Quick bit of advice

[JordanC92]

My meads been Brewing for just over a week now, there is a build up of about 1 inch (or just over that) of sediment at the bottom of the demijon.

Should I move it into a secondary demijon or leave it a little longer?

Also I lost about 2/3 inches of liquid due to overfilling and it bubbling out of the air lock, when i do go to transfer it would it be OK to mix water and honey and add it to the new demijod? (this should make up the loss)

Thanks
Jordan

Fermentation has slowed down a good bit as well

 

[Maylar]

Leave it in primary until it's done fermenting. You need a hydrometer to know that. Top-up is OK.

 

[NotAnyMore]

Best to wait until primary fermentation is finished before racking.

Topping up is fine, but if you add more sugars before stabilizing it will resume fermenting

 

[bernardsmith]

What's the actual volume you are aiming for and what was the starting gravity. I don't know about others but I am always loathe to dilute any mead I have made simply to remove headroom. I tend to use a bucket as my primary - loosely covered - so there is never any question about losing must or mead through the airlock. Airlocks are for secondary fermenters.

But what is lost is lost - Often - IMO - a better solution than diluting your mead is to look for a smaller secondary. If you had 3 gallons and now you have two gallons plus.. then transfer what you have to two 1 gallon carboys and use 1.5 L bottles for the remainder. If you started off with 5 gallons so transfer what you have into one 3 gallon, one 1 gallon and the remainder into large wine bottles. You can get drilled bungs that seal bottles and fit airlocks.

We are so quick to want to ferment water but you know, we are not miracle workers. We cannot turn water into wine... And however delicious your water might be it's still only water. (OK I am exaggerating but only a mite)...

 

[Maylar]

As a point of reference in support of Bernard's post, here's a photo of my 2018 cider after 2 rackings. 6 gallons became a 3 gallon, 1 gallon, 1/2 gallon, and a beer bottle's worth. Can't have too many jugs in the brew room...

 

[bernardsmith]

Nice and clear, Maylar, but you seem to have lost a lot of the cider. Was that because of eager tastings or because of some other happenstance?

 

[TimKonn2]

As a point of reference in support of Bernard's post, here's a photo of my 2018 cider after 2 rackings. 6 gallons became a 3 gallon, 1 gallon, 1/2 gallon, and a beer bottle's worth. Can't have too many jugs in the brew room...

was 6 gals in your primary? then you went to 5 and ended with this?

 

[Maylar]

Nice and clear, Maylar, but you seem to have lost a lot of the cider. Was that because of eager tastings or because of some other happenstance?

Racked once at the end of primary (lots o' lees), again after clearing in secondary, and I spilled some on the brew room floor when a bottle tipped over. Happenstance, indeed. Hate losing precious cider.

 

[bernardsmith]

And for JordanC9 - two things you might also do to reduce the shortage is
1. Use a bucket as your primary -That means that you design the original volume to be a pint or two larger than the volume you intend to rack into your secondary. That means that you are not having to look for some way to reduce the headroom you are left with but quite the opposite - you looking for bottles to hold the excess.
2. The other thing you might consider is transferring the lees and what else is left after racking into a sanitized mason jar and allowing that jar to sit undisturbed in your fridge for a day or two. You will see that the lees compact and the liquid rises and invariably you will find that you have another half pint or more of clear mead or wine you can add to the secondary if you do have headroom.