Racked mead now there is a lot head space

[BoatShark]

I've racked 2 meads in the last couple of weeks for the second time each and now have a lot of air space in my carboy. Is this ok? I would think oxygen is not my friend here.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

You may need to top it up. Some people use clear glass marbles, others top up with honey and water / juice with an equal gravity to the must. But yeah too much head-space can be an issue. Some folks rack into a smaller carboy and save some in a bottle in the fridge to top up later with.

 

[Kdog22]

I've used a honey/water mixture to top off after racking. Since I don't have a similar mead or a ton of useable marbles. Seems to work well.

 

[Anon22]

I've never had an issue with head space, just be sure to purge the carboy with CO2 or another neutral gas like Argon. Nitrogen will work too, but the other two are heavier than O2 so they will layer over your mead and protect it. If you're not opposed to it, sulfite at every racking or every other too.

I also have recently adopted having 3 gallon and 1 gallon carboys (one or two) to rack into when my meads are aging, just to be safe, since it seems my batches always whittle down to odd sizes through racking. In general, you want to avoid anything that could lead to oxygenation, but don't loose sleep over this. RDWHAHB ;-)

 

[BoatShark]

I added juice & honey to top off. Now have my fingers crossed