Bottling for competition

[decoleur]

I made a 5 gallon batch of Chocolate Aphrodisiac, racked twice and let it age for a year before bottling. Now 6 months later I want to enter it into some competitions and yet I bottled the whole batch in 1L flip tops. Can it be rebottled into 12 oz. or should I just start on a new batch and chalk it up to lessons learned?

Thoughts?

 

[Revvy]

I tell people with beer who ask the same question, that you really want the BEST product possible when submitting anything to be judged on it's, and your merits. Doing something that could possibly cause oxygen damage or risk infection should be avoided, and it's nearly impossible to transfer something from one glass bottle to another easily.

I would chalk this up to a learning lesson, and in the future ALWAYS bottle 6 of them in whatever typical competition size is required. If it's 12 ounces, then you can enter up to three contests over the years if they require two bottle/entry.

 

[bob1852]

I made a 5 gallon batch of Chocolate Aphrodisiac, racked twice and let it age for a year before bottling. Now 6 months later I want to enter it into some competitions and yet I bottled the whole batch in 1L flip tops. Can it be rebottled into 12 oz. or should I just start on a new batch and chalk it up to lessons learned?

Thoughts?

Assuming this is a still mead?

Right before the due date for the competition, get yourself at least a 1/2 gallon growler or flask and carefully pour enough into that jug for how many 12oz bottles you'll need (pouring some extra to account for racking loss).

Get a mini-auto siphon and a bottling wand and bottle back into 12oz bottles.

Mead is much more forgiving from an oxidation stand-point than beer.

I did this for the final round of NHC last year with one of my meads; and it made it to the mini-BOS.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Going to side with AZ on this one. Just wait as close to the entry deadline as you safely can. Rebottle, and submit.

 

[decoleur]

Thanks for the input! I appreciate the guidance.