Anything else?

[DiscipleofDionysus]

So this is my first mead I've ever brewed, strictly beer before, and I'm wondering if there is anything left to take into account before bottling. It's done fermenting and is just sitting in a glass carboy for a couple months.

 

[Setesh]

I've only made 2 meads, but if you made a big mead (18+lbs of honey to 5Gal for example) I can tell you that once you bottle them just forget about them. I kept opening bottles of my first one out of impatience. All I did was disappoint myself and ruin what was potentially really good mead if left alone. After a year they were OK, 2 years pretty tastey and at a little over 3 years now they are amazing! Put them in a nice dark cool corner somewhere and then just ignore them! Patience is definitely key with large meads. I need to try making a smaller one and seeing how that goes. From what I understand you can get away with aging 6 months to a year with smaller meads (12lbs/5Gal).

 

[biochemedic]

FG? Is it stable (presumably it is). If the mead is cleared fully and truly done fermenting, you can package now if you want, or just leave it, or rack it and leave it longer in bulk too. If it's dry, decide if you want to back sweeten it. If so, put in your stabilization additions (metabisulfite and sorbate) and then a few days later, add your backsweetening honey. I generally like to add this then wait a bit longer before bottling to allow things to clear again...even if you don't stir up sediment, there will be some protein haze from the new honey that will need to drop out.