Mead success! Well, technically by “success” I mean that it has cleared, stopped fermenting, and is now in corked bottles! At least the first gallon anyway…
The Farm Boy helped me fill up the bottles from the first batch – the gallon I made without the blackberries, if you recall from this past post.
I siphoned from the carboy jug, and he poured the mead into the bottles. Then I corked the bottles with my corking and bottle-capping lever device that I’ve owned for about 12 years (that tall red thing in the photo). I love corking, sealing and labeling bottles!
The whole process only took a few minutes (and a lot of water) to rinse and sterilize my empty wine bottles that I’ve been hoarding in the pantry. It’s good to recycle, but you can also buy new bottles from about any wine making supplier if you are particular about color or size. Midwest Supplies, Adventures in Homebrewing, and Northern Brewer are just a few I’ve found. Amazon has them too – of course.
And now, I have five lovely bottles of Mead. I will have to exercise massive restraint in not opening any of them until at least the end of October. But the real goal is to wait until December to uncork any of them, and you know how that goes… ~A