[liquidbrewing]

So, I'm gonna bottle my first mead today.  I have a Beer Gun, I only bottle one batch of beer a year, my yearly Barleywine.  I never purge the bottles, since I add extra yeast and sugar when I bottle.  I figure the secondary fermentation will push any O2 to the top of the bottle.

But my mead is going to be still.  Should I purge the bottles with CO2 or just bottle them up?  Would a little oxygen help or hurt this mead?  Its going to need a few months to age, I fermented it really cool, but it still has a weird hot alcohol taste, not terrible, but noticeable.

[jamminbrew]

My last mead was fairly hot also, so I added a blend of tannic, malic, and citric acid to help level that out. And I just bottled it, no issues with O2. After 6 months, it was awesome.

[nateo]

A small amount of oxidation is OK, a lot is not so much. A little bit tastes like sherry. A lot tastes like cardboard.

[dbarber]

If you are using a beer gun I would go ahead and purge the bottles.  That's my SOP when bottling still meads.

[rjharper]

I use my beer gun too, but I have both CO2 and gas blend (for my stouts) bottles.  I use the blend with mead, I figure I can purge with N2 instead.