Banana Melomel (Bottling)

Well I finally got round to bottling the banana melomel after almost a month of letting bentonite do it's work. It's been my first time using this and I already love it. If you're just starting brewing and you're reading this then invest in some Bentonite! It will improve the clarity and look as well as removing any impurities floating around in there like residual yeast that you don't really want in the bottle. After siphoning the cleared mead off into an empty demijohn I stabilised and added a crushed campden tablet. I didn't really want any residual fermentation happening in the bottle. The gallon, after racking twice gave 4 bottle (and a glass which was very nice for testing purposes). I decided against sticky labels this time. If I want to reuse the bottles again and again I didn't want to be bothering with picking off the labels every time to wash them. Instead I opted for a vintage looking tag around the neck which I think works quite well. In the bottle pictured below I also added some gold leaf to sparkle it up a bit. I was a little apprehensive about adding the leaf initially. When I received them I examined them and realised just how fragile they are and how easily they can get stuck to themselves and other object (like fingers!). To add them in I just used a knife. After filling the bottle I scraped small sections of gold off of each leaf and added them little by little to the mead. Although they got stuck to the knife as soon as they met the liquid they came off easily. I homebrew terms it is a little expensive adding around £3 to the cost of each bottle but for the odd special one I think the price is well worth the effect.