crumpetsnbeer

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I was wondering if adding bentonite ads any chemical flavor or any off taste for that matter?

I ask because I have racked my mead three times now and it has been fermenting for about 4 months, I will be racking again in the next week or so, yet it has not started to clear up. Their is also, well i feel like very little sediment on the bottom,

I'm I acting to soon or should i give it more time?

sorry I'm such a noob

shelly_belly

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I've used bentonite in a wine. It took about 2 weeks to create any lees, and they were light and fluffy and would not settle out completely to the bottom. I ended up cold crashing at 27F for a week and that took care of it.

fatbloke

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Bentonite is just an inert clay material. I don't know the exact method of how it works, whether it's positive/negative electron charges like with the 2 part finings, or whether it's like when you disturb a lees to cause nucleation points which then allows the carbonic acid to collect around them, forming bubbles (using that as analogy on how it might work).... but it shouldn't add anything that would cause off flavours.
Why are you racking it if its not finished fermenting ? That's how you cause stuck ferments and/or long drawn out fermentations.

Each time you rack, you will be leaving some of the active yeast colony behind, reducing the amount that is in the ferment. Provided the ferment has enough nutrients etc, to nourish the yeast, the colony would re-grow, but that takes time, and can result in the ferment sticking, as there'd either not be enough nutrients left in the brew or the alcohol level would have developed enough, to stifle or even preven the colony reforming enough to continue the ferment process.

Don't rack it until you've had 3 identical gravity readings (take the readings 2 or 3 days apart), across a period of a week to 10 days.

Even then, unless you've used a yeast that doesn't do "sur lie" or batonage ageing, like 71B, you'd just leave it to form the sediment where you can see it's starting to clear.

Reading matter for you to check through with plenty of guidance when new to mead making.........

Plus one of the biggest drawbacks to producing good meads is lack of patience......

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Oh, and here's some blog stuff!

huesmann

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Besides, the point of the bentonite is to clear, i.e. remove particles. If you clear it properly, little to no bentonite should be included in your finished product--it should have settled out.

gratus fermentatio

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My thoughts exactly. Unless the lees are over an inch thick (approximately), I'd leave that mead alone for a while, like another month or two at least. I've never seen a need to use any finings for mead, it clears all by itself in time.
Mead takes time.
Regards, GF.