?

 

[BGHSmt7]

I was under the impression that I should move rack out of the primary as soon as it reaches an SG of around 1.0?

Nope. You want to let it age a little on the yeast cake so that the yeast has time to clean up after itself. During fermentation, the yeast make a lot of byproducts that are undesirable, but they go and eat most of them up after fermentation.
Racking off the yeast too soon, will make it so that there's not enough yeast to clean up after the fermentation so those off flavors will always be there.
Granted, you don't want to keep the beer/mead/wine/etc on the yeast cake for too long because you start to have other issues, but 3-4 weeks primary is not unheard of, especially with meads.
Speaking of aging a mead, you should rack the mead at least 3-4 times for a nice clear product. Most meads will need to be aged 8-24 months (before bottling) for best results. If you follow a good nutrition feeding regimen, oxygenate, and control the fermentation, you could have a delicious mead in about 3-4 months.

 

[Drinksahoy]

About an inch or more of yeast cake formed within a day of moving to its secondary glass. That was 3 days ago. Can it sit on it for another month without getting off flavors and smells?

 

[BGHSmt7]

About an inch or more of yeast cake formed within a day of moving to its secondary glass. That was 3 days ago. Can it sit on it for another month without getting off flavors and smells?

It'll prolly be fine for a month or so. The theory now, is that yeast autolysis from having the beverage sitting on the yeast for too long doesn't affect homebrewers as much as commercial breweries. We're not dealing with the liquid pressure on the yeast cell walls because of our smaller volumes. Also, we typically are not re-using the same yeast and not stressing them as much.

 

[Drinksahoy]

I actually just siphoned it into the plastic and cleaned the glass then siphoned back to the glass. So now I won't even worry about it sitting for a month. Thanks for all the help! Starting batch 2 in plastic now!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Drinksahoy. In fact there seems to be a great deal of interest (relatively speaking) in making session (low alcohol) meads that are bottled and ready for drinking much like beer. The higher the starting gravity , the longer (typically) , the mead needs to age. The lower the SG the sooner it will reach what folk consider its prime and so its suitability for drinking. Classic meads have about 2.5 - 3.5 lbs of honey in each gallon of must but session meads might have 1.5 lbs of honey. That said, since all the flavor comes from the honey (unless you are adding spices, herbs or fruit) then you do need to be aware that such low alcohol meads may not be as flavor rich as high ABV (alcohol by volume) meads. To deal with this problem you might backsweeten the mead or carbonate it (or both backsweeten and carbonate)..