Second batch of mead, but quick question

[Cambriel]

Hi folks,

So I just tasted my second batch of mead, which I cooked up in February of 2011. It's been sitting quietly in the cellar all this time, and it's absolutely crystal clear. I grabbed a quick taste with a wine thief, and it's got a little heat on the back end and a very definite honey taste to it. I liked it, but I can't really be sure it's "done". I'd imagine it's finished with all the fermentation it's going to do, but it's much sweeter than the last batch. I'm attributing this to using a proper mead yeast, whereas the first batch I used a champagne yeast and it came out quite dry.

I'm largely happy with the flavor, but I want to avoid any bottle bombs (I had one last time). After this long, should I need to worry about campden and such? I've never used a stabilizer before, so it's all new to me.

 

[fatbloke]

If you took and recorded gravity readings, you can take a current one and work out whether there is residual sugars, what the strength is and whether there's any room in the alcohol tolerance for restarting of the ferment.

Or you can just say what the hell, and hit it with sulphite and sorbate, then after a day or two, bottle it.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Which yeast did you use and did you happen to take hydrometer readings? thats the only definitive way to tell if it's done. If you just mixed the batch and set it on a shelf without degassing or aerating or anything the yeast may have stalled some thats why it's sweet, or maybe the yeast you used is just meant to finish that way. IMO you'd be better off racking into a secondary and letting it age some, but thats just my personal preference over using stabilizing chemicals.

 

[Cambriel]

I took a reading originally, but that was before a rather messy rebuild in my garage and I'm not likely to find the notebook it was recorded in. Should have written it on the carboy, but sadly that's a lesson I learned after this batch was set down.

I'm kindof a mead newb, so I'm not sure what degassing is in this context. Aerating, I gave it a good long stir before I sealed it up, but I haven't touched it since.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

basically degassing is doing the same thing as aerating for the first third (or first few days of fermenting) some argue it's degassing, some that its just re-aerating and really it's kind of both, it helps get the disolved CO2 out and more O2 in which makes the yeast happy. Once you get past the first third, it's not set in stone that one third of the fermentation is the exact cutoff so don't stress the math too precisely if you go by hydrometer readings but it is becoming kind of the standard. I actually sort of use a lazy method, I just hold the fermenter and sort of rotate it back and forth pretty quickly, reminds me of a washing machine effect, it agitates the must and I get all kinds of gas escaping, I take the airlock out to do it now, at first I didnt and I had the liquid (i fill mine with sanitizer) misting pretty good out the little holes in the top. Just don't shake or swirl or stir it til it erupts all over.

 

[Cambriel]

Ah, I see. I'm kinda well past that at 14 months I think. =/

I was hoping to be able to siphon off a bottle and give to a friend who is moving away this Friday, but it doesn't sound like that's a very good idea. I mean, it's totally drinkable now, I just need to let them know it needs a little bottle time.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

at 14 months you not only have it decently aged but you also have a good chance at bottling without it turning into a bomb. if you have something to secondary it to, do so, cold crash it meaning chill it in a fridge at least for a day, then carefully rack it into something like your primary again if there is any sediment, then bottle from there and you're likely to be golden. Just be gentle with it so you're not adding a bunch of oxygen and sanitize everything thoroughly.

No worries I didnt degas my first couple of batches either, hadn't heard of it. Thats the beauty of making mead, you will never stop learning how to make a better bottle.

 

[Golddiggie]

With a batch I had go a full year before bottling I racked it to a keg (with a CO2 push, after purging the carboy with CO2), purged the keg of air, then released the pressure from it. I let it chill in my beer fridge for about two weeks and then bottled right from the keg. I didn't use a normal beer bottling setup (not the Beer Gun or Bowie fittings) but simply set up my bottling wand onto some tubing, that I then connected to the liquid ball lock. I used minimal pressure on the keg to get the mead to flow into bottles. I then hit each bottle with some CO2 (from the hose) to make sure no air was sitting on top before I corked the bottles.

Worked out extremely well. For one thing, I had the keg on the floor, which made it easier to see how much was left (by lifting it slightly). With the keg being in the brew fridge, it was also cold crashed. I plan on using this method to bottle all my meads now. Another benefit was I didn't need to put about three gallons of finished mead into the bottling bucket. I'm actually using the bottling bucket, now, to catch grain from the mill.

 

[Cambriel]

I've got a pretty good system for bottling and general liquid transfer at this point. There's a shower in the spare bathroom in my basement, part of what used to be an inlaw suite and is now just my game room. I have a two tier stainless rack in the shower that I rotate carboys on and off of. Primaries go on the top rack, and I keep empties directly below. That way all I have to do is just let gravity do its thing without ever moving them around and the sediment remains settled.

Bottling just becomes a matter of laying out clean bottles along the bottom, filling em up, and then rinsing the whole thing with the shower once I'm done. Plus, if a carboy lock ever blows, it's in about the easiest possible place to clean up.