When I stabilize as part of the process of racking (as you plan on doing), I'll first dissolve my metabisulphite dose in a little distilled water, and pour it into the carboy. Then I'll rack my mead over top of that. The act of racking will create enough turbulence to disperse the sulphite, and that way you don't get any additional air mixing.
When I also use sorbate (in sweet meads), I'll wait a little while (typically 4 to hours -- never more than 12), and then add the sorbate, also pre-dissolved in a little water. I'll then gently take my stir rod and slowly mix in the sorbate. I do this very gently so as to introduce the minimum possible unwanted O2.
Then I'll bottle; you can wait a little longer before bottling, but again I don't generally wait more than a few hours. You don't want the sulphite level to drop to the point where any MLF bacteria present could take root. They do a nasty number on sorbate, and produce a stinky substance called geraniol in the process. Sulphite will keep MLF bacteria at bay.
Clarifying before doing any stabilization is a good idea simply because in most meads, any haze left in the mead will to at least some extent contain yeast cells. Some of them may be active. The fewer active yeast that you transfer into the stabilization carboy, the more successful your stabilization will be.
If you're not going to filter, then yes, rack off of any fining agent and/or lees, and stabilize. I generally do this all in one step - rack off of lees into a carboy that contains my sulphite dose, etc. Generally, in any mead already in a secondary fermenter (by that I mean already racked off of the first, gross, lees), you can simply prepare the fining agent according to manufacturers directions and then just slowly stir it into the mead already in that carboy. Then wait a time sufficient for the fining agent to do its thing, and then rack onto the sulphite stabilizer.
When I also use sorbate (in sweet meads), I'll wait a little while (typically 4 to hours -- never more than 12), and then add the sorbate, also pre-dissolved in a little water. I'll then gently take my stir rod and slowly mix in the sorbate. I do this very gently so as to introduce the minimum possible unwanted O2.
Then I'll bottle; you can wait a little longer before bottling, but again I don't generally wait more than a few hours. You don't want the sulphite level to drop to the point where any MLF bacteria present could take root. They do a nasty number on sorbate, and produce a stinky substance called geraniol in the process. Sulphite will keep MLF bacteria at bay.
Clarifying before doing any stabilization is a good idea simply because in most meads, any haze left in the mead will to at least some extent contain yeast cells. Some of them may be active. The fewer active yeast that you transfer into the stabilization carboy, the more successful your stabilization will be.
If you're not going to filter, then yes, rack off of any fining agent and/or lees, and stabilize. I generally do this all in one step - rack off of lees into a carboy that contains my sulphite dose, etc. Generally, in any mead already in a secondary fermenter (by that I mean already racked off of the first, gross, lees), you can simply prepare the fining agent according to manufacturers directions and then just slowly stir it into the mead already in that carboy. Then wait a time sufficient for the fining agent to do its thing, and then rack onto the sulphite stabilizer.
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