Too Much Head Space?

[SebastianS]

Evening! I'm a first time mead maker, and am about half through my first 5 gallon batch. Fermentation started in April, and finished by the beginning of May. It was racked off into a carboy, and has clarified/aged in that same carboy until early evening today. It's racked off into a new carboy now.

Is there too much head space between mead and airlock? Do I have to worry about the mead oxidizing? If so, what can I do to prevent that? Ideally I'd like to let it clarify and age for at least another 4-6 months. I don't want to jeopardize my first batch! I'd appreciate any help!

 

[sweetcell]

based on what i've read, yeah you should try getting the level of mead up higher. you want to get up into the thin part of the carboy's neck, so you should halve the distance between the mead and the stopper/air lock.

options of doing this include:
- throwing in sanitized marbles
- adding a honey and water mix with the same specific gravity as the (current) FG
- adding white wine

others can chime in with additional idea.

 

[fatbloke]

Could do with being up to the neck, but its not as bad as many......

Marbles ? Great care with those they can shatter the base otherwise.

White wine, honey/water mix, vodka etc etc are all good. As is using CO2 to flood the void.......

 

[jack_a_roe]

interesting thread. im about to get my first batch started soon and had no idea about minimizing headspace so much. does this go for in primary too?

 

[sweetcell]

does this go for in primary too?

nope, 'cause there is plenty of CO2 being released during active fermentation and this pushes out the oxygen.

the problem arises in secondary, where there is little to (eventually) no CO2 being released. so you want to minimize how much O2 is in there, and how much surface area is exposed to that O2.

that being said, it's probably not the best idea to ferment 2 gals of mead in a 6 gal carboy. mead doesn't need as much headspace as beer so you can keep things tighter.

 

[Kdog22]

That headspace is minimal but just enough that you may want to top up with something. You could even top up with some bottled water. That little bit won't have much affect on the whole 5 gallon batch. If you add more honey/water, you might get a slight renewed fermentation so you COULD stabilize it before adding that. Then problem solved.

 

[SebastianS]

...the problem arises in secondary, where there is little to (eventually) no CO2 being released. so you want to minimize how much O2 is in there, and how much surface area is exposed to that O2.

That headspace is minimal but just enough that you may want to top up with something. You could even top up with some bottled water. That little bit won't have much affect on the whole 5 gallon batch. If you add more honey/water, you might get a slight renewed fermentation so you COULD stabilize it before adding that. Then problem solved.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Maybe something like 1 or 2 parts honey, to a say 500ml of water? Something to that nature. Or a half and half? I'd be okay with a possible re-ferment happening. It won't be that much re-added. Nothing that'll change the mead's properties.

Like I mentioned I do want to let it sit for another 4-6 months, and even then I'll probably use bentonite clay toward the end. So I think it'll all work out beautifully. Thoughts?

 

[sweetcell]

what was the OG & what FG are you at now? in other words, have you reached your yeast's tolerance? if you are at your yeast's tolerance, and there is already residual sugar, the chances of kicking up fermentation again are minimal. for example, if your yeast's max is 14%, your OG was 1.110 and you're now at 1.005, you're at 14.3% ABV. if fermentation has died down and FG is stable, then adding more sugar won't restart fermentation.

if you don't want to sweeten your mead, make a 1.005 honey/water solution and top up with that. since the sugar concentration is the same as the mead, you'll have no effect on sweetness. but like you said, you're not adding that much so you won't be radically swinging things (unless you do the half-and-half thing - that might contain enough honey to change sweetness a little).

 

[Oddball]

the problem arises in secondary, where there is little to (eventually) no CO2 being released. so you want to minimize how much O2 is in there, and how much surface area is exposed to that O2.

Is it the surface area that matters or the total volume of oxygen in the head space that we need to be concerned with?

I just bought some 1 gallon glass jars to use as secondary containers because they were about half the price of growler type jugs. I fill them about as much as I can without spilling, but technically there is more surface area in contact, but relatively about the same amount of air that would be in the neck of a jug. Should I be concerned or consider buying the jugs?

Thanks

 

[sweetcell]

Is it the surface area that matters or the total volume of oxygen in the head space that we need to be concerned with?

I just bought some 1 gallon glass jars to use as secondary containers because they were about half the price of growler type jugs. I fill them about as much as I can without spilling, but technically there is more surface area in contact, but relatively about the same amount of air that would be in the neck of a jug. Should I be concerned or consider buying the jugs?

Thanks

both surface and amount of air are important, so try to minimize both as much as possible.

sound like your jars will have minimal air since you're filling them. they sound fine, i would keep using them.

 

[Oddball]

both surface and amount of air are important, so try to minimize both as much as possible.

sound like your jars will have minimal air since you're filling them. they sound fine, i would keep using them.

Ok thanks

 

[SebastianS]

...if you don't want to sweeten your mead, make a 1.005 honey/water solution and top up with that. since the sugar concentration is the same as the mead, you'll have no effect on sweetness. but like you said, you're not adding that much so you won't be radically swinging things (unless you do the half-and-half thing - that might contain enough honey to change sweetness a little).

When I started and pitched the yeast I had a potential of 13.5% ABV/1.105 SG. I used 16.8 pounds of honey. When my fermentation had finished, and I racked it into it's first carboy, it read practically 0% ABV/1.000 SG. There was at most, very little, to no residual sugars left in the mead. The tolerance of my yeast I'll have to check, I just got home from work. I used Lalvin's K1-V1116 wine yeast.

I think I'll do a 1 part honey to a 4 part water ratio. Say, 125ml of honey to 500ml of water? Or 250ml of honey and 1 litre of water... I think the first'll work better. There really isn't that much space left in the carboy.

I'll definitely be sweetening my mead. I love sweet mead, and that's exactly what I'd like to make.

 

[Yooper]

When I started and pitched the yeast I had a potential of 13.5% ABV/1.105 SG. I used 16.8 pounds of honey. When my fermentation had finished, and I racked it into it's first carboy, it read practically 0% ABV/1.000 SG. There was at most, very little, to no residual sugars left in the mead. The tolerance of my yeast I'll have to check, I just got home from work. I used Lalvin's K1-V1116 wine yeast.

I think I'll do a 1 part honey to a 4 part water ratio. Say, 125ml of honey to 500ml of water? Or 250ml of honey and 1 litre of water... I think the first'll work better. There really isn't that much space left in the carboy.

I'll definitely be sweetening my mead. I love sweet mead, and that's exactly what I'd like to make.

K1-1116 can go higher than it has so far. This mead should finish at .990. That's fine, and you can backsweeten later on. Or, you can do incremental feeding. How that works is that you keep adding honey at each racking (or more often). Once the yeast is overwhelmed by alcohol toxicity, the sweetness will remain. That's a bit risky, as you might end up with 18+% sweet rocket fuel(!) but with some age it could be fantastic. That yeast strain can easily go to 18% or above.

 

[SebastianS]

K1-1116 can go higher than it has so far. This mead should finish at .990. That's fine, and you can backsweeten later on. Or, you can do incremental feeding. How that works is that you keep adding honey at each racking (or more often). Once the yeast is overwhelmed by alcohol toxicity, the sweetness will remain. That's a bit risky, as you might end up with 18+% sweet rocket fuel(!) but with some age it could be fantastic. That yeast strain can easily go to 18% or above.

I'll just backsweeten later, once it's finished clarifying and aging. I'm still too much of a novice to start playing around with that haha. And stick with adding the 125ml honey + 500ml water right now. That'll be my 1 to 4 ratio. Yeah, this'll be good.

 

[SebastianS]

Quick update: I made a honey/water mixture that ended up being about 200ml of honey, just under actually, and 600ml of water. Not all of the mixture went in. Probably about 200ml was left behind. The carboy is filled up the neck now, and now I continue to wait! I have a feeling that fermentation won't start up again with this honey/water addition. My cold cellar is quite cold. I plan on leaving it for another 3-4 months, at least. Perhaps even a full 6 months. I'll even be adding bentonite to clear it up more so and remove any potential yeast/extra sediment that may decide to stick around once it's clear/aged. Stabilize with Potassium Metabisulphite, then backsweeten to get a wonderful sweet mead. This is my first batch, guys, and I need to get it just right!

 

[Yooper]

Potassium metabisulfite is a great addition at that point- but it is NOT a stabilizer! It's an antioxidant/preservative.

In order to stabilize, the mead must be clear, no longer dropping any lees at all, and then racked onto a sorbate mixture. Sorbate works better in the presence of k-meta, so it's commonly added at the same time.

Make sure you use sorbate if you're going to bottle a non-dry mead!

 

[SebastianS]

Potassium metabisulfite is a great addition at that point- but it is NOT a stabilizer! It's an antioxidant/preservative.

In order to stabilize, the mead must be clear, no longer dropping any lees at all, and then racked onto a sorbate mixture. Sorbate works better in the presence of k-meta, so it's commonly added at the same time.

Make sure you use sorbate if you're going to bottle a non-dry mead!

Sorry such a late reply! I've been quite busy.

Really? I've legitimately heard from a number of people, in person and on the Internet, who've said that its potassium metabisulfite that'll kill off any of the yeast still potentially alive/kickin' around in the finished mead.

Is potassium sorbate healthy? I've read a bit about it and I've been seeing that it doesn't seem to that great for human ingestion. Health-wise. Are there any potential alternatives?

 

[Yooper]

Sorry such a late reply! I've been quite busy.

Really? I've legitimately heard from a number of people, in person and on the Internet, who've said that its potassium metabisulfite that'll kill off any of the yeast still potentially alive/kickin' around in the finished mead.

Is potassium sorbate healthy? I've read a bit about it and I've been seeing that it doesn't seem to that great for human ingestion. Health-wise. Are there any potential alternatives?

Well, k-meta is used routinely in the amount of 50 ppm in wines, and I do that myself as it's an antioxidant/preservative. Winemakers use it all the time, and it doesn't harm wine yeast at all in those amounts. In order to kill yeast with it, you'd have to use so much as to render the mead undrinkable. It's possible that the people that have used it successfully were already at the yeast's alcohol toxicity level and that's why it worked- just something to think about. I'd be really surprised if an experienced wine or mead maker believed that to be true, but I do hear it from inexperienced folks on the internet (not in person). But if you believe it, try it. That's all I can say.

If you don't want to use sorbate, just let the mead finish fermenting by bringing it someplace warm and let it finish. Halting it cold does work, until it gets warm again. So if you want it to ever get done and not use a stabilizer, warm it to fermentation temperatures and let it finish.