A little over two moths ago I started a batch of traditional mead.

It cleared out really well and needed to be racked only once. The fermentation lock stopped bubbling a few weeks ago, and the gravity readings have been holding steady.

I gathered the siphoning equipment and with Amy's help, we got the siphon going.


I decided not to bottle into wine bottles, I wanted something smaller for single serving size. That way, I figure, if I only wanted a little at a time, or I opened a bottle and it wasn't done aging, I wouldn't have a full size wine bottle open.

I settled on using beer bottles because they were inexpensive, easy to use and a good size.



Using a simple crimp-er, I put the caps onto the bottles (right two bottles shown below) and crimped it down tight (left bottle).



When I finished filling the bottles and capping them, I put them back into the box and kept them down in the cool workshop.



Out of curiosity, I added 1 teaspoon of honey to two bottles each to see if they would carbonate and make sparkling mead. I also marked a "C" on their lids for carbonated.

I have read of bottle bombs by over carbonation, so I wrapped each bottle in newspaper, and put them into a box by their self. That way, I figure, if they were to explode, they wouldn't break any other bottles.



I'll let the mead bottle age for quite some time and then give it a try.