Mead: What now?

[Caddarn]

I caught this thread a few months ago and decided to give it a go. It's clear at the moment and I'm thinking of bottling at the weekend, would there be any issue using 500ml beer bottles and crown caps?

[oldbloke]

Nope. I've used old spirits bottles - 70 and 35cl, Bundaberg ginger beer bottles, beer bottles, all sorts.
If you're carbonating of course you need bottles that are designed for fizzy stuff, but I don't think anybody carbonates mead. Or do they? Could be nice.

[fatbloke]

Nope. I've used old spirits bottles - 70 and 35cl, Bundaberg ginger beer bottles, beer bottles, all sorts.
If you're carbonating of course you need bottles that are designed for fizzy stuff, but I don't think anybody carbonates mead. Or do they? Could be nice.

Even the great Ken Schramm says to do that if you want. If you can get 330ml sized ones then it can be handy as theres times when people worry about opening a whole bottle, yet meads don't oxidise like wines do and you can get away with keeping an open bottle in the fridge....but as we're brainwashed into finishing the bottle beer bottles are fine.

Carbonation works too but you need to put more thought into the making as well as carbonation.

Bubbly and dry is relatively straight forward whereas bubbly and sweet not so.

Or you can force carbonate it, chill then bottle.

[Caddarn]

Magic, I know what I'm doing tonight then!

[Caddarn]

I should've also asked what a likely conditioning time is on this brew? I don't think I saw any mention of it on the gotmead site either.

[DaveyT]

Just what I was going to ask about! This has been bulk aging since April, I think, and I really ought to bottle it.
In terms of carbonation: is it worth giving it a go? I used bread yeast, so I reckon this has finished sweet. I've also racked it off the yeast cake so I'm wondering whether I'll need to add more yeast if I did want to carbonate the batch.
Is still mead any good? I might just forgo the carbonating and whack it straight into bottles.

David

[oldbloke]

I've only ever made (or bought) still mead. The stuff I've made has been almost exclusively melomels, where the fruit hides a lot of rawness so they're drinkable almost immediately. But they're SO much better after 6 months...
I quite fancy trying to carbonate a few of my current batch. I was going to use Bundaberg bottles and they're designed for a bit of fizz.

[Cpt.Frederickson]

As Fatbloke said, carbonating can be complicated in order to get the right recipe balance, and also to be certain that you don't get bottle bombs. Still is fine. The force carbing route does sound the simplest way if you're set on fizzy (that's why I just bought a mini-cornie!) but I would advise champagne bottles if you want to naturally carbonate...
As for aging, 1 year is pretty much standard depending on recipe. A rule of thumb seems to be sweeter is ready sooner, but I personally think patience is hugely important. I give em a year bulk aging and then bottle, then allow them to keep aging, testing a bottle now and then.

[DaveyT]

Apologies for the late reply. I'll leave it a few months so that it's bulk aged for a year, then bottle still. Just need to start thinking about the next one now.
Thanks for the tips, guys.

David