Toggle sidebar

Flavoring in secondary? Containers and air exposure.

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Barrel Char Wood Products
W

wartmanrt

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Oct 22, 2019
9
0
1
Hey Mead people!
I have heard Sergio from Melivono and a couple of other guys talk about making a base traditional and "flavoring in secondary." The best container to avoid oxygen exposure would be a carboy. The best container to add fruit or flavorings would be a bucket. I put my mead in a bucket at around SG 1.020 and their are no bubbles coming out of the air lock. I am not comfortable just leaving it in there for long periods of time after primary is over because of oxygen exposure. I just need a good system for the future for this "flavoring in secondary" method. I like the idea of making a large batch of a traditional and splitting it up and trying different flavorings. Any input on helping me get my head around this would be super helpful!
 
Always good to make Trads to test your protocol and understand exactly how the yeast and honey work together along with learning what may need correcting based on any flaws. Keep in mind that you can buy other vessel types to age or perform secondary flavoring in that do seal well. Stainless steel tanks, etc.

I only have carboys and buckets right now as well. I ferment large batches in buckets, and then move them to carboys. I find the bigger challenge for me at times is getting larger ingredients (e.g. a lot of fruit) into/out of a carboy for secondary. Not that it's impossible, but it's just a bit clumsy.

Once I've added ingredients into a secondary carboy vessel, and it's where I want it as far as flavor goes, I just rack it off of those ingredients and into another carboy.

So, let's say your going to end up with 5 gallons of a Trad that you want to split into 5 1 gallon carboys. Keep in mind that some secondary ingredients can take up a lot of volume (like fruit), so you may want 6 1 gal carboys for those 5 gallons, or a couple 1/2 gallon carboys to hold extra Trad to top off anything later. You'll always want 1 extra carboy/vessel than what you plan on needing for secondary work. This allows you to use sort of a leap frog method for racking. For example, using the 5 1 gal carboy situation:
1 - I'd need 6 carboys - 5 filled and 1 empty to rack the 1st gallon into.
2 - I then clean up and sanitize the carboy I just emptied, use it for the next one I rack off of, and repeat.

I hope this helps give you some ideas for what you were looking for.
 
Corny kegs have a large opening and I use them regularly for aging to prevent oxygen exposure and they work well. Even with small batches, you can purge the air out of them.

They make large mouth PET plastic fermenters now, and those would probably work nicely for such a project.

Truthfully, with meads, oxygen is much less of a problem, and if you want to age things for a few weeks in bucket with your additions, you'll probably be just fine.
 
Thanks so much for your response! Everything you said is exactly the thought process I went through when realizing this was more complicated than I had first anticipated. Thanks for helping me think it through!
 
I really want to rouse after fermentation is over for a few weeks, add secondary flavorings, cold crash and add my first sulphite sorbate additions all in the same bucket under an airlock. if I rouse and add flavor in the first 4 weeks after fermentation then cold crash and add my first sulphite sorbate additions as it's cold crashing would that sound reasonable to you? What are some of the signs of oxygen exposure I should be looking for?
 
IMO, I like to get the mead off of any rough lees fairly soon - about a week or so after fermentation. There's still a lot of fine lees left over.

Keep in mind that whatever you add in secondary may cause the yeast to start back up again if you haven't stabilized the mead. For example, if you're adding a juice, fruit, anything with water content, the ABV can lower and you could be giving it something it can eat.

Oxidization can impact color, give off a Sherry type flavor, or even cardboard/papery flavor.
 
Oxidation may also just mute the flavor from the mead leaving it less aromatic. At high levels you will possibly promote spoilage with acetic acid bacteria or Brett, or you get "rancio"character typical of Sherry or Madeira wine.

Keeping it on the gross lees of a traditional really isn't a problem and you can do that in a bucket.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns

Top Bottom