I was wanting some advice for additives on Mead. People have said that time is a natural claifyer and not to worry about adding any kind of finning. I am worried about Oxidation though if I bottle age it. Would campden tablets be good for stabilizing and preventing oxidation? Any other advice?
Mead Additives
- Thread starter knowlesbrew
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There a couple of questions here, I'll try to break it down a bit.
Time is a natural clarifier, and all mead will clear in time. Sometimes that is a year or so, sometimes just a couple of months. I fine most of the stuff I make. I filter it also.
Make sure the mead is clear when you bottle it, or it will clear in the bottle. This means sediment in the bottle.
Don't worry about oxidation when you bottle the stuff. Just use a good closure and you are fine. If you would like to worry about oxidation, wax seal the tops of the corks. Then no oxygen will get through.
Campden tablets or potassium metabisulfite are great for stablization and helping to reduce oxidation in meads. I use the potassium metabisulfite in almost every batch. Somepeople don't use it at all, they just bottle it up as is. They don't say there is much if any spoilage, from critters or oxidation.
Hope that was helpful.
I'll echo liff here. Time will clear most meads, but it can be a while. I often filter but rarely do fining.
If you keep you carboys topped up (or flushed with inert gas) oxidation is not a problems, and once bottled, the mead is well generally protected. Traditional meads seem to be less prone to oxidation than wines typically are, although I don't have any objective data to support that assertion. As a result, traditional mead cans do just fine without sulfites.
On the other hand, sulfites are very helpful as an antioxidant, especially with melomels or fruit wines. I find that without sulfites they tend to oxidize early.
Medsen
If you keep you carboys topped up (or flushed with inert gas) oxidation is not a problems, and once bottled, the mead is well generally protected. Traditional meads seem to be less prone to oxidation than wines typically are, although I don't have any objective data to support that assertion. As a result, traditional mead cans do just fine without sulfites.
On the other hand, sulfites are very helpful as an antioxidant, especially with melomels or fruit wines. I find that without sulfites they tend to oxidize early.
Medsen
What's a good source of inert gas? Is there something I can pick up for cheap locally and not have to order from a homebrewing store online?
The small CO2 cartridges that are used in soda water bottles for your bar can also be used to flush headspace.
I have a hand held CO2 Charger that I use to dispense my 3 gallon keg. Could I use this to flush the head space on wine bottles when I fill them? Sounds like a good idea to me.
Yes, you can. I usually don't bother to flush bottles, but I do flush my carboys with CO2 that way.
I don't have a rubber bung/stopper for my carboy, can I just use a stopper and airlock for storage in tertiary - or will that allow the inert gas to escape?
