Aging sweet mead?

[Meadpyro]

So I just got done racking my traditional mead. It's a 1gal traditional mead made with 3lbs wildflower honey and D-47 yeast. OG was 1.110. Used GoFerm, degassed twice a day for 4 or 5 days and used Fermaid O at 1.080. After 16 days from start I racked, took a gravity reading, and sampled. SG was 1.020 and the taste was awesome! It was sweet and had an alcohol rating of 11.8% so it had a warming feel to it. So I stopped the fermentation by heating it in hot water at around 125°F.
Having said all that, do you need to age sweet mead? I thought it tasted pretty good but then again I don't know if it could be better or if aging is more for refining dry mead. And I've also heard that you only want age certain ABV% for certain amounts of time or it could actually spoil. How long would I age this mead and do I age it in the carboy or in bottles?

 

[Meadpyro]

Forgot to post pictures

 

[bernardsmith]

Hiya Meadpyro - and welcome. While I wouldn't worry myself sick about this there is a great deal of headroom in that carboy. During active fermentation headroom (IMO) is not a problem. Quite the opposite - you need the space to allow the mead to froth and foam during that stage. The yeast , though is pumping out CO2 and that gas is forcing out any air. But after active fermentation has ceased the yeast stop producing more CO2 and what is in the carboy will eventually equalize with the air outside the vessel. Yeast may need oxygen in the early stage of the life of the cells, but your mead can taste decrepit and old in a bad way (not 'aged' but old) so unless you have a smaller vessel you can rack (siphon) this mead into or you have something you can use to fill up that headroom I would consider aging your mead in bottles... BUT before you transfer any of this into bottles you really need to make certain that a) the gravity is rock solid stable - that is to say the yeast is not fermenting and b) there is essentially no residual sugar for any yeast to ferment and c) you have degassed the mead (removed any CO2 that would have saturated the mead). That gas can expand if the temperature rises or if any particles of protein or tannin in the mead drop out of solution and cause the gas to nucleate - and the CO2 can then pop the cork of any bottle and force a column of mead to be expelled from the neck of the bottle.
That said, oxidation, does not take place in a day or a week so you don't need to become neurotic about the headroom but you do need to start thinking about your next steps.

 

[Meadpyro]

Hiya Meadpyro - and welcome. While I wouldn't worry myself sick about this there is a great deal of headroom in that carboy. During active fermentation headroom (IMO) is not a problem. Quite the opposite - you need the space to allow the mead to froth and foam during that stage. The yeast , though is pumping out CO2 and that gas is forcing out any air. But after active fermentation has ceased the yeast stop producing more CO2 and what is in the carboy will eventually equalize with the air outside the vessel. Yeast may need oxygen in the early stage of the life of the cells, but your mead can taste decrepit and old in a bad way (not 'aged' but old) so unless you have a smaller vessel you can rack (siphon) this mead into or you have something you can use to fill up that headroom I would consider aging your mead in bottles... BUT before you transfer any of this into bottles you really need to make certain that a) the gravity is rock solid stable - that is to say the yeast is not fermenting and b) there is essentially no residual sugar for any yeast to ferment and c) you have degassed the mead (removed any CO2 that would have saturated the mead). That gas can expand if the temperature rises or if any particles of protein or tannin in the mead drop out of solution and cause the gas to nucleate - and the CO2 can then pop the cork of any bottle and force a column of mead to be expelled from the neck of the bottle.
That said, oxidation, does not take place in a day or a week so you don't need to become neurotic about the headroom but you do need to start thinking about your next steps.

I had an idea to add CO2 in the headspace by placing a small chunk of dry ice and placing the airlock. What you think?

 

[bernardsmith]

Never used dry ice so I can't say, but would you not have to have some means of monitoring the volume of CO2 that was in the vessel? How would you know when the air on the outside and the CO2 in the inside had exchanged? Would there be action in the airlock as if yeast were pumping out CO2... or would this action quickly come to a stop and you would have to use some other means to determine how much CO2 was trapped in the vessel (strike a match and see if it is immediately extinguished if you stick it inside the mouth of the jar? )

 

[piojo]

There is significant oxygen exchange through most sealing mechanisms, including the stopper and airlock. I suspect it doesn't happen during fermentation when the inside is at a slightly higher pressure than the outside, but after pasteurizing, I don't think you can keep it out.

As for dry ice, please either use food grade or do research into what the common dry ice contaminants are.

Some meadmakers say you should age while in contact with the lees (← this is a simplification), but I'm not sure if that applies when the yeast is dead. But there is no reason not to age in bottles! Most of my meads taste better a month after bottling. But beware: some taste bad after a year. Sulfiting and bottling without headspace would have prevented that problem, but I didn't know that at the time.