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A crack in cap and film.

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Fisher kel Tath

Fisher kel Tath

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 7, 2009
649
0
0
Kalamazoo, MI
I checked my meads that I have aging, and 2 of them (1 gallon batches each) have a crack in the cap ontop of the jug. Should I worry? I put a piece of packing tape over the cracks, but not sure.

Also one of my meads as a little bit of a film on the shoulders of the jug, mead still smells like alcohol, so I don't think anything is wrong with it, but didn't notice it before.
 
Film looks powdery, and is near the surface, or seems to just be by the inside surface of the glass, if so it is probably just stuff settling out. Any idea about what alcohol content these are?
 
Then I'm guessing if it smells okay it is just normal precipitate. If I had a working digital camera I would take a picture of a couple of my carboys with angel dust ( aka precipitate ) inside of the glass. Can't seem to find any pictures by searching through google either.

If you are really worried and can thief out a bit, taste and aroma should be able to clue you in if any is really going south...
 
So these don't have airlocks, and instead have a cap? Is the crack all the way through the cap or just on the surface?
 
Oooh, I haven't seen those before. I get it now.

The packing tape might help a little, but if that crack goes all the way through you need to replace it. If it hasn't grown through yet, replace it next time you change it out. You could try some epoxy to seal it up, but it is probably more cost-effective to spring for a new one and not have to worry. Airlocks & caps are cheap, mead isn't.
 
I had the same problem.

Are these the caps?
38mm_Plastic_Cap_87x160.jpg

I purchased a number of these from my LHBS (under $1 each). I took a finished 5-gallon batch of traditional mead and divided it into five one-gallon batches to back sweeten one, add oak to one, etc. One of the caps split around the inner ring next to the airlock, but the split did not travel any farther. I did not notice the problem until final bottling. There seemed to be no adverse effects on the mead when I sampled it. But now I'm leery about using them in the future.

With the packing tape sealing the crack, you probably have nothing to worry about. Still, you should replace it with a drilled rubber stopper, just to be on the safe side.
 
Yeah, the dusty looking stuff is very probably just dead yeast, solids from the honey and apples coming out of suspension... should mean that lower down it should be getting very clear.
 
I used to use to those caps too, but they crack like crazy so I just gave up on them and now just use big rubber stoppers with holes drilled in them. Much easier to deal with.
 
I can't remember unfortunately, and they don't have it written on them. It's the same stopper size that works for 5 and 6 gallon carboys though if that helps (it just sticks in a little less far).
 
The gallon jugs I have take a 7 1/2. 7 will work but you have to push it all the way down.

You can measure the size of the opening and look up your stopper on a table. Or get one of those "universal" stoppers that fits a wide range of sizes.
 
I've had great success using #6.5 stoppers for both my 5 gallons and my 1 gallons. Sometimes I run low and need to use a #7, but 6-6.5 should work just fine.

Akueck, where do you get your 1 gallons? I've never seen one with a 7.5 requirement.
 
They are apple juice jugs. Santa Cruz brand, usually available widely around here.
 
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