Define "Clear"

I've heard from everywhere that you should bottle your mead when it is "clear". What exactly does that mean? It seems to be a bit of a subjective measurement. Should it be clear in a glass? Clear through the carboy? Cause my orange blossom mead is a dark orange color and I can't imagine ever being able to see straight through the carboy. But in a glass its very clear and a little yellow color. Is this ready? Or am I waiting for another degree of clear??

At some point, you should actually be able to see through an orange blossom honey mead, even in the carboy. How long has this one been done fermenting? If it's been several months, and it tastes good, you could consider hitting it with some finings to finish clearing it if you need the carboy space, otherwise, there's no harm in letting it just age in bulk.

Its been done fermenting for at least a month now, maybe a little longer. When I racked it again today I took a gravity read of 1.000. So it's in no danger of starting up again.

jpcoote said:

Its been done fermenting for at least a month now, maybe a little longer. When I racked it again today I took a gravity read of 1.000. So it's in no danger of starting up again.

Click to expand...

Mead can often finish at .990.

"Clear" means "read a newspaper through it" clear. Even dark red wines can be seen through if held up to the light in a glass, while lighter colored meads are seen through right in the carboy.

Ok well my mead is perfectly clear in a glass. Should I leave it longer till its clear in the carboy?

If this is a pure orange blossom mead, I'd let it be...you could consider racking it, but you won't be harmed by letting it ride for another month or two...

The "read a newspaper through it" is valid for traditionals and other relatively light coloured meads, if you have a dark one, or made with fruit, etc then shining a bright torch/flashlight through it normally reveals any suspended sediment.

Of course, there's exceptions. Where it may look clear and gets bottled only to have a sediment a similar colour to the mead drop out later. Which I understand are tannins and sometimes proteins. In a similar way that you sometimes get a slight dark red/purple sediment in the bottom of a red wine.

IMO, its only an issue if you can see it.........

fatbloke said:

Of course, there's exceptions. Where it may look clear and gets bottled only to have a sediment a similar colour to the mead drop out later. Which I understand are tannins and sometimes proteins. In a similar way that you sometimes get a slight dark red/purple sediment in the bottom of a red wine.

Click to expand...

Where would tannins come from in a traditional mead?

bconstant said:

Where would tannins come from in a traditional mead?

Click to expand...

Oak....

jpcoote said:

Ok well my mead is perfectly clear in a glass. Should I leave it longer till its clear in the carboy?

Click to expand...

I would.

You said fermentation ended a month ago. That's a long time for a beer, but not for mead, wine, etc.

Unless you need your carboy let it stay where it is! You want to age the mead for at least six months, and aging in the carboy is better than in the bottle (see: bulk aging)

Am I right in thinking that if you use certain fruits without pectin enzyme, there'll be a degree of cloudiness that will never clear, due to pectin proteins?

Peppers16 said:

Am I right in thinking that if you use certain fruits without pectin enzyme, there'll be a degree of cloudiness that will never clear, due to pectin proteins?

Click to expand...

Unless you heat it, probably not, but I am no expert.

Also, pectins are carbohydrates, not proteins.

keesh said:

Also, pectins are carbohydrates, not proteins.

Click to expand...

Oops, my bad.

Can anyone post up a pic of a clear mead in the carboy? I am getting a little paranoid about one of my meads because I lost a lot in siphoning and it has a lot of head space in the carboy. It stopped bubbling almost completely when I transferred to the secondary and there is virtually no gas sitting in the airlock. I thought I might have a leak somewhere so I wrapped the top in some saran wrap. I just don't want it to oxidize while I am bulk ageing.

OK. That's pretty darn clear...

Thanks for all the feed back on this post. I appreciate everyone's input.

I'm a little concerned at this point about the amount of headspace I have in the carboy, so I dont really want to leave the mead in there any longer than necessary. I tried using bentonite about a week and a half ago, but it still hasn't really cleared like it should. Anything wrong with bottling this early?

jpcoote said:

Thanks for all the feed back on this post. I appreciate everyone's input.

I'm a little concerned at this point about the amount of headspace I have in the carboy, so I dont really want to leave the mead in there any longer than necessary. I tried using bentonite about a week and a half ago, but it still hasn't really cleared like it should. Anything wrong with bottling this early?

Click to expand...

Personally, I won't bottle any mead until it's at least 10-12 months old. Even then, it's only the lower ABV batches that will get bottled that soon. I have two 14% batches started last December (2011) in the first week of the month in fact, that won't be going to bottle until sometime next month at the earliest. I started another batch, designed to go to 16% that will get at least a full year. I'm looking at starting another batch this week that will also be going at least a full year before being bottled.

I still have a decent amount of my 2010 batches on hand. The traditional batches continue to improve with time. I'm hoping the blackberry melomel comes into it's own soon (also from November 2010).

my latest trick for testing clearing on dark meads has been to use a laser pointer. If it hasn't cleared yet the red dot on the other side of the carboy will either be non-existant or dull. When the red dot comes out the other side of the carboy as bright as it is when just pointing it at the wall, it's probably clear

For light colored meads just use your eye balls.

I´ve been trying using Bentonita (a type of clay) to clean a batch of mead. It worked fine and did not changed the taste anyway. But I still prefer to let it clear by itself as I fell it gets more complex if I let it lives its own life... but I´m a beginner as well!

IMO/IME time is still the best mead clearing agent/method.