as the thread title says.. when you rerack, do you use campden tablets and sorbates again?
Im just wondering because Im about to rerack my mead.
Im just wondering because Im about to rerack my mead.
when you rerack mead.. do you use campden tablets and sorbate?
- Thread starter Sourcheese
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If you've already done it once you don't need to stabilize it again. I have known people who will hit it with a campden tablet at every racking because it suppose to help reduce the chance of oxidation, but it your campdens are Sodium Metabisulfite doing so could introduce a salty taste into the mead.
thank you. today Ill rack 7 gallons. just picked up another autosiphon for my 5
gallon and 2 of my 1 gallon batches.
I cant wait till december. Im hoping they will be ready to bottle by then.
gallon and 2 of my 1 gallon batches.
I cant wait till december. Im hoping they will be ready to bottle by then.
I usually start checking the things I have aging at around month 8 and about 75% of my meads seem to be ready for bottling somewhere between month 8 and 12. I'm personally not a big fan of super high alcohol meads which seem to take longer to age and I like my meads at around semi-sweet (1.010-1.015 range) so those may be the reasons that a majority of my stuff seems to be ready to bottle withing a year. Occasionally I do get that stubborn mead though.
After I bottle I usually let them sit for another two or three months to get over any bottle shock.
ya all these are about 14% to 15% range. I didnt use super amounts of honey to make them clock over 15%.
Thank you again for your answers.
Thank you again for your answers.
If you use Potassium Metabisulphite you'll have less of that. Typically you need to treat with sorbate only once. The sulfite dissipates with time and may need to be re-dosed. I usually measure the free SO2, but if I wasn't measuring, I'd probaby use 1/2 Campden tablet about 3 months after stabilizing and a similar amount after each year of bulk aging or just before bottling. I wouldn't add sulfites with each racking.
Edit- That's 1/2 campden per gallon.
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well I learned my lesson. I just tasted my mead. 10 gallons. Im almost prepared to dump all of it. it came out way to salty for my taste. Either it was the campden or the nutreants I used but its just to salty for me to enjoy. Ill give it one more month to see if maybe it goes away and then Im tossing it.
Ill try this mead making 1 more time. best mead I made so far was honey raison and cinammin stick. Ill make that one again I think though. that was with the white labs yeast.
Ill try this mead making 1 more time. best mead I made so far was honey raison and cinammin stick. Ill make that one again I think though. that was with the white labs yeast.
You can always use it as a marinade... that's what I'm doing with my salty wild grape batch, at least the stuff I haven't encouraged to turn to vinegar...
I usually start checking the things I have 
aging at around month 8 and about 75% of my meads seem to be ready for bottling somewhere between month 8 and 12.
Is this just a flavor thing? Being completely new to this I was under the impression that fermentation was typically over with well before that.
I've read several places that it take a while for it to be "Age". Does it have to be bulk aged or can you bottle it and let it age in the bottle?
Also being new to this what exactly are you looking for as far as indicators it's "Ready".
Feel free to direct me to threads where this has already been discussed...but I'm so clueless here I'm not even sure what I would search for
~Matt
aging at around month 8 and about 75% of my meads seem to be ready for bottling somewhere between month 8 and 12.Is this just a flavor thing? Being completely new to this I was under the impression that fermentation was typically over with well before that.
I've read several places that it take a while for it to be "Age". Does it have to be bulk aged or can you bottle it and let it age in the bottle?
Also being new to this what exactly are you looking for as far as indicators it's "Ready".
Feel free to direct me to threads where this has already been discussed...but I'm so clueless here I'm not even sure what I would search for
~Matt
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe bulk aging allows for a more uniform product. I know I'm waiting for my JAOM to age a little more and become more cohesive before I bottle it. I like it and couldn't resist drinking the excess I was going to use to top up, but it was tasty, even if I could still taste the components and it was a little warm. I need to make more, sigh.
Bulk versus bottle, I think you hit the big one there. I've had different bottles from the same batch taste different but you can be pretty sure that it all tastes the same coming from the carboy.
There really is no magical time or indicator that says something has aged enough, each batch is different, some get quickly better with a small amount of age, some never get better, some continue to slowly improve with age... I've had good examples of all three in my wines and meads. I'm told that in drier meads the honey's flavour often goes dormant for the first 6 months to a year but I generally keep my traditionals sweet enough that the honey character is always there... and I've had some melomels where the fruit flavour wasn't too strong but I still can't taste the honey...
There really is no magical time or indicator that says something has aged enough, each batch is different, some get quickly better with a small amount of age, some never get better, some continue to slowly improve with age... I've had good examples of all three in my wines and meads. I'm told that in drier meads the honey's flavour often goes dormant for the first 6 months to a year but I generally keep my traditionals sweet enough that the honey character is always there... and I've had some melomels where the fruit flavour wasn't too strong but I still can't taste the honey...
So really "Aging" is more about "Taste" then it is about anything else? So if a person racks their mead, get's to a clarity they are happy with, fermentation has stopped and it "Tastes good" then it's good to go?
If you bottle it at this point it can still age and will typically get "Better", correct?
~Matt
Matt, that's it exactly! Unless you are a commercial business and/or absolutely require repeatable (and specific) results, then do what tastes good. Make it the way you like it, then develop your technique around that. As far as I have read, meads generally get better as they age... I wouldn't know, haven't had any sit longer than 8 months without me glutting on it.
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So I've been bothered by a recipe I've been using for a dry melomel. It has add 3 Camdens at first racking and 2 at the second. I do want mine to ferment all the way out but I'll be carbonating at bottling. I get 0.994-999 at bottling every batch (avg. about 996). I've done it a day before bottling to kill anything that might be left before I add yeast honey and bottle, but not in between. is it safe to say that they can be skipped altogether? I was under the impression that unless you are leaving a bunch of sugar behind or it's low alcohol (the horrors!) there's no need to do anything with it because the alcohol has pretty much killed the beasties off or knocked them down so low they can't recover without a new load of sugar. I start off at 1.045-1.065 so they aren't especially low alcohol. The only reason I can possibly think of is contamination but lots of reading has convinced me that unless you do something really stupid it's next to impossible to contaminate a batch of mead. I use fruit so I add Fermax 3x and stir the heck out of them with a clean but not sterilized metal spoon to punch the cap down every day until the fizzing dies down. Fermented in buckets with loosely fitted lids for ~2 weeks, racked onto more fruit in a bucket with an airlock, reracked to an airlocked carboy when SG is approaching 1, and left to sit for 3-6 weeks before bottling.
