topping up and reracking

[Fire_travels]

My two Mels. have been racked in to there 3 secondary!?! and there is some good head space left in the 1 gal jugs!

What I want to do is rack them again in to another 1 gallon jug and top off and then leave them for 6 months.... I will be away from home for 6 months.

Is this a good Ideal?

Or should I just top up and leave?

oo yeah last time I check the ABV was like 15-17% I am not worred about this dropping we don;t need it to be that high!

Thanks

 

[Fire_travels]

sorry for the repost but I wanted to add a pic! not sure if you can see well but there is some white stuff floating on the surface! didn't smell or look like mold!

 

[Yooper]

I can't see the "white stuff" but I can see that you have WAY too much head space in there, so you do need to top up. I rack whenever I "have" to, that is, whenever there are lees. So, maybe every 30-45 days at first, then maybe once or twice more before bulk aging them.

So, if you have lees, go ahead and rack and top up. If you don't, you can just top up. What are you topping up with, though? If it were me, I'd rack the mead from one gallon to top up the other, and then rack the rest into a smaller jug. Then, you're not watering down your mead. I use a one gallon jug, and then a large wine bottle, or something like that.

 

[ChillyP]

You could also add a little honey water mix and then top up with that. It'll ferment a little but not the same way as when you initially fermented. I normally do this till the alcohol gets to strong for the yeast.