Bottle or leave in secondary?

[VolunteerBrewer]

This is my first attempt at making mead and need some advance.

Full disclosure this was my first attempt at making mead and I've probably already made some rookie mistakes.

I think technically I've made a Melomel.

My originally recipe:

3 gallons water
9 pounds of honey
3 pounds of cherry
1 oz mosaic hops

I put 6 pounds honey and 2 gallons of water into the fermenter only slightly warm to help it dissolve.

The other 3 pounds of honey and one gallon I heated to 160 degress and whirl pooled the hops for 10 minutes.

I then added the cherries and the strained the it and added to fermenter.

I left in primary for 5 weeks and now have it in a 3 gallon glass carboy secondary.

I took a sample at 5 weeks and determined it was a bit "thin" and did add honey to the secondary and stirred in vigorously.

My plan from here as been to let sit in secondary until December, making sure the airlock is filled and in a dark cool place. In December I would move outside on a cold night and cold crash it and then bottle.

Is this the best decision or should I bottle much sooner and let it age in the bottle?

I moved to secondary on: 8/13

My biggest mistake I made I fear is the honey I used. I bought local honey- untreated - but it is a dark dark wildflower honey.

After I did more research I have discovered this mead may need to age for years to actually be good.

 

[biochemedic]

Just some questions to clarify:

What yeast did you use?
Do you have any idea what the temp was when you pitched the yeast?
Did you use any nutrients?
Did you take any gravity readings before adding more honey? This is another way of asking whether or not you think fermentation was actually complete before you transferred...
To clarify, did you add more honey after transferring to a new container on the 13th, or before transfer?

In terms of bottle conditioning vs bulk conditioning...I think it's probably 6 of one or a half dozen of the other. I tend to age in bulk just because it's convenient for me, but if you need the carboy for something else, aging in bottles is fine.

Do NOT worry about the honey. Untreated raw honey is perfectly fine for making mead (I would say that some of us prefer it that way!)

You may need to age it...having a mead that turns around quickly is dependent on multiple variables, including OG, FG/residual sweetness, pitch rate, nutrient additions, fermentation temperatures, yeast strain, pH, etc., etc.

 

[VolunteerBrewer]

Pitched around 68-70 degrees with D-47.

I put in yeast nutrients in the primary but did not add more into the secondary.

I did not get an OG - was a hectic day and just total spaced on this aspect.

I added honey in the secondary after the transfer.

 

[Yooper]

Pitched around 68-70 degrees with D-47.

I put in yeast nutrients in the primary but did not add more into the secondary.

I did not get an OG - was a hectic day and just total spaced on this aspect.

I added honey in the secondary after the transfer.

It's ready to bottle when no new lees drop after at least 60 days, and it's totally completely "read a newspaper through it" clear.

Since you just added fermentables, it'll be a while before it's ready to rack again, let alone bottle.

 

[biochemedic]

Agree with Yooper...although you could speed things up by cold crashing, or using finings (I like SuperKleer).

With D-47 at that temp, you're likely to get some fuesels, so it could take some time to age out. The nutrients will hopefully have helped. When it's all done, if you stabilize and backsweeten a little bit, this can help smooth out some harshness, but ultimately, age may be your friend...

For future reference, I would consider that "primary is for fermentation, and secondary is for clearing" (if you even do a secondary, but that's a whole 'nother story...) If you add additional honey after the fact, it think it's best done in primary, and then only rack after fermentation is completely done (which is often where checking a gravity sample or two over the course of a few days comes in handy).

Still, once it's cleared, my experience has been that there's little difference between bulk aging vs bottles. I've bulk aged in primary for extended periods, and have not experienced any issues with autolysis/off flavors (using a 6 gal carboy). For me it's about whether or not I need the carboy for something else.