Screw-top bottles are becoming much more common in the wine world. You can buy screw-caps of your own, but make sure you know which size you need (28mm and 38mm are both common) and also that you know how to use them correctly. I don't, so I avoid them.

Plastic screw-top bottles (such as carbonated beverages are commonly sold in) are fine for short-term storage, but I won't keep mead in one for more than a day or two. When I do use them, it's to take a bottle to a party, and I generally fill it the night before.

Reusable, cappable bottles were typically beer bottles sold as returnables. They were sturdy and my first choice for bottling mead for long-term storage. Capping is relatively simple, and bottle cappers can be easily bought. But returnable bottles are a thing of the past. You can buy similar bottles at homebrewing stores.

Corkable bottles are standard wine bottles. They may have a lip which can also be capped, but most don't. Corking is another time-proven method, but corking requires a bottle-corker and you need to soak the corks so they can be compressed enough to get them into the bottle. I tried corking bottles once, and found it frustrating, but that was before “agglomerated” or “composite” corks. If you're going to cork bottles, I strongly suggest a floor-model corker which will give you the leverage and controllability you need to make corking bottles easy.

Grolsch-style bottles (also known as swing-top bottles) have a ceramic stopper with a rubber washer. They're simple and as long as the washer is good, they provide a good seal. They can also be re-sealed partway through, if you can't finish a bottle. The main drawback to them is they're more expensive than the other types of bottles.

#appendix #equipment

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#appendix

This is handy if you're trying to guess how much fermentable sugar there will be in a must based on the ingredients, but the most accurate result will come from actually measuring with a hydrometer.

#appendix

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#appendix

Because of the uncanny resemblance to a concentrate made from beer, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has written a formal ruling on “ice beer.” Essentially, it states that if a brewer superchills beer and removes ice or water, the product will be considered to be ordinary “beer” if the volume of material removed is not more than ½ of 1% of the original volume, and if the resultant product resembles “beer.”

This ruling was issued to prevent brewers from producing an “ice beer” which is seriously concentrated by the removal of water or ice. Classic beer concentrates often are 15% alc/vol or more and may have only ¼ of their original volume. These products are taxed as distilled spirits if they are removed from a brewery or imported without being reconstituted with water.

The eisbock or ice beer method of production would be considered as ordinary home beer making and home brewers could use the method if they wished. ATF's primary interest would be, as usual, to ensure home brewers were not selling the beer they make.

The Ruling was issued as 94-3, but has presumably been rolled into the ATF regulations since then. But if you are freeze-distilling mead, keep in mind that phrase: the product will be considered to be ordinary “beer” if the volume of material removed is not more than ½ of 1% of the original volume, and if the resultant product resembles “beer.”

#appendix #USLaw

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#appendix

On a more practical note, there are two methods I use.

The first is highly scientific. I measure the gravity of the mead with a hydrometer. For a recipe like Hangover Cyser, it'll finish up very near or below 1.000 in gravity. There's more on using a hydrometer in the next chapter.

The second method is my more typical one. I let the mead ferment until I think it's done (if it doesn't bubble once in the time it takes me to microwave and eat dinner, that's a pretty good sign), and then wait another week to be sure. At this point, it's either gotten mostly clear, or there's enough suspended goo that I don't want to bottle yet. If it's clear, it gets racked into a bottling bucket and thence to the bottles. If it's cloudy, I rack it into another gallong jug (or into the bottling bucket, and then back to the original jug, after making sure to wash it out well), and let it sit until it does get clear.

The main points of the second method are: the fermenter is not still bubbling and the mead has cleared.

Sometimes a mead just won't clear. Then I grumble and hide it in the closet and come back to it in a month or three. If it's still cloudy, I shrug and bottle it cloudy. More impatient sorts add various items to the mix to clear the mead, but that's another discussion.

#howTo

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It's still produced in areas of the former USSR and Mongolia, and there are those within the SCA who brew kumiss, often by adding cane sugar to cow's milk. The major difficulty seems to be preventing the casein (milk protein) from coagulating during the fermentation and acidic conditions created, and preventing bottles from exploding due to not using airlocks, instead uncorking a bottle daily to relieve pressure.

Another approach that has been suggested is using Kluyveromyces lactis, which was formerly known as Saccharomyces lactis, which will convert the lactose to lactic acid.

If you've done more experimentation with kumis, I'd love to hear about it. Please check the contact page for how to get in touch.

#appendix #kumis

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#appendix

Tim Mitchell is a freelance author and stand-up comedian. Lacking a real job has given him plenty of time and incentive to drink free mead with Dave. He was last seen on a streetcorner holding up a sign which read “Will Edit For Booze.”

#about

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Many people researched the answer, and I've collected the best of the research here.

By far, the most complete answer came from Michael L. Hall, but there were other contributions I've included, too.

Sources used: * Jane MacQuitty's Pocket Guide to Champagne and Sparkling Wines, by Mitchell Beazley (England), ISBN 0-85533-619-6 * Random House Unabridged Dictionary, ISBN 0-67942-917-4 * The Wine Spectator * International Critical Tables, 1926, National Academy of Sciences, McGraw-Hill * Alexis Lichines' New Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits, Appendix C * The Mead Lover's Digest

#appendix

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#appendix

The theory of siphoning

Water (or any other liquid) will try and achieve a level surface. Another way of stating this is that water flows downhill. The goal of siphoning is to give the liquid a path from one container to another. Since it has to flow briefly uphill, the way to do this is to have a closed tube full of water, and then the weight of the liquid on the downhill side of the tube will be greater than the weight on the uphill side, and gravity will do it's thing. This is an over-simplification, but it holds until the uphill side gets into many feet of height. If you want a much more complete desciption of the physics involved, Halliday & Resnick, which was my college physics textbook has one, as does Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

The practice of siphoning

What you want to do is achieve a tube full of liquid leading from the higher, full container to the lower, empty container. There are a few ways to do this. The easiest method I've found is to take your siphon tube, and fill it with water (just don't empty it out when you rinse it the final time after sanitizing it). It doesn't have to be absolutely full, but having the water within a couple inches of each end will be best. You hold both ends of the tube at about the same height, and lower one of them into the full container, and once it's in the liquid, lower the other one to the empty container. Your mead will start flowing. The other method is the tried and true “sucking” method. What you do is place one end of the tubing in the full container, bend down to the empty container, and suck on the lower end of the tube until the mead starts to flow.

In both cases, there are two things to watch out for. One is to have the lower end of the siphon tube close enough to the bottom of the container you're siphoning to that the mead doesn't spash around and get aerated, which can give your brew an oxidized flavor (tastes like wet cardboard. Bleh). The other is to keep the upper end of the tube below any floaties in the liquid you're siphoning, and above any sinkies sitting on the bottom.

Each method has its pluses and minuses. Working with a siphon tube full of liquid can be a little tricky your first few tries, and even after you've mastered the technique, you're liable to spill a little. You also dilute your mead a little with the water you have in the tube. Sucking on the tube adds the possibility that you'll get some bacteria from your mouth into your mead. The dilution isn't a big deal, unless you're working with a very small batch. When you're bottling, the dilution means that your first bottle goes to waste. As for infection from the bacteria in your mouth, you can always sterilize your mouth briefly with a little firewater. I'm partial to Wild Turkey or Rumpelminze.

One last thing that can cause problems for you is that if the liquid you're siphoning has a lot of dissolved gas in it (carbon dioxide in a carbonated liquid, for example), that gas will tend to come out of solution at the top of the siphon-tube. The only real way to solve this problem is to make the uphill leg of the tube shorter by tipping the upper container. If the amount of gas in the tube gets to be too much, the siphon will stop, and you'll need to restart it. No big worry, but it's a hassle. The point is, try not to have to siphon carbonated liquids, and if you do, keep the uphill leg of the siphon as short as possible.

#appendix #siphon

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#appendix

If yeast is still in suspension, the best thing to do is probably to wait. The yeast will naturally settle in time. Bentonite, which is a negatively charged clay and will attach to the positively charged yeast, can also be added to take the yeast out of suspension more quickly.

On the other hand, it's possible to have a haze of tannins. Traditionally, egg white or fresh blood from the slaughterhouse were used to clear tannin hazes. The reason these work is that the tannins and other bits of haze are typically negatively charged. Adding positively charged particles, such as proteins, will neutralize the charges, allowing the particles to clump together and settle out of solution more quickly. Today, gelatin is usually used.

If you use too much gelatin, and go from having a tannin haze to having a gelatin haze, you can add Bentonite.

More information is available at The Science of Cidermaking: When things go wrong. There is also a great page on how to use Sparkolloid at How to Home Brew Beer.

#appendix #clarifying

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#appendix

#appendix

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#appendix