Racking: Frugal vs foolhardy

[Ben_N]

Howdy all. Just did my first racking of my third batch (first in five years) and it's clear I need a longer racking cane. I may have borrowed a proper cane from a friend last time while mine may have been purchased for the first 1 gallon batches I got started with years ago. Anyway, I lost siphon with about 2.5 inch left in my 3 gallon Better Bottle carboy. I sanitized a pitcher with Starsan and poured in the remainder from the fermenter, covered with saran wrap and am letting the lees settle. Seems like a lot to waste from a 3 gallon batch, but am I just asking for trouble by trying to rack this remainder from the pitcher into my batch after it settles?

Thanks

Ben

 

[bernardsmith]

I doubt that there should be any concern. Mead seems to be less likely to oxidize at the drop of a hat than fruit wines and fruit wines don't oxidize that easily to begin with. It's beer that tends to spoil even as you blink and I suspect that wine makers learned much from brewers despite the fact that honey is not grain. If you sanitize your equipment and tools and you are not making barrels of mead for your own consumption that will take you decades to drink then I suspect that racking from this container won't be a problem BUT if you ARE anxious about it. Simply rack it into a separate vessel and allow it to age separately, bottling it separately too when the time comes... But that is like wearing a belt and braces (suspenders) as we used to say in Scotland.