Aging mead?

[SHAIV]

I made a gallon of plain mead a few months ago here's the notes I have

Sept 6, 2015 Mead, OG 1.130, d47 yeast, 3 lbs wildflower honey, yeast nutrient and energizer added
Racked* at 3 weeks 1.030 and topped off with water
Oct 22 racked at 1.014

Now it's probably about time to bottle soon I would think. My wife is pregnant with our first born, a baby boy. I thought it would be cool to save a bottle for his 21st bday. Should I add any sulphite or sorbate? And I may try to get a cool bottle I can cork, cap and wax seal it so it will not be getting oxidation at all. I've tried to search for info on aging mead. From what I've gathered people say to just make sure it's sealed up good. I couldn't find anything about sulphite. I also don't know if he will be alergic to sulphites. My mother in law is alergic to them so it may be possible. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GHawk]

I'm new to mead, as well. What I understand is that honey is a well preserved, natural product that can store for decades without any additions as long as it's not introduced to any serious infections. I would think being VERY careful with your bottling process and a well sanitized atmosphere would make for a great mead by then.

 

[Vex3521]

If there's any clouding I would add if I needed to bottle out and couldn't wait longer in the carboy, but as a preference since I prefer mead to not be cloudy...a lot of folks are fine with mead that way. Especially if there's a chance of an allergy I wouldn't risk it. As long as you're sealing well and have no leakage at all I think it'll be fine and what an Awesome present that would be on that 21st birthday. Also for wax capping, there's a neat one made for glue guns that's easier to control application if you hadn't seen it before.

 

[SHAIV]

Oh its very clear! and kinda golden red colored. Looks so delicious

 

[bernardsmith]

So you are planning to bottle your mead at a gravity of 1.014 - that is quite sweet... but more to the point, those 14 points of sugar tell me that potentially they can still ferment and in 21 years they are very likely to. Fourteen points of sugar is a hell of a lot of CO2 for a cork and bottle to hold back. If I were a betting man I would not bet on your son to be to have an intact bottle of mead at his 21st.
What to do? That is a wee bit complex. You say that your MiL is "allergic" to sulfites.. Of course she may be, but by allergic you mean that she has allergic reactions: so, for example, she literally cannot breathe and needs the help of an epi-pen? or you mean that when she eats dried fruits , for example, she breaks out in hives? Or do you mean that when she drinks wine she often has a headache... headaches are not allergic reactions, and do not signify an allergy - alcohol can produce headaches - not necessarily the sulfites in the alcohol.
So that said, you may want to add k-meta and K-sorbate to prevent the yeast from reproducing - assuming that you have aged the mead long enough to ensure that there are very few active yeast cells... or you may want to use a sterile filter to filter the mead from the yeast (sterile in that the mesh of the filter is too small to permit yeast cells to pass through... ).

 

[SHAIV]

No I'm not bottling at 1.014, that's where it was when I racked to tertiary over a month ago. I may try to bottle before Christmas and give a bottle to my mother in law for Christmas. She doesn't drink anything with sulphites in it. I don't know how severe the allergy is she says she allergic though

 

[SHAIV]

Also the yeast should have died by now. D47 only has a tolerance of 12-14% I believe 1.130 to 1.014 should be in the 15% range correct? How does that work? I was thinking it would finish pretty sweet because of the alcohol tolerance of that yeast but it seems to have gone past it

 

[TexasWine]

Also the yeast should have died by now. D47 only has a tolerance of 12-14% I believe 1.130 to 1.014 should be in the 15% range correct? How does that work? I was thinking it would finish pretty sweet because of the alcohol tolerance of that yeast but it seems to have gone past it

15.2%....

Yeast can, and often will, go beyond the stated tolerance range. Ask anyone who has used a step feeding regime to eek out a little more ABV from their yeast! No personal experience with this, but it's common practice.

 

[Matrix4b]

I would say that sulfates do not typically harm or cause allergies to come about. It isn't like a red wine. You use so little of it, I actually just us Potassium Sorbate myself. The important thing here is to kill the yeast or let it die out. Now at this point there will be very little yeast to do it's thing. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. D-47 is an aggressive yeast so it would garner some watching for so long of an aging.

Here is what I would do:

0. Oak it: Put in 1 oz of Oak chips of cubes, light toast is fine, for 2 weeks. The difference will be amazing, it smooths out all the harsh edges and helps it ages well.

1. Bottle when clear, sounds like you are there. You say it's red and clear. So that is good. I would still run a clarifier on it. One such clarifier that comes to mine is Bentonite or Sparkloid. Sparkloid is my favorite.

2. It sounds like you are corking it. Wine Bottle? Personally, I like caps and use 12 oz beer bottles by in either case, I would wax top them.

3. Check on the bottles every 5 years or so, you may need to re-bottle to lower pressure.

 

[SHAIV]

Yes very clear. There is almost no yeast in the bottom also. I think thats a good sign. Can you buy oak chips that are sterilized or you have to boil them before adding?

View attachment 1448974977193.jpg

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

About those sulfites- because you do not add sulfites to a fermented product doesn't mean it is actually sulfite free since the fermentation process naturally creates some sulfite. I am not sure of how much would be in a mead vs a grape based wine, but you need to know for MIL's wellbeing, especially if she is truly allergic.

Your mead looks lovely, btw.

 

[SerifSansSerif]

I'm new to mead, as well. What I understand is that honey is a well preserved, natural product that can store for decades without any additions as long as it's not introduced to any serious infections. I would think being VERY careful with your bottling process and a well sanitized atmosphere would make for a great mead by then.

Honey by itself is, but mead is not necessarily.

Honey has too little water in it naturally to allow for much growth. That's why people add water to it to make mead. (basically making is susceptible to infection).

GENERALLY, a higher ABV will stay preserved longer, for similar reasons as honey: lower water content, and the alcohol tends to inhibit growth.

But where as honey is 20% water (or less), home brews still tend to be 80%+ water still, and exposure to the elements or to the air can cause a brew to go bad very quickly.

And if you leave sugars in your brew, that's just more carbohydrates to feed wild strains of yeast and bacteria with.

Generally, a cool (temperature regulated), clean, dry and dark storage area is ideal. Like a wine cellar!

When in doubt, turn to the wine people to talk about storage, and remember that wikipedia can be a friend.

 

[honeycon]

I had a mead sit in 1 gallon carboy for 5 months @1.004 SG. 16% ABV It was not stabilized and it bottle fermented to below 1.00 in about 1 week.That was with KI-V1116 yeast. I believe the tiny bit of lees were stirred up and activated the yeast.
Another 1 gallon sat for 6 months @ 1.00 using D-47. It was at 16% ABV also. I added 7 teaspoons at bottling to bring SG up a tiny bit for flavor. The corks on 3 of them popped out in 2 weeks. That was using #9 corks. So your mead may not be ready to bottle unless stabilized first.

 

[SHAIV]

Yeah that's true. Well maybe I should wait a while. No reason to rush it. I could wait till March to bottle. By then it'll be 6 months old. And the baby will be about here then too. I may need to use some campden or something to kill the yeast. I figured they would be dead by now but guess not. I do have some campden tablets that my dad gave me from his old brewing days. He gave me all his stuff. Who knows how old they are but they should still be good right? They are in the original packaging still