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bulk aging vs. bottle aging

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Mike

Mike

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 8, 2003
17
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www.ciphi.ca
Is there any advantage to bulk aging versus bottle aging? I had always thought that once the mead had stablized and cleared, that it was ok to bottle. I had someone tell me that a mead that is bulk aged for 1 year and then bottled and aged for another year will be better than a mead that is bottle aged for two years. Would this be true? I just can't understand the logic behind it. Aging is aging, in my eyes. Who cares whether it's in a 750 ml wine bottle or a 5 gallon carboy.

My mead bible (aka Ken Schramm's Compleat Meadmaker) surprisingly does not answer this question.

Any thoughts?
 
JamesP

JamesP

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Dec 3, 2003
654
1
18
Brisbane Australia
My understanding of the advantages of Bulk Aging are
  • temperature fluctuations reduced. Bottles are smaller, so there is less volume to buffer the temperature changes in the outside environment.
  • headspace per volume is less.
Hopefully someone else can provide more detailed info.

A complexity to throw into the discussion is barrel aging effects (oak, oxygen, etc). An interesting article is http://www.flextank.com.au/PDF_Files/How-Barrels-Work.pdf. This article is on wine and wine barrels, but I assume there is a very similar effect on mead.

Cheers,
James
 
T

ThistyViking

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 15, 2003
529
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JamesP said:
A complexity to throw into the discussion is barrel aging effects (oak, oxygen, etc). An interesting article is http://www.flextank.com.au/PDF_Files/How-Barrels-Work.pdf. This article is on wine and wine barrels, but I assume there is a very similar effect on mead.

Cheers,
James
Click to expand...

What a facinating company Flextank is. For someone like me foolish enough to be considering opening a meadery, absolutely facinating... Lots of out of the box thinking there.

Thanks for your Post. I may actually buy a plastic barrel from them instead of getting a used one.
 
JamesP

JamesP

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Dec 3, 2003
654
1
18
Brisbane Australia
Thanks for pointing that out.

I'd only read the article, but hadn't looked at the products offered by the company. :p
 
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