Adding to mead

[graydragon2]

I have racked my mead for what will be the last time before I rack it to my bottling bucket and I was wondering how long it would be ok to have this much airspace on the top of my mead. It will be a couple days before I can get anywhere that I could get a plain mead to top it off with. What could I use to put CO2 in it to blanket it. I am planning on bottling it in about 3 or 4 weeks and am not sure how long it is ok to leave that much space without it oxydizing.

 

[ACbrewer]

Well, if you have co2 you could do that. IF you combine baking soda and vinigar, they produce CO2. in a 2 liter bottle with a blow of tube, you could generate co2 in a soda bottle, and then through the tube the co2 could be vented into your mead. Although I don't know about the smell.... I'm just thinking outside the box (and possibly outside the fermentatorium).

You could put a very dry tasteless wine on top to shrink the space.

 

[biochemedic]

If you have a place you can get dry ice, a small piece or pellet of dry ice tossed in would easily clear out the headspace... The easiest though as ACbrewer said would be to just vent CO2 into it, but I'm assuming you don't have a bottle of CO2 or you wouldn't be asking! You could look into places that sell paintball stuff...maybe you could find a cheap small container of CO2 and a regulator that would allow you to fill the headspace...

You might be looking for something like this, from Williams Brewing...

Finally, though, I think you are fine just leaving it as it is! Could you possibly get some oxidation? I suppose, but it's unlikely to be significant. One other thing you could try...have you just given it a good swirl/shake? It's possible you may have some dissolved CO2 still in solution you could get to release and that also would purge the headspace....

 

[Yooper]

I'd top it up or rack to smaller containers.

That's too much headspace.

Maybe it's just the photo, but it sure doesn't look clear enough to bottle in that photo! It should be clear enough to read a newspaper through it.

 

[Kdog22]

Found this thread on a forum search of "topping off meads" as I have a question..

I'm just starting my first 2 (1) gallon batches of mead. Joe's Ancien Orange and then a mixed berry meads I put together. My question is what happens when I rack my mixed berry into a secondary and I end up left with an inevitable headspace? I'm going to assume that the berries took up alot of space in the primary so i'll end up with alot of room in my secondary.

Since it's just a small 1 gallon batch, it's seem i'll have to be careful with what i use as a filler since it'll probably have a decent impact on the flavor. What would you guys recommend for me?

Maybe heat up some more simple honey/water must to top off? If so, should i add anything else along with it?


Thanks in advance!!

 

[ACbrewer]

Found this thread on a forum search of "topping off meads" as I have a question..

I'm just starting my first 2 (1) gallon batches of mead. Joe's Ancien Orange and then a mixed berry meads I put together. My question is what happens when I rack my mixed berry into a secondary and I end up left with an inevitable headspace? I'm going to assume that the berries took up alot of space in the primary so i'll end up with alot of room in my secondary.

Since it's just a small 1 gallon batch, it's seem i'll have to be careful with what i use as a filler since it'll probably have a decent impact on the flavor. What would you guys recommend for me?

Maybe heat up some more simple honey/water must to top off? If so, should i add anything else along with it?


Thanks in advance!!

Option 1 rack to a smaller container, but since you are at 1 gallon, you proably can't do that.

Option 2 top of - which is what you are looking at. It is generally recomended to fill up with the same sort as you are making, so a pino noir would be used to top offa pino noir, but you probably don't have any of this mead lying about to do the top off.

Other options are water, mead, or a bit of honey and water. OF them, I rank the honey and water higher than the water because you won't dilute it as much. You will probably kick off another fermentation, but you should end up with a profile closer to what you have when you rack.

Option 3 marbles. you can use marbles to fill in the bottom of a fermentor. I recomend the glass ones for fish tanks. So this will fill in the bottom of the secondary with displacement.

 

[Kdog22]

I'm going to order some marbles just to have for future need, but i'll probably end up adding some more honey/water to top off. Seems that's about the best option as of right now.

Thanks for the quick response!

 

[JFK]

Make sure when ordering marbles that they are lead free. I have a friend who blew marbles for a living and a lot of them have lead in the glass

 

[ACbrewer]

Make sure when ordering marbles that they are lead free. I have a friend who blew marbles for a living and a lot of them have lead in the glass

This is why I recomend looking for ones used for wine making, or for aquarium use. And to still look for lead free. If your container is plastic, you can use stainless steel, but in glass, you want something less likely to chip/break it.

 

[JFK]

Yea aquarium marbles are lead free and actually may be better than brewing ones since they have to be safe for fish which can die from the most minor condition changes. I might actually go get some of these myself

 

[Kdog22]

Great advice. Thanks