Or, in this instance, the leaking fermentation vessel. I racked my mead last night into two smaller containers for aging and flavoring. One batch of raspberry-flavored melomel, and one of cinnamon-allspice-ginger-nutmeg spiced holiday metheglin. After figuring the specific gravity, I learned that the base mead is 14% alcohol, and is completely dry. Well. So much for the sack mead idea.
The two smaller containers have airlock assemblies and built-in bung holes and taps, which makes racking and bottling very simple (these are Mr. Beer homebrew kits, after all). But you have to screw the tap assembly together, using a rubber washer to prevent leaks. Which I did. Unfortunately, after getting the raspberry mix all squared away and starting on the holiday spice, I noticed a steady drip drip drip coming from where the tap joins the container. And a panicked check of the other showed the same thing happening. I can assure you, I did not want to lose all that mead. So after frantic indecision where I tried to conjure all sorts of wacky fix-it schemes, I bit the bullet. I scrubbed my hand down with every disinfectant available and reached in to tighten the melomel assembly. Alas, some mead was lost. The metheglin assembly proved far more determined to leak, however, and I ended up disassembling it twice before managing to make it stop. Some threading was stripped in the process. More mead lost as well.
What I'd planned on being a 30 minute racking turned into a two hour ordeal. So now when I'm bottling the stuff in a few weeks and enjoying the convenience of the built-in taps, I'll have to remember that folks racking into glass carboys don't have to struggle with these kinds of problems.
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