Modern mead-making: do you still rack? how often?

[sweetcell]

a question for those who've had success using TOSNA 2.0 and other "modern" approaches to get good mead in months instead of years: do you still rack to secondary, tertiary, etc? how many times do you typically rack before packaging?

my blackberry melomel just finished a 4 week primary and it's currently in secondary. looks like i got just a little bit of fruit pulp at the bottom of the secondary, but otherwise it's a clean transfer - i left behind a decent amount in the primary vessel, so very little yeast or trub came across.

ideally, i'd like to leave the mead in secondary for a few months then bottle via a bottling bucket (so i guess the mead will be racked one more time). is this crazy? should i plan on racking more often? would the use of some clarifying agents, like SuperKleer, diminish the need for re-racking?

thanks!

 

[Yooper]

a question for those who've had success using TOSNA 2.0 and other "modern" approaches to get good mead in months instead of years: do you still rack to secondary, tertiary, etc? how many times do you typically rack before packaging?

my blackberry melomel just finished a 4 week primary and it's currently in secondary. looks like i got just a little bit of fruit pulp at the bottom of the secondary, but otherwise it's a clean transfer - i left behind a decent amount in the primary vessel, so very little yeast or trub came across.

ideally, i'd like to leave the mead in secondary for a few months then bottle via a bottling bucket (so i guess the mead will be racked one more time). is this crazy? should i plan on racking more often? would the use of some clarifying agents, like SuperKleer, diminish the need for re-racking?

thanks!

I only rack when needed- sometimes more than once or twice, sometimes not. It depends on how much lees form. I rack when there are lees over 1/4" thick, or if there are more than a dusting of lees after 60 days.

 

[bernardsmith]

and to add to Yooper's post you might also think about racking if you add fruit or spices and the like to the secondary. Then you are allowing the alcohol to extract flavors rather than working to ferment any sugars (though of course that will also happen) - so you will want to rack your mead off the fruit or spices or nuts and the like when the alcohol has extracted all the flavor you want from the additions.

 

[CanadianJesus]

I only do BOMMs now. They're so easy and turn out great. I always rack into a secondary vessel after the first month. It's never clear in that time so I add sparkolloid and in a week or two it's completely clear. I then either add spices suspended in a bag made with tied up cheesecloth until I get the flavour I want, or put it straight in bottles after it's clear. I bottle directly from the carboy now using a bottling wand attached directly to my auto siphon. I find bottling buckets to be a PITA to get not to leak and also just one more thing I need to clean. I let the BOMM rest in the bottles for a month or two and everyone who I have shared it with loves it. Oh yeah, and for my spiced BOMMs, I always back sweeten to an SG of 1.020-1.030. I find that level of sweetness complements my mix of spices perfectly. I step feed the honey to get it to that level so that I don't over shoot it and have 'accidentally' raised the AVB as high as 17%. People love those lol.

I'm actually about to do a 5 gallon BOMM methleglyn in a week or so. After that, or even during I'm planning on starting a single gallon of a BOMM cyser with some new local wildflower honey I have just discovered near me. I'm only doing a single gallon because I'm testing how this honey works in a mead, but it's the best local wildflower honey I have ever tasted.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I typically rack one time after a few months, once the bulk of sediment has dropped out.

 

[Dan_K]

I just made a raspberry melomel that I ended up racking 3 times. It turned out awesome and very clear. It used a bunch of raspberries and the racking helped me get rid of seeds and sludge. I have noticed that if I don't rack at least once my mead will still be pretty hazy, even a month later.

 

[biochemedic]

Fruit and such definitely adds a different set of needs, but for a regular mead, I hardly ever rack. I let it clear in primary, and then it goes straight into a keg. I suppose you could argue that that is a "secondary" and in essence, I'm cold crashing the mead. Often though, the mead is consumed right from there, and any bottling that occurs, occurs from the tap.