Angel's Share in Glass?

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Crowing

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 12, 2014
127
0
0
Groton, Connecticut
My first ever batch has been sitting in a one gallon jug for just over six weeks now, and the fluid level has definitely dropped. The bung is in there solidly and I can't see how it wouldn't be airtight, so is it normal for mead to evaporate in "bung'd" sealed glass?

Side note, why can't I post images of ANY filesize?
 
Maybe he's looking at the krausen line?


Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now.
U g
 
The temperature has dropped quite a bit since its been down there, maybe that has something to do with it. It was most definitely higher originally, no foam or anything.
 
There can be problems with the airlock being seated into the bung. I had some S bend airlocks that would not seal, so I eventually filed off the ridge of plastic then gently flame polishing then smooth. There is sometimes an excessive ridge from the manufacturing process that interferes with a good seal and that has had to be removed in my case. So now I routinely do that for all of mine, the cylinder airlocks do not have that ridge on them BTW, but are not what I want for long term bulk aging...
 
How much of a difference are we talking?

If your temperature has gone down a lot, that could account for some drop in level, but I wouldn't expect more than 1/4" to 1/2" of difference on a 1-gal batch (this is my gut feeling, I'm WAY too lazy to go do the math, but if you look up water/ethanol volumes versus temperature, it might give you an idea how much expansion/contraction you could expect for the temperature range you have, rather than trusting to my out-of-the-air estimation).

I sometimes get in the neighbourhood of an inch difference in the neck of a 5-6 gal batch. I usually leave at least an inch between the level and the bottom of the stopper and a few times in summer I've had mead get up the tube and into the airlock because the level went up that much from temperature expansion.
 
It's about 1/3 - 1/2 difference. I have pictures if I could just upload them. Maybe the amount of co2 that has since escaped accounts for some of the difference.
 
Sometimes if you load the photos as an attachment it can work, I just slap 'em up on Facebook and copy the URL from there.