Refilling after a rack.

poisonivie01

Im new to brewing of any kind but have had 2 successful runs of mead so far. A black grape and a really good rasberry. I wondered both times if i should add water to fill my container back up after a rack. Both were 1 gallon batches and after a few racks i only came away with 3/4 of a gallon of drinkable mead each time. Should i add water after a rack or just continue as i have been? Thanks in advance gang.

Srimmey

I don’t. I accept the loss of volume, the trade-off is more flavor.
If you top it off with something, you dilute your brew. There are exceptions to this, especially when step feeding or using fruit in primary but for the most part I plan to lose 20-30% of the original volume.

poisonivie01

Thats the rasberry i did and its tasty if i must say lol

MightyMosin

This is an example of why I'll use a larger fermentation vessel like the FerMonster. I can brew larger than standard sizes and after racking I will end up close to a standard size.

poisonivie01

Being new to brewing i didnt want to go very big untill i was sure of myself. I already have ideas of 3 and 5 gallon runs now. Didnt want to waste a bunch of honey if i screwed it all up know what i mean lol. Honey is so expensive around here are there any online places that sell it at a fairly cheap price. Thanks for your imput guys

Drewch

I don't think it's common practice, but I think you could refill after racking. You'd just have to plan for the additional dilution when you figured your starting gravity. But I would try to aim for an even multiple of 750 or 375ml for bottling ... rather than trying to keep an even gallon.

Raptor99

I started with 1-gallon batches too. It's best to start in a brewing bucket with 125% or 130% of the target final volume. So if I start 1.25 gals, after the first racking I still have enough to fill a 1-gallon carboy to the neck. If there's a bit of extra, I save that for topping off later.
Depending on how much you get from your first racking, you might end up with several different sized containers. For example: 1-gal + 750 ml wine bottle. Or 1-gal + 375 ml bottle.
At bottling time, there's usually a bit of left over that won't completely fill a bottle. That goes into the fridge for immediate consumption.

Dan-O

In the beginning when I started making mead, I used to add water. I've since learned the best way is to either brew more than 1 gallon (as in a 2 gallon brew bucket or large fermentor).....or......make a batch of traditional just to use for topping off your new meads, that way you don't dilute your current batch.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

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Murph4231

I've made extremely high gravity meads intentionally so I could add water as needed. It does work but I find it produces a less blended flavor profile than to simply make a larger batch to compensate for losses from racking. I now use a 1. 75 gal primary for 1 gal batches. Makes ending up with a full gal of fermented mead or melomel easy with usually a little over for immediate consumption.
I use this for 1 gal text batches of meads and ciders.

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poisonivie01

It's a beautiful thing!