Transporting a Carboy

[la_zonon]

Because of a logistical mismanagement on my part, I now have to move out of my apartment with a five gallon carboy of melomel in mid-fermentation.

The fermentation began at the start of December. I've been advised to give it at least six months before I bottle it. So, firstly, would it be too risky to bottle it at the end of this month?

Secondly, I'm wondering whether it is more beneficial to transfer it to secondary before or after I move it? Does it even matter?

 

[Golddiggie]

Is it still fermenting, or is that part done? If you're not getting any more CO2 from the yeast, you could simply pull the airlock and put a solid stopper in the bunghole to keep the current CO2 in the carboy. That should make it safe to transport. Just let it settle long enough after the move before you try to rack it. If you rack it first, you'll want to top off the carboy with CO2 to ensure it doesn't get oxidized in the move.

IMO, at just over a month in, it's not even close to being ready for bottles. Depending on the OG/strength, I would wait at least 6 months (more likely 9-12) before bottling it. I typically rack my mead 3-4 times before it finally gets bottled, depending on what I'm doing to it. I have three batches in process right now. Two of them have been racked into new vessels after a month (fermentation has finished, and the yeast used is best to get off of sooner rather than later). The third one is still going though. All three were started on the same weekend (start of December), but the third is going to 21% (the other two to 14%). Even though I could be moving within a month, or so (depends on a couple of job opportunities) I plan on starting another batch, or two, of mead this holiday weekend. That way they should be ready for drinking around the holidays this year (November/December) or early 2013.