I’ve got a 5 gallon batch of mead fermenting away and have a question about aging. It’s been in the primary for coming up on 2 months, the first month it was consistently chugging away and has been slowly losing steam ever since and is now where I want it to be. I was planning on racking it to a secondary at this point and letting it sit for another few months or so before bottling but now I’m thinking of just bottling it and setting it aside for 6 months or so. Any opinions on either? It would probably clear up better with a secondary but I’m not terribly worries about appearance, I’m not entering it in any sort of competition and a minimum of 6 months seems like a fair time for most of the yeast to drop out so as long as I’m careful with the pour it shouldn’t be horrible.
I would rack and allow to completely clear before bottling.
My preferred method is to rack to secondary when SG drops to 1.030-1.025. Then rack again a couple of weeks after fermentation is complete. The mead can then be bulk aged and allowed to clear before bottling.
[quote=“Baratone Brewer”]I would rack and allow to completely clear before bottling.
My preferred method is to rack to secondary when SG drops to 1.030-1.025. Then rack again a couple of weeks after fermentation is complete. The mead can then be bulk aged and allowed to clear before bottling.[/quote]
That’s how I’ve been doing it as well. Sometimes I might even rack it a third time.
The long bulk aging is really key in making a good mead (I usually give it a year or so)…not only does it ensure clarity, but it minimizes the chance that the mead will carbonate in the bottles (just my preference, since I hate fizzy mead), or blow the corks out of the bottles. The other benefit from the bulk aging is that it helps me to resist constantly tasting it; it starts to become pretty drinkable early on but nowhere near as ethereal as it is a year or more down the line (for the stronger ones, more like 5 or 10 years).
