Was chatting about ferments with a friend when I remembered I actually had a carboy of mead sitting in a cabinet that I had totally forgotten about

Carboy of mead

This is a basic traditional mead. I racked this off primary back in October of 2024, round Cohost going read-only (hence the little eggbug on the label), and primary started in September. It ended up with around a 9.9% ABV when I measured back in October. Unfortunately it looks like my racking wasn’t perfect and there was a bit of sediment on the bottom, though thankfully not too much. Probably should have racked it one or two more times before setting it aside to bulk age, but oh well. Too lazy.

Anyways, I figure I should get it bottled up—I have these adorable little 187ml champagne glasses and crown caps I use—so I get everything set up, bottles on a towel on the floor with the carboy up on the table for the siphon to work. I have an autosiphon but no bottling wand, and it was really struggling to start. In hindsight, I think the plunger might not have making a tight seal and was letting in some air, I should’ve poured some sanitizer in there to help things along. Also the carboy was way too full, and I had to pull out some with a wine thief first (not before spilling a bunch, of course lol)

Anyways, the autosiphon gets started and… the flow is way too fast, especially with how small the bottles are. I’m spilling everywhere as I try to switch the tube from one bottle to another, and end up running out of bottles and have to scramble to raise the tube and find another glass or something to pour into, spraying a bit of mead all over myself. Fun times

Bottled mead

When it’s all done and dusted, I’ve got 16 of the 187ml bottles and a separate glass to drink that night. So out of a basically full gallon carboy I’ve probably lost 2-300ml of liquid which is unfortunate, but oh well. The more annoying part was having to mop it all up, because it truly went everywhere. Next time, I’m definitely getting a bottling wand…

Speaking of next time, was speaking with that friend and we think a black pepper mead, or maybe grains of paradise, could be quite interesting. Probably make a tincture and include it after primary fermentation, when setting aside to bulk age? Maybe I’ll search the farmer’s markets for some nice honey later in September and kick off that brew late in the year to be ready for drinking next summer.