Topic:Bottling of the golden elixer
You will note I am a bit behind in posting some ( oh well all ) of my mead endevors but if you could ask my friends I think they would say my time was worth it. In a taste face off my blackberry mead won over a fig mead from a commerical meadery- I must be on the right track.
2nd Racking- April 3, 2011
Time to rack again. There hardly any bubbles in the air locks but there is plenty of
lee on the bottom of all 3 carboys. Cleaned equipment and took the specific
gravity of the mead, reading at 1.010 which is a little lower than I expected.
After tasting a sample I am firm in my choice to add more honey to sweeten the
mead before bottling-but first I will bulk age all three bottles until
July. This batch is a light golden, aroma is of apricot and apple and it legs,( the viscous rivulets of mead that
cling to the sides of the glass).
3rdRacking- July 6, 2011
Since 5 gallons of mead is a lot to bottle all at once and since I am planning going
on a short vacation, I have decided to rack, sweeten and bottle only 3 gallons
at this time. The other two are in one-gallon carboys and can wait until I
return to be bottled.
The specific gravity is still 1.010. Again cleaned and sanitized all
equipment-always do this! This time I hit a glitch in the process. Racking went
as planned but I didn’t check the size of the stopper I was using and picked up
a size too small. Down it went into my 3 gallons of pale golden mead. When in
doubt-rack again-, which is just what I did. I’m not sure it the stopper would
have affected the mead at all; I just didn’t want to risk it.
BeforeI am able to add residual sugar (more blackberry honey), there
is one more step involved. To make sure that any remaining yeast will not resume
fermentation when I (you) add additional sugar, I followed the advice in The
Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm and added potassium sorbate. It does not
kill the yeast (which were pretty much used up anyway); rather it prevents the
fermentation process from continuing.
Never fear I do have a plan!
Wed-July 6- rack mead (which you can see is where I am at).
Fri- July 8- add the potassium sorbate I mentioned above.
Sat- July 9- rack mead into my plastic fermenter and add honey
Sun- July 10-bottle the mead!
4th Racking- July 9, 2011
Yesterday I added the sorbate which much to my surprise dissolved right away. I took some
mead from the carboy and put it in a wine glass adding the sorbate to that,
thinking it would take time to dissolve and blend with the mead.
Note this is not the time you want to be agitating your mead any more than necessary.
As it turns out, and for future batches where additional sugar is needed, I can
just add the sorbate directly to whatever size batch of mead I make.
Today I racked the mead into my plastic 5 gallon fermenter to make adding the honey
easier and with plans to use leave the mead in the fermenter to make it easier
to bottle. Having the spigot to use to regulate the flow into the bottles will
be very handy indeed.
In total I added 2 ¼ pounds more of blackberry honey, one cup at a time, to three
gallons of mead. To incorporate the honey into the mead I used the long handled
spoon I had used to make the mead with in the first place. I was sure to stir
the batch slowly so as to not add in any more air than possible all the while
taking a taste after each cup of honey was added so I would end up with just
the right amount of sweetness.
As far as my calculations go the three gallons of mead should have approximately
12 and 3/4 pounds of honey-still math is not my strong suit and taste at this
point is the most important factor.
Bottling Day-July 10, 2011
I cleaned and sanitized all equipment including 15 full bottles and six splits. I
don’t expect to use this many bottles but I want to be prepared.
As I did the first two times I capped each bottle with foil to keep it sterile
until the mead is piped in, then it gets capped again until it is fitted with a
cork. The fermenter is fitted with a siphon hose that goes into each bottle. These are
filled and then capped. During this time I have corks sitting in sanitizer.
After all bottles are filled each is fitted with a cork and tucked away in my
wine cooler. I ended up with 12 full bottles (750ml) and 4 splits (375ml).
Note: Most of the above work I can do myself but I have to thank my husband for his
help and strong arm in carrying around heavy and awkward carboys, corking every
bottle himself, helping me taste the brew, and above all following my orders
and wishes when it comes the” making of the Mead”!
I have even gone so far as to create a mead label. Since I have found evidence of Honey wine being made in Ancient Egypt I have used that theme for my meadery name and labels.
Welcome to:
Star Flower Mead
Artisan Meadmaker
Joanna Linsley-Poe
Original article:
By Joanna Linsley- Poe
AncientFoods
Copyright August 2011
Ancientfoods 
Right on!
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I never thought of it that way, well put!
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