I have fermented my mead for a ten days in plastic and have now moved it to glass. I was reading a BYO article that said that you leave it in the glass for 3 months without racking it. Is that true? I rack at a month from secondary when making wine. If you only need to rack after three months, maybe I rack too much when brewing wine. Also it states that after you rack 3 months in to only rack after six months. Can anyone give me help?

Recipe? I am not a mead expert by any means, but I think there is a pretty big difference between sweet and dry mead in terms of aging requirements.

A friend did a simple, dry mead that was ready to drink in maybe 6 to 8 weeks. At that time it had very little flavor, like a light champagne. After more aging, it seemed to develop more flavor. The honey taste got more noticable and the carbonic bite was reduced, or so it seemed. If mead is anything like beer, the 3 to 6 weeks in secondary could be just as easily done in the bottle. In other words, I think you could probaby bottle it after a week or two in secondary and let it age for another month or two in the bottle to get optimal flavor.

But let me reiterate that I am not a mead guy, so these are just my ideas.

I don't know much about mead either.

But I have a link to people who do!

http://www.gotmead.com/

What was the Gravity of the mead before and after the primary? What kind of yeast?

I can't imagine it would have been fully fermented yet, after only 10 days. I usually leave mine in the primary for a month to 5 or 6. I've got one now w/ only 10LBS of clover honey and its been in the primary for about 3 months.

As far as aging goes I leave it in the secondary until the haze drops out. It can be as short as one or two months to 4-6 depending on the honey and yeast. I've learned that mead only gets better w/ time.

I bottled a mead after 4mo and end up with sparkling mead. 1mo in plastic 3mo in glass. I used nutrients and a starter.

Now I will do 1-2mo in plastic then 6mo+ in glass. I have one that was made in sept thats in glass and I will bottle after the summer. No rush.


Disclamer: only made 2 meads

Gravity readings are important to me so I know where I'm at. Sweet meads are a bit trickier to me b/c there are sugars left that are not fermented. Where as a dry mead you can wait until it goes to 1.000 or less (usually).

Also you wanna now the alc. tolerance of you yeast. I used the Lavin K1116 (I think thats it) I used like 18lbs of Rasberry Honey, adding a couple of lbs every week for about a month. It finished at like 1.015 and I thought the yeast had reached its alc. tolerance. I added 3 lbs of rasberry puree in the secondary and bam it all fermented done to 1.000. It ended up being 21-22%abv. the yeast tolerance was at 23 percent. Its over a year old now and wasn'y very drinkable for about 9-10 months but now every new one opened taste better.

Mine was a dry mead (12lbs/5gal) transfered at 1.006 after a month, thought after 3 more months it was done at 1.002. I was wrong about that, bubbley mead now.

I guess i did not give enough information in my first post. My mead was made with 12lb of honey. What i was really asking is if it is ok to leave a mead in a glass for 3 months without racking. I raked it once already at ten days, but 3 months seems like a long time to leave on the yeast. Do you think that there will be any off flavors? There is already a deposit of yeast at the bottom of the carboy. If the mead was alittle older i would not have a problem leaving it that long. Thanks for the advise.

TexBrewer, can you send me an email? I have a question for you and you don't have an address listed in your profile.

I've made one batch of mead, a melomel actually.

I left it in primary for a month, transferred to secondary on top of additional fresh fruit, left for a couple of weeks, transferred to tertiary and didn't touch it for another eleven months. I don't recall the exact OG, only that it was over 1.100. The FG was 0.996.

Originally made in June 2006, I still have quite a few bottles left. It's quite good.

Next week I'll be making two 2.5 gallon batches of sourwood honey mead. The difference between the two will be the yeast used. One will be dry and one will be sweet (with a touch of acid blend after fermentation is finished).

Brewboy, sent you an e-mail.

Tex it will not hurt it to set on the yeast for that long.

Thanks Ryan. I needed someone to calm my fears.

I replied.