Mead is clear, now what to do?

Hi everyone,
I'm new to making mead and only made a few types of wine so I have a rather lame question (or 2) so here goes:
When you rack your mead into a clean carboy when it's pretty much clear, do you top it off w/ anything so there is no air space? If I leave it in the carboy there is about 6 inches of air space between the level of liquid and the air lock.

My very first batch of mead that I made about a month ago is now clear and I'm wondering if I should bottle it up or leave it in the carboy. I racked it into a clean carboy until I figure out what to do with it.

If bottling it, that leaves me w/ another question... Do I have to add any k-meta to it to preserve it or will the preservatives in the honey keep it safe for aging?

6 inches is a little much of an air space. Don't be in a hurry to bottle mead. It holds a lot od C02 and may take a while to competently de-gas. At a young age you are going to have more settling. Better to leave it in carboy than bottle. I don't add Kmeta of sorbate to mead. But most here don't agree with me. They add it to their water before they drink it, I think.If you are not adding Kmeta you will have to protect for O2 in other ways, like getting rid of air space. I fill mine with C02. Don't worry about spoiling, It ain't going to happen. The picture is my new raspberry mead and that is how much air space I have

Awesome Thanks so much, Mike!
This is what mine looks like. Do you recommend just leaving it like that?

Yes, that is too much head space. I would either transfer to smaller vessel for long term aging or top it up with other mead. I usually keep 2 gal of traditional just for that purpose.

I have a c02 tank so I can fill the headspace with co2. You have to much space. Your mead in no where near done clearing. Dont bottle yet

My first thought when I read the caption was "drink it"

Other than that I would rack it into something smaller ( or fill it) to get rid of the head space. I also agree from the photo, that needs to clear some more.

What's in the bottle next to it?

The yellow bottle next to it is a younger batch of mead. That is why it is so cloudy- it is about a week or so old.

paraordnance said:

Yes, that is too much head space. I would either transfer to smaller vessel for long term aging or top it up with other mead. I usually keep 2 gal of traditional just for that purpose.

Click to expand...

That's a good idea. Thanks.

I often end up with just a little extra than will fit in the carboy I'm using, so I put it in a wine bottle or two under airlocks. They come in handy for topping up later.

I make all my batchs heavy(6 1/2 gl) so I have something to top off with. BTW you can top off Raspberry with a small amount of strawberry mead and no one will notice

Update on this mead: Just thought I would give a little update on this one. I ended up bottling this one 3 months ago to free up some small carboys. I was digging through my little wine cellar looking for something to drink the other day and came across a bottle of this Blueberry Mead. It's about a year old now so I figured I would try a bottle and see how it tastes. Oh my goodness. I was surprised how tasty it was! After my husband and I drank the whole bottle I was then disappointed because I only made one gallon of this flavor.. From now on I am going to make bigger batches!

LOL, Nevaiwen. A gal. just doesn't seem to go very far. Not much more work to make 5 gal. and takes a bit longer to consume. Most every time I have made a gal. I have wished I had gone with a larger batch. Usually do now, but occasionally try something out with a small batch. Arne.

I do gallon batches of new flavors for mead, mostly because honey ain't cheap! Once I know I like it I'll do large batches.

I believe Steve - The Allinonevacuum pump fellow - was developing a kind of balloon device that you could put into a carboy and it would remove the extra head room and so save you from either diluting the wine or blending the wine you are making with either other flavors or other similar wines. All I know is it takes a heck of a lot of marbles to fill up a few inches of empty head room...