Mead in mason jars

[rrain]

Anyone ever use mason jars for bottling? I'm not thinking of boil, just capping in mason jars. Perhaps using one of those foodsaver vacuums. I guess the real question is, does a mason jar act like a regular bottle cap without being boiled?

Also, any insight into the use of green tea vs. black tea? I'm thinking of using a combo of Irish black tea and a chinese green tea with dried blueberries to go along with my 15# of blueberry honey. Thanks.

 

[Janx]

I'm not sure mason jars are designed to withstand pressure, and I think you need to pressure cook or boil the lids so they seal properly, but I could be wrong on both counts. Personally, I'd stick with bottles.

Green tea works well. There's a thread in this forum mentioning Green Tea mead. All tea adds some much needed acidity that helps the yeast be happy in a honey must.

Cheers!

 

[jjsscram]

I used mason jars with my mom when we used to make home made root beer. Just sugar and yeast they took the pressure for about 1 week then my mother put them in the fridge to slow the yeast and they were drank with in 5 weeks not sure how much that info will help you though.

 

[thorgrimnr]

Anyone ever use mason jars for bottling? I'm not thinking of boil, just capping in mason jars. Perhaps using one of those foodsaver vacuums. I guess the real question is, does a mason jar act like a regular bottle cap without being boiled?

Typically Mason Jars seal because the hot liquid inside creates a vacuum. So...you'd have to boil your mead and you don't want to do that...also as mentioned earlier unless the mead was bone dry, you do risk exploding jars.

 

[Ramp]

Thorgrimnr

There is nothing *WRONG* with using mason jars to bottle your mead, just not commonly done. People store jams and jellies in mason jars all the time. In order to seal the jar and to ensure that all the beasties inside the fruit mixture are 100% dead, the mason jars are generally bathed in a nice hot bath. It is not necessary to cook the contents, as that could very well change the flavor of what you spent a long time making. All you need do is get the temperature high enough to kill off the yeasts and other bacterias.

If you are storing a sweeter mead in mason jars, be sure that all the yeasts are dead. If you are wrong, you could end up with bottle-bombs . Should you be trying to avoid using chemicals, there are several ways of killing off the yeast. You can cold stabalize the mead, wait for all the yeast to drop to the bottom, then re-rack; wait a week to ensure that all the yeast are gone. Or you can let the yeast run it's course, re-rack when it is clear, and back-sweeten to taste. Or you can heat up the mason jar with the mead in it. The quickest way is to rack onto Sorbates and Sulfites...which is a whole 'nother discussion about the evils of chemicals !!

Anyway you do it, just make sure you enjoy the end product!

Cheers!