Racking off the lees

When fermentation is finished, the spent yeast and debris lie on the bottom as a thick layer called the gross lees. Left there for months, they can give a mead off-flavours. So it is racked: siphoned gently into a clean vessel, with the tube's end kept low to avoid splashing air into it.

The siphon cannot take every drop. From a 19 litre batch the first racking commonly leaves 2 to 3 litres behind. A young mead is also full of carbon dioxide, which keeps fine haze from settling; the move itself drives some of it out, and stirring does the rest.

The mead that arrives is thinner in volume and ready to clear.

In this game the cellar racks a batch the morning of its third reading into the vessel set aside at pitch, degassing it as it goes. From five gallons, 2.3 litres stay behind.