Time in a bottle - The best advice for new mead makers

I have made a fair amount of mead and a I have talked to quite a few beginner mead makers and the number one piece of advice I can give a new mead maker is that it really takes time. Mead progresses at a pace all of its own and this pace is very much a pace of another time and place. Mead very much goes counter to the world we live in -a world where we can get everything we can possibly want in an instant, any time of the day or night.

Mead just doesnt work this way. It takes time to follow its own course. If you make a batch of mead you are going be excited as the bubbling starts in the airlock and as soon as it slows down (after a couple of weeks) you are going to want to taste it! That's fine, but you are probably going to be disappointed!! It probably won't taste that good. Don't fret about this. Rack it off into a fresh clean carboy and let it do it's thing for at least three or four months. over this time you should keep a casual eye on it but for the most part just leave it alone. You can continue to taste it periodically and if you do you are going to notice that it improves and after maybe six months or so you are going to be pleasantly surprised by how delicious it gets.

It truly needs time to reach its maturity and the longer you can wait the better it will get. it is quite an amazing thing. If you can wait a year it will be worth the wait.

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