Hello! I just started meadmaking in the last two months and so far I think everything is going well (
). I bought 20 lb of wildflower and made a dry, semi, sweet, and sack to get a bit of experience with different types.
For primary, I used buckets with cloths on top, held down with rubber bands. Each were in primary for around 14 to 18 days. I racked them to secondary in 1 gallon carboys with airlocks. The OF and FG for each were right around where my book suggested, which was encouraging. It has been around five weeks in secondary and things are looking good. One has started to clear almost to the point of being able to read through it, but the other three have a while yet. My book tells me when they are clear enough to read through, rack to final and bulk age until ready to bottle.
My question is: for the bulk age in "final", do I still need an airlock or should that just be a cap on the carboy? My book specifically says to add an airlock for secondary, but doesn't specify that one is needed for final (nor does it specify one isn't needed). I did make a good faith attempt to find an answer to this on the forum before posting, but didn't see one with obvious searches and admittedly didn't review all of the thousands of posts.
I appreciate any responses, and also general recommendations/tips for a beginner.
). I bought 20 lb of wildflower and made a dry, semi, sweet, and sack to get a bit of experience with different types.For primary, I used buckets with cloths on top, held down with rubber bands. Each were in primary for around 14 to 18 days. I racked them to secondary in 1 gallon carboys with airlocks. The OF and FG for each were right around where my book suggested, which was encouraging. It has been around five weeks in secondary and things are looking good. One has started to clear almost to the point of being able to read through it, but the other three have a while yet. My book tells me when they are clear enough to read through, rack to final and bulk age until ready to bottle.
My question is: for the bulk age in "final", do I still need an airlock or should that just be a cap on the carboy? My book specifically says to add an airlock for secondary, but doesn't specify that one is needed for final (nor does it specify one isn't needed). I did make a good faith attempt to find an answer to this on the forum before posting, but didn't see one with obvious searches and admittedly didn't review all of the thousands of posts.
I appreciate any responses, and also general recommendations/tips for a beginner.
