Winter time mead making leads to spring time bottling. The berry mead that I made back in February is now ready for bottling.

Thinking about this mead’s timeline, the fermentation was probably over in about 10 days. I think I let it sit for a month just to be sure it was done.

Once I decided fermentation was over, the mead was racked to another carboy and I added oak chips. I like what the oak flavor brings to the berries in the mead. I think I let the mead condition with oak for another month.

In April, I racked again to another carboy and I have been letting it sit to clarify even more. I think this is as clear as it is going to get.

Berry Mead ready for bottling

What I have found with many of my fermentables is that even if the carboy view isn’t super clear, the view in the glass tends to be a different story.

I have become a little more sophisticated in my mead bottling. Now I am using wine bottles – watch out!

Here is some of my collection:

Wine bottles for mead

These bottles needed a good cleaning. They were rinsed out before they were stored but you could tell that some of the bottles had residue. I soaked them in a solution of PBW to get the gunk out.

Here are the corks I am going to use once the bottles are filled:

Corks for mead bottling

It’s interesting to note the instructions on the cork bag. They say to dip them into a sulphite solution before corking the bottles. I didn’t know that you had to do that when using corks. Is this standard practice?

When I have used corks in the past, I haven’t treated them at all and I haven’t had any problems. Then again, the bottles don’t get stored on their sides and frankly they aren’t stored for that long. Mead tends to not last long around here.

Since there is not bottle carbonation, the mead should be good to drink right after it is bottled. I have a few 12 ounce bottles to fill for competitions but the rest is going into the wine bottles.

Mead on!