So last night was the big night...first racking!
I spun the hydrometer one last time before racking, and came up with a nice 1.010, I know it's not bone dry..but pretty close.
I tried a taste from my testing vial, and I was pleasantly surprised, whatever funkyness I tasted the other week is gone, and it was really rather pleasant. Young, but pleasant.
I racked in to a 5 gallon carboy and hit my first(and only) snag of the night...I had a LOT of headspace.
I dug through all my saved articles and books, and the best in a pinch option I could come up with was topping off with a finished mead.
I ran out to the local high end wine shop and grabbed a bottle of the only mead on their shelf, ran home and had a taste. I decided it wasn't TOO far off from my own brew, so in it went, making my huge amount of headspace look much less scary.
Bung, airlock, back in to the cellar. This morning I checked on it and I had bubbling in the lock, so hopefully there is some Co2 filling up what space I have left.
My plan at this point is to let it sit in secondary until it clears, and then rack it in to a few gallon jugs to play with fruit.
At this point I'm going to call my first mead a success. I have 5 gallons of something that is alcoholic and in all honesty, fairly drinkable even at this early stage. Thanks everyone for all the tips, suggestions and help!
I spun the hydrometer one last time before racking, and came up with a nice 1.010, I know it's not bone dry..but pretty close.
I tried a taste from my testing vial, and I was pleasantly surprised, whatever funkyness I tasted the other week is gone, and it was really rather pleasant. Young, but pleasant.
I racked in to a 5 gallon carboy and hit my first(and only) snag of the night...I had a LOT of headspace.
I dug through all my saved articles and books, and the best in a pinch option I could come up with was topping off with a finished mead.
I ran out to the local high end wine shop and grabbed a bottle of the only mead on their shelf, ran home and had a taste. I decided it wasn't TOO far off from my own brew, so in it went, making my huge amount of headspace look much less scary.
Bung, airlock, back in to the cellar. This morning I checked on it and I had bubbling in the lock, so hopefully there is some Co2 filling up what space I have left.
My plan at this point is to let it sit in secondary until it clears, and then rack it in to a few gallon jugs to play with fruit.
At this point I'm going to call my first mead a success. I have 5 gallons of something that is alcoholic and in all honesty, fairly drinkable even at this early stage. Thanks everyone for all the tips, suggestions and help!
