r/mead • u/ATM0123 Beginner • 2d ago

Help! How do I know what day my aging starts?

Is aging considered to have started once the mead has gone dry and prior to cold crashing, or would it be after cold crashing and when I backsweeten?

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u/arctic-apis 2d ago

The age I put on my bottles is the first day of fermentation and the day I put it in a bottle. When I aged my mead it’s not specifically 6 months or a year or anything I just keep it till I want to drink it. Aging can be any amount of time so I have a born date and a bottled date.

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u/caffeinated99 2d ago

Aging begins when fermentation stops. However if you’re looking to put more of a physical date on it as a reference for your records, you could use the point you rack it into a secondary vessel or once you finish tinkering and let your finished product age. It’s subjective and open to interpretation, not unlike the debate of assigning a date to a batch, be it the start date, fermentation completion or the bottling date.

Once you’ve got bottles that are years old, how long they fermented and how long they aged in bulk is more of a reference for your home brewing technique than anything. Your mead will continue to age in bottles too.

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u/ATM0123 Beginner 2d ago

So it’s really just subjective, but I guess a safe answer would be whenever you finish adding to it?

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u/caffeinated99 1d ago

Personally, I use the first racking date. The mead, wine, cider is aging, whether I add to it or not. I’ve got a 6 gallon batch of traditional that’s been bulk aging for a year tomorrow (suppose I should do something with that…). But it’ll get split up into a couple different things. I won’t restart the clock on age if I add something to it now for example.

Do whatever makes sense to you.

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u/ProfessorSputin 2d ago

Yeah more or less. I usually just count from when I bottled them, or if I’m bulk aging from when I racked it into the vessel for bulk aging.

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u/Southern_Celery_1087 1d ago

It's an objective measurement if you have a hydrometer. Did you take a reading a week apart at the same SG? Fermentation is probably over.

Don't have a hydrometer? Has bubbling stopped? How long ago? Give it a week. You'll probably be fine.

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u/ATM0123 Beginner 1d ago

I think you’re referring to when primary is finished. I was more just wondering what date people consider the start of their aging

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u/kannible Beginner 1d ago

I consider aging started after the final flavoring other than honey. I wait a few months and then backsweeten

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u/dookie_shoes816 Intermediate 6h ago

Bottle aging is a little different than bulk aging. I mark my aging date on bottling day.

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u/hushiammask 2h ago

I bulk age, so I count from stabilisation.

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u/BusinessHoneyBadger 2h ago

I make mead for my friends who don't really know a lot about it. I just make it easy and start the count the day I pitch the yeast.

Is that technically accurate? No I don't think so. but I'm consistent and then I don't have to get into any specific details when explaining unless they ask.