When to bottle age instead of bulk

[BriosBrew]

Newb question. I searched for an answer and didn’t find a good one, so sorry if there’s a thread I missed.

I know mead has to age forever, but what are the advantages/differences in bulk aging versus bottle? I have a raspberry melomel that has been aging for three months. All signs of fermentation stopped a month ago, it’s been racked twice — once onto more raspberries, once to clear.

I’d love to stabilize and bottle it now, and have the carboy freed up, and let the melomel age another 6-9 months in bottle.

Is there a reason this would be inferior to letting it continue to age out in the carboy?

 

[bernardsmith]

Mead should not need to age "forever". Of course ,the higher the ABV the longer the mead needs to age but low ABV meads can be ready to drink in 4-8 weeks after pitching the yeast. Forever aging suggests poor protocols - poor nutrition, under-pitching, failure to degas and so forth...
Bulk aging has the advantage of allowing sediment to drop out of suspension before you bottle but if that ain't a problem for you then you could bottle sooner rather than later but allowing a mead or wine to age on fine lees enables the yeast to clean up after itself and produce desirable flavors that people often say are not always produced when you age in the bottle.