When is too long in the secondary....is there a limit?

[Stimpreny]

So this was my first attempt at a mead. I made two batches. First batches was in a plastic gallon milk jug. It was a basic JAOM recipe loaded towards the high side of sweet. I used some soft mandarin oranges left over Christmas cut into quarters, raisins for nutrient and bread yeast. I added so cinnamon and vanilla extract for taste. I used an airlock from my beer equipment. Within an hour everything was bubbling away and I let it go till it was done and racked into another plastic milk jug. At this point everything was delicious, between my self and the neighbors the little gallon batch didn' last to long. The second batch was very simple 5 gallon honey. water. Champagne yeast. And yeast nutrient. All mixed into brewers pail and covered lightly with the lid. That all went well and once that was all done I racked into a glass carboy with an airlock. I allowed that to settle for a month and then reracked again into another glass carboy. There it has sat for the last 12 months.
It was never my intent to leave it that long but between packing up our house moving into an apartment for 3 months and moving into a new house I never found the time to bottle.
I have read some other threads saying that they reracked every three months, but I couldn't find any saying any maximum.
Any thoughts? Have a wrecked my mead?

 

[growlrr]

If I read this correctly, you have racked it twice already which should have taken out the vast majority of the yeast and other bits and pieces. As long as the airlock didn't go dry, it wasn't in direct sunlight for a year and it is not sitting on a ton of lees, I really doubt you've wrecked anything and quite possibly have a very nice mead in the works. I think after the second racking, most mead makers would call your situation "long term bulk aging" (whether deliberate or not!)

 

[Stimpreny]

I have refreshed the water in the airlock a few times but it has never gone dry.
I took hints from a recipe for "The devils aphrodisiac" mead where if I remember correctly his brew was in the primary for a very long time extracting goodies out of chocolate and refining in the secondary for another long period. And he had commented that although some may see it completely unnecessary that a mead could survive for years with no ill effects before bottling. And I just read on another website this quote "When you have finished your last bottle of mead is probably when you should have a bottled it" or something to that effect.
Thanks for your reply. I have a renewed desire to bottle this batch ....and to start sampling!
Have you ever tried to brew a Braggot?

 

[bernardsmith]

Many wines are aged "sur lie" - on the fine lees, and this is tends to result in more complex flavors. So, all other things being equal, what you did was good.

Braggots? Yes. But I tend to make mine using DME rather than all grain and I tend to look for a good extract rather than a good "style" of beer. I recently made a braggot that used chocolate malt (the grain, not the milkshake) and it came out really good.