Lees in bottom of bottles

[milleruszk]

I bottled this mead about 3 months ago and now it has cleared nicely. But I have about 1/8" of lees on the bottom of the bottles. What should I do? Should I re-bottle? Should I leave it alone? Will the lees effect the taste? I guess I was over eager to bottle and should have left it in the secondary ferment longer. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

 

[CKuhns]

I would leave it alone, no need to re-bottle. The lees in the bottle shouldn't effect the flavor unless a lot of "gross" lees were captured. Gross lees are the lees that you typically find at the bottom of the carboy before racking. If you just had some haze in your mead when bottling then most of that is likely yeast and shouldn't be too big an issue.

Store them upright or at an angle to let the lees settle to the bottom. I believe the lees effect the taste if they get in your glass. (Its a personal preference thing... My sons kind of like the flavor of the lees from Cote Des Blanc Yeast, I don't.)

What i would suggest is put the bottles you plan to drink in a fridge for a day or two. (The cold seems to help condense / compress the lees. No basis in fact just seems to work for me.) Without tipping it too much let it warm to whatever temp you like for serving. Then decant the mead from the lees by very slowly pouring off the mead into your glass or another container. You can watch the neck of the bottle to see when the lees start to get out of the bottle with the mead and just stop when they hit the mouth of the bottle.

If done well you will only leave behind a couple of ounces of mead and most if not all the sediment. They will be kind of "fluffy" and decanting will require a bit of a steady hand and slow consistent pour without stopping.

 

[milleruszk]

CKuhns, Thanks for your suggestions. I am new at making mead and you have saved me from myself. I would have worried about these bottles and probably would have made more work for myself.

 

[CKuhns]

Welcome to the hobby! Enjoy!

 

[bernardsmith]

Typically, you might get a dusting of sediment in a bottle especially if you are making a fruit wine or mead (melomel) but if you are getting a significant layer of lees in the bottom of a bottle you may be bottling too quickly. Certainly, yeast will drop out of suspension but just about every cell should have been removed before you bottle and fruit particles - tannins and some color and other compounds drop out and again, you should be pretty confident that your bottles are going to be clear before you bottle. If you are making very small batches then the likelihood is that you will have drunk the mead before any lees will fall out of suspension and if you are making a large batch then you may want to wait 6 -9 months or longer before you bottle (racking every two or three months to help clear the mead and remove the sediment from your honey wine...

 

[milleruszk]

bernardsmith Thanks for the reply.......As an anxious newcomer I probably did bottle too soon.