Rhubarb Melomel (Mead) -- Part 3

Today we racked both the amarone wine and the rhubarb mead. For the amarone, which is a kit wine, we followed the directions. For the mead, we made up our own :)

The mead's specific gravity today was .998. .004 down from the first racking. Apparently this is good. (The amarone was also .004 down.)

No photos today, because, well--nothing looks different than last time. We racked the rhubarb mead into a fermenter, then Jim 'degassed' it by agitating it vigorously with an attachment to his drill. Meanwhile I'd mixed 1/2 teaspoon of potassium metabisulphite into 1/2 cup of cool water. We then mixed this thoroughly into the mead, then let it sit 20-30 minutes before re-racking it back into the glass carboy. (We understand the purpose of the PM to be making sure the fermentation is turned off, or complete.)

With fermentation locks in place, both carboys are now out in our mudroom (cooler than under the dining room table where they've been living until now!) with a garbage bag over each to keep them in the dark. And there they shall sit for 2-3 weeks until we do it all again.

Again, the taste tests on both were positive.

Rhubarb Melomel (Mead) -- Part 2

Last night we checked the specific gravity of the mead in the fermentation vessel. It was at 1.02, which is right where it should be.



I scooped out the majority of the rhubarb chunks, then we racked the mead. This basically means we siphoned it into a glass carboy, leaving behind the majority of the sediment and bits of fruit. You can see a vessel of amarone wine waiting for its turn to be racked.



Here's the carboy nearly full.



I forgot to take a photo once we'd put the fermentation lock on top. If you're not sure what that looks like, I found a photo here. You can see the mead is quite cloudy. Subsequent rackings should help with that, but if it doesn't clear, the taste isn't affected.

And I'm here to tell you that the sip of raw mead I had last night was quite good already, not nearly as astringent as the first taste of the plum wine we did in the fall of '07 at this stage. So far it is looking like this experiment will be a grand success :)