My next move with "finished" mead.

What seems to have been a successful ferment with the traditional/weirdomel batch in the previous post, has galvanised me a bit.

I haven't been able to work out why I've felt so nonchalant about getting myself into gear and bottling some of the 18 gallons or so of various meads that are currently sitting in 1 gallon jars/DJ's under the stairs, but I think it's nervousness at the possibility that it'll taste like shit.

Well the traditional/weirdomel batch is the first time I've made a batch that has definite residual sugar in it. Last time I bottled a batch it was the first batch I made, which was Ok, but not brilliant (to be expected), but I just went ahead and started making batches - all of which have ended up under the stairs as I lost a bit of enthusiasm for making batches - I've made other stuff, but that's all sitting in fermenters/DJ's of various sizes as well.

Anyway, I'm confident that it doesn't matter if when I start mixing/blending the aged batches, that if my additions of honey do cause any hazing, I'm just gonna whack it with finings too clear it.

I might not actually bottle it immediately, just get it ready i.e. I'll blend 5 gallons in a large bucket, I'll stabilise it, then back sweeten it initially to 1.010 then taste. If it's sweet enough, and it doesn't haze with the back sweetening honey, I'll bottle that with the enolmatic with the filter in line. If it hazes, I'll just "fine" it and rack it back into the DJ's until the finings have done their thing then I'll bottle it.

If my thinking is correct, I should at least have a reasonably consistent flavour and colour. I'll have to wait and see. I'll try and take some pics while I'm doing that.