Secondary Fermentation for the Mead Big Step

It's simple you rack the mead into a secondary glass carboy and you put the rubber stopper in and that's it. Well, it may sound simple but it isn't. As you can see by the pictures, we did this in the basement in the laundry room. Lots of space and I don't have to carry a slippery glass carboy weighing a ton up and and especially back down the stairs. The basement is nice a cool.

I lost the stopper into the mead and didn't have an extra. So, always buy at least 2 extra. Also, if you want the stopper to stay down in the mead, you make sure it is BONE DRY. Kim found this out by looking on the internet. She's a lifesaver. Also, when you put the stopper on, if you have to lock in the stopper, take off the top and the bell, put the stopper in and then put the lock back together. If you do that, everything will be very simple. I screwed up on the Dry Mead, which doesn't taste anywhere near as good as the Sack Mead which I did like clockwork.



I also used a little duct tape to hope the stopper down. I hope this doesn't contaminate anything. John suggested aluminum foil. Well, I don't think the duct tape will be any more contaminating than the open air.

More mistakes. On the Dry Mead, I had way too much mead, about 16 oz more than I should have. On the sweet mead, I had too little, about 32 oz too little. I used water on the latter and drank the former. I just hope this works out.

I filled the carboy up to the tippy top leaving only a 1/2 inch for the collection of CO2.

I didn't use any fining agent, egg whites, clay or anything like that. I just hope it clarifies. The Sack (Sweet) Mead is a lot clearer than the Dry Mead

Next day. The mead is fermenting like crazy and the mead is up in the lock. The pressure is very high and it forced the mead up into the airlock.