Beer Forum

I am gearing up to make my first mead. Researching the process, it sounds like I'll be transferring at least twice: once from the primary to the secondary and then from the secondary to bottles. What is the best way to transfer to bottles? Currently my plan is to ferment in a bucket and then transfer to a glass carboy for the secondary. Do I transfer from the glass carboy to a bottling bucket and then to bottles, or is there a better way (I don't plan on carbonating)?

Thanks in advance!

While I haven't made mead, bottling bucket sounds easiest to me.

if you can avoid the bottling bucket it will cut down on oxidation..

you can get a spring loaded bottle filler and attach it to an autosiphon to bottle directly from the secondary..since you are not adding priming sugar..

or use a secondary with a spout and and a spring loaded bottle filler...

Ahhh... I like the auto-siphon attached to a bottle filler idea. I've got a few months to work on that. Thanks!

Is oxidation any more of a concern with a still mead compared to any other beer that you'd use a bottling bucket for? Or are you against bottling buckets in general?

Good question.. not sure but I'd guess after the first few days of fermentation, oxidation is the same concern as beer. Since JZ has hammered into us that a secondary vessel should be avoided when possible due to oxidation/contamination, my thinking is to avoid transfers.... So I'll need to transfer the mead from primary to secondary for a few months of aging... no getting around this. Then, I need to bottle it... since I won't be carbonating, I can avoid a transfer by just bottling from the secondary vessel using the auto-siphon/bottle filler idea.

You won't have to worry about oxidation of hop compounds... and I'm not sure how mead responds compared to beer. My concern with the auto/fill is if you loose your siphon, an auto can put quite a bit of air in there if you are flailing about trying to get it to work just right. Bottling bucket still sounds easier to me. I hit my bottling bucket with CO2, then purge bottles before filling. After I draw the filling wand out, I purge the headspace in the bottle again.

Spider - I have a crude video surveillance system that gets streamed over the internet so that I can check on my dogs while at work. With your use of the word "flailing", I am convinced you have hacked in to watch me every Sunday where I brew and inevitably screw something up and am flailing to "fix it".

I am definitely in for the simplest solution... I have a got couple months to figure out the best way. I agree.. I've bottled beer many times from a bottling bucket but the siphon/wand contraption could lead to "seat of the pants" decisions.