# When To Bottle



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

> What I can't remember was if it was bubbles rising in the fermenter or a bubble that causes the airlock to lift.


One causes the other, so both







. Dissolved CO2 leaving solution increases pressure in the headspace which eventually causes the airlock to bubble. Bubbles per hour is a momily (Mom meant in the airlock) and you're right to wonder; don't rely on it. Airlock activity depends on a lot of things like temp, nutrition, yeast strain, atmospheric pressure, and of course price of tea in China, but it's a very poor gauge of fermentation activity after activity slows.

Couple things you can do from here... if it's bubbling at all you really shouldn't bottle. If it's bubbling in the airlock you _really_ shouldn't bottle. Options: degas by racking or stirring gently. Certainly let it warm to room temp if it isn't already. Even if the ferment is done, but the wine or mead is still saturated with dissolved CO2, it'll still sparkle in the bottle and on the tongue. The only way to be sure the ferment is done is 2 successive unchanged hydrometer readings a couple weeks apart or, if you've kept good recipe notes and know your yeast, sometimes one hydrometer reading (if it's at .096 and you have 12% alcohol, it's done for sure). 

It's not unusual for a mead, especially a traditional or one with limited nutrients for the yeast or a pH problem (pretty common) to limp along for months at a glacial fermentation pace. Keep your hydrometer handy. After over a year if it's still fermenting (and not just offgassing CO2 from saturation) you've got a problem and could consider rousing, repitching, stabilizing, or an energizer/nutrient addition. My guess on the dandelion is it's just lettin goff CO2 accumulated during the ferment and needs a degassing. It'll be ready to bottle afterwards, but let it rest a couple weeks between degassing and bottling to be sure.


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## Romahawk (Jul 11, 2005)

Thanks for the respnse. I'll try the degassing thing and wait a couple of weeks to be sure the bubbling has stopped. Sure don't need any shrapnel flying around.


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## nursebee (Sep 29, 2003)

Have you used a hydrometer?


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## Romahawk (Jul 11, 2005)

No I haven't. I have made wine for years without any special equipment and until now this has never happened to me. I have my recipes adjusted to my personal taste and everyone tells me they are better wines than they buy in the stores. I don't know if free bottles have anything to do with their opinion or not.  

Thanks guys for your comments.


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## Propolis30 (Aug 25, 2005)

Isn't that nice! I just recently started using a hydrometer myself after brewing for 5+ years. I made a muscadine wine about 4 years ago and my brother and his wife, which are big wine drinkers told me it was the best wine they had ever had in their life.


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

There's for sure a "freshness" of taste with homemade that a filtered, sulfited, shipped and shook, sitting on a shelf under fluorescent lights storebought will never approach.


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## nursebee (Sep 29, 2003)

My guess is that due to poor nutrition and higher OG, meads get stuck or go slow. A hydrometer would be the only way to know. I've had some sweet ones clarify and explode when bottled. Hydrometer readings are a "must" now.


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## Propolis30 (Aug 25, 2005)

If your happy with where it is at can't you just use some Sorb K before bottling to kill off any future fermenrtation in the bottle?


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Not if it's actively fermenting. Would that it were that easy! Sorbate prevents yeast reproduction, so it will prevent a renewed ferment down the road. For this reason it's used after sweetening a finished mead to prevent the yeast from waking up and eating the sugars. The only ways to stop an in-progress ferment are to chill it down (precipitating out the yeast and slowing their metabolism), sulfiting heavily (though wine yeasts are wine yeasts because, among other reasons, they are tolerant to sulfites so you have to get pretty medieval on them. I don't care for this approach), or perhaps sterile filtering which is a huge pain.

For me I prefer to make sure a ferment's run to completion even if it means re-pitching or adding a nutrient. Then you're working with a known beastie and you can adjust, sweeten, blend, stabilize, whatever.


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## Romahawk (Jul 11, 2005)

Hmmmmm, I was told today by someone to get a quart of Vodka and dump in the carboy. They said that would raise the alcohol level above the tolerance of the yeast and kill it. Does this sound reasonable? I'm going to rack both carboys off tomorrow and let them set a week or two and see what happens but I was curious about the Vodka advice.


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Yes, that's a "traditional" practice that can work. It depends on a few things including yeast strain and current alcohol content. How much honey (and other fermentables if you used them) went into how much must, and what kind of yeast did you use? Also it does make more of a vodka character in the mead and the alcohol flavor can become a bit out of balance for the mead, but then I've sure made a few rocket-fuels to see how fun the party can be







.


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