Where is my mead disappearing too?

[BrewinNColorado]

A week ago I transferred one of my batches into secondary and have been putting it outside to cold crash. The last few days when I have vhecked on it, there is less and less mead in the carboy. There are about three rings on the neck of the jar where the level of the mead used to be at. The mead is covered except for at night when I take the blankets off. There is a good fitting carboy cap with an s-airlock which is filled with vodka. There is no condensation on the inside of my carboy.

So with that, would could my mead be disappearing too?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Oskaar]

Are we talking a carboy cap as in screw on cap, or is this a silicone bung that is in the mouth of the carboy?

Also, is the carboy out in the sun during the day? Even if covered the mead can be heating and cooling and evaporating/degassing/condensing through the airlock.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[paulh]

It's still there. Only now with it being colder, it's more dense and has less volume. Once it warms back up, it will expand and magically reappear.

 

[wildaho]

The mead gods occasionally "borrow" some to ensure quality control... Do your neighbors or friends know where your stash is?

 

[Odinsson]

It's still there. Only now with it being colder, it's more dense and has less volume. Once it warms back up, it will expand and magically reappear.

If it is condensing that much and not evaporating like Oskaar brought up I'd be careful when you transfer it that it has already come back up to room temp. That could be quite a mess. How much does it look like though, and whats the temp? The way you make it sound it sounds like an awful lot of mead to be condensed w/o pressure.

 

[paulh]

If it is condensing that much and not evaporating like Oskaar brought up I'd be careful when you transfer it that it has already come back up to room temp. That could be quite a mess.

Oh, it does! I learned that the hard way. I racked a mead in the winter when the cellar was at it's coldest and filled the carboy to what looked like a good amount. When the weather warmed up later that year, the expanding mead filled the airlock and then some.

Keep in mind this is just my guess. I suppose I should have stated "guess" in my first posting. Maybe BrewinNColorao can provide more details: is it in the sun? What are the day/night temps? How much is "missing"?

Also, with the S-type airlock, you can see if there is positive or negative pressure in the vessel. That would be a big clue right there.

 

[wildaho]

Mead gods aside, I had a situation like this a couple of months ago on a batch of high test cider. My 2.5gallon carboy was dropping by about 3/8" every day (and this was during active fermentation). I finally decided to check for cracks and as soon as I touched the neck, the carboy exploded! It put a big hunk of glass about a half inch into my thigh and I bled like a stuck pig. :sad2:

I didn't care that much about the blood loss or the massive hole in my thigh, but I was really pissed about the 2.5 gallons of cider that covered the table and floor. It was damned near done fermenting too! :BangHead:

 

[Odinsson]

Mead gods aside, I had a situation like this a couple of months ago on a batch of high test cider. My 2.5gallon carboy was dropping by about 3/8" every day (and this was during active fermentation). I finally decided to check for cracks and as soon as I touched the neck, the carboy exploded! It put a big hunk of glass about a half inch into my thigh and I bled like a stuck pig. :sad2:

Why did it explode like that? It couldn't have been from contant heat from your hand could it? I didn't think that it would change that fast by that little amount of contact.

 

[BrewinNColorado]

Sorry I did not get back to anyone yesterday, I became sick and needed to just stay in bed.

I never thought about seeing if it could be gnomes or the mead gods, maybe I should put a security camera outside.

I am using a cap, orange color for the 5 gallon carboy.

I am leaving it outside. I have a blanket over each of the carboys, then another over all of them. I have also been shielding them from direct sunlight by putting my BBQ in the way. When I get home about 3:30, I feel the caboys and they are still cold to the touch. The day time temp has been no higher then 60's, and the night time no lower then 34. I had thought about evaporation, but the airlock has not changed color, so I could not understand how evaporation would be possible.

The mead is now down to the bottom of the neck where it was half way up when I put it outside.

I hope this answeres all of your questions, if not then let me know.

Thanks to all!

 

[Oskaar]

I have to be honest here and say that I personally would not put my mead outside and let it stay day and night, covered or not. I don't like the idea of varying temperatures, UV exposure and any number of small beasties that can find their way into the trap/airlock/cap. Variances in environmental conditions are not favorable for mead/wine/beer longevity (except for specific exceptions in my experience. I keep them in the dark full time and safely in my aging room, except when I'm racking into a decanter or bottling/treating/transfering.

Just my .02,

Thanks,

Oskaar

 

[wildaho]

Why did it explode like that?

All I could figure out later (after I got the bleeding stopped and the floor de-stickyfied) was that there was a hairline crack in the bottom of the carboy. When I started to turn the carboy to check for leaks, the crack gave way violently from the torque. It definitely wasn't an overpressure situation since I only had foil on it instead of an airlock.

Brewin': I've never got the orange caps to fit all that snuggly on any of my carboys. Lots of room for leakage there. And as Oskaar says, mead gods and neighbors aside, leaving your carboy exposed outside can lead to lots of different potentially bad things.