i have a few gallon batches of still mead and i intend on putting them in clear beer bottles with the standard crown caps. This morning I started thinking about that 1 inch space of air in the bottle. Primed beer creates c02 and blankets the beer I don’t see how still mead can’t/won’t oxidize. I read a post that confusingly said something about a camden tablet. I also pondered putting my own c02 blanket in each bottle with some gas from my kegerator tank. Would that be an option? obviously people bottle stills all the time though…how do you safely bottle mead?
You are right that there is absolutely no need to worry about oxidation in bottled beer because the yeast scavenge it during priming. That will not happen with still mead. Wines are commonly bottled that way, though some professional wineries will blanket the wine with CO2 like you were thinking. I’ve personally bottled a lot of wines, and never purged the head space or had any problems with oxidation. But I’ve also treated the wine with campden, which will bind O2. One tablet per gallon is a pretty standard amount, though the effectiveness is dependent on pH, so testing that and adjusting the amount added is the way to be sure.
As you are planning to use crown caps, I would suggest you could use the O2 absorbing caps. That might be the easiest way for you.
great thanks
I purge the bottles with C02 before filling and use O2 absorbing caps. Never had an oxidation issue.
