Brewing: Heather Agave Mead Bottled

The war is won.  There is quite a bit of brewing that makes the job worth it.  And then there is bottling.  If anything could turn someone off of home brewing, bottling can be it.  The work involved can be quite a bit of drudgery, although the rewards at the end are very worth the work (and of course a kegerator makes it even better). 

Tonight I bottled the Heather Agave Mead.  Meads and ciders are drinks that for me are meant to be bottled.  It does mean spending about 2 or more hours of your day cleaning and sanitizing.  For this batch I split a bit of the work between 2 days even.  Yesterday I cleaned the labels off the bottles (collecting bottles is an easy way to reduce the cost of bottling).  Today the work of sanitization and filling was done. 

 

Bottles draining in preparation.

Mead ready to transfer to the bottling bucket with bottles ready to be filled.

 

Transferring

 Bottle fill set up.  The key is to have as much as possible within easy reach.  Off camera I had a milk crate table set up with easy access to corks. 

Although the initial cost of a floor corker is a bit much, the ease of use makes up for it in the long run.  With this corker I can do the corking operation with one hand, freeing the other one to work the bottle filler. 

 

 

The mead as it is right now is quite tasty.  I make most of my meads on the dry side and this one is no exception.  Though it is a lighter bodied mead the flavor is full with strong tequila notes.  This one should age nicely in the bottle. 

 



Time for a pint...