Clear mead turns cloudy

Hello,
Okay, here's the background:

September 20, 2009: My mead had cleared, so I flushed a carboy with CO2, transferred the mead for bulk aging, added potassium sorbate and cinnamon oil (AHA Conference '06 Fireball Mead recipe), and inserted an undrilled stopper.

Yesterday (December 17): Transferred another mead to a conditioning tank so I decided to check on the Fireball. In the passing months it has changed from crystal clear to very cloudy, to the point that I can no longer see through it. My first thought is oxidation from the cinnamon oil; I figure, if a drop of olive oil can provide enough oxygen (see various articles in Zymurgy, BYO, and on this forum) for one to avoid the oxygenation step, cinnamon oil could probably do the same. Unfortunately I didn't have a sanitized thief to take a sample, but the mead had a lovely sweet cinnamon roll aroma to it.

Is this oxidation or something else? Is there any way to clear this if it is O2?

Thanks in advance!

Do you have the ability to take hydrometer readings? I know you said that you didn't have a thief to take a sample. Reason I ask, I wonder if your mead still has some residual sugars in it. If so, you may be seeing a restart in fermentation. Yeast may be multiplying again, making the batch cloudy. Possibly a bacterial infection as well...

Perhaps the abv isn't high enough to fully dissolve and disperse the oil, and some of it is hanging around in droplets, like an ouzo in water sort of effect. The only reason I can think for this is that fermentation wasn't complete, and you had a relatively low ABV. I had one batch clear right up before it was done, because I left for the city and left my windows open, basically cold crashing the stuff by accident. Without taking hydro readings or at least tasting the stuff, you're working blind. It can be messy if you're not careful, but if you don't have a thief, you can use a turkey baster.

there's a specific type of infection that uses potassium sorbate to take hold.
I know from wine making that you NEVER add sorbate without adding sulfite, otherwise you can get an infection that produces a geranium flavor and aroma that'll never fade.

Dunno if it can happen in mead or not.

"An unpleasant smell of geraniums in wine is the result of a reaction between sorbic acid, found in potassium sorbate, and lactic acid bacteria used for MLF. The reaction produces hexadienol, otherwise known as geraniol, which produces the strong and disagreeable odor of rotting geraniums – a highly undesirable outcome that cannot be fixed. Potassium sorbate is an ingredient used to stabilize wines by inhibiting the growth of yeast and mold. Malolactic-fermented wines may still have lactic acid bacteria present unless adequately inhibited with sulfite."

malkore is exactly right, but if you don't smell something that reminds you either of rotten geraniums or of citronella candles, then you likely don't have any malolactic bacteria in there, for the moment. It would still be a good idea to dose it with metabisulfite on every subsequent racking, just so the chances of contamination from airborne organisms is reduced. A little sulfite also helps to retard oxidation.

The cloudiness may have come from the binding of residual polysaccharides by the oil - and in that case a treatment with any of the usual wine fining agents (anything from bentonite to Super Kleer) should clear it up in short order.

BTW, the addition of olive oil as a substitute for providing oxygen during primary fermentation doesn't add O2 to the must. Instead, it provides a source of the sterols that yeast use to build up their cell walls. If they don't get those sterols from their environment, they have to synthesize them... which requires that oxygen be present. So it is an either - or kind of thing. In fact, the addition of oxygen to a must already rich in those sterols doesn't help the yeast any, and according to one study that I read about, can actually weaken the yeasts' ethanol tolerance.

drop in a campdent tablet. it helps prevent oxidation and aids clearing..... or at lest thats what i understand anyway.

Wow. Thanks for all the feedback! Here are the mead details:
OG: 1.130
FG: 1.044 (recipe called for between 1.030 and 1.066)
ABV: ~11%

I'll try to answer most of the questions:
*I didn't do a malo-lactic fermentation, no geranium odor.

*Would the yeast be able to kick back up after a K-sorbate addition?

*The guy at my LHBS suggested using isinglass when I explained the problem to him, but he said it'd work best if I got it into the 70's F, which might be problematic. Should I use isinglass or go for something else?

*I've been trying to avoid sulfites. If Ken Schramm doesn't need them, nor do I! But if you guys really think I should...

Thanks for all the feedback, and let me know what you think!

I'm not too big on using sulfites myself, but if you're using sorbate, there's really no way around it.

Yan said:

I'm not too big on using sulfites myself, but if you're using sorbate, there's really no way around it.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Are there any other stabilizers that wouldn't require a sulfite addition to be most effective? Or do you bottle completely unpasteurized?

Myself, I ferment dry and bottle. I'm not at all into sweet mead. But even then, if I want a sweet mead, stabilizers aren't necessary, to me at least. I would go for a yeast that's likely to drop out before it eats all the sugar, and start with a high enough OG to make sure there is sugar left. If I were worried about it still being active, I'd cold crash for as long as possible. This has always worked with my wines.

Thanks Yan! I used Lalvin 71B, it all dropped out, and that's when I racked and added the k-sorbate, leaving plenty of residual sugar. I mostly prefer between dry and semi-sweet, but this was intended to be a dessert mead. I'd tasted a sample some months before and loved it (as did SWMBO, which is a rare occurrence). Cold crashing isn't really possible (no fridge), but like I said, it was really bright when I added the stabilizer.

Back to the issue at hand, isinglass? Campden tablet? Both? Say "to hell with it" and binge drink the whole carboy dry on Christmas Day?

If it had a good ABV, I would try to fine it myself and rack a few times to be sure. I dunno, I mean bentonite can take the protein haze out and whatnot, but I don't know very much about isinglass, as by the time I started making wine, I was a staunch vegetarian. I think though that isinglass is one of the best finings, according to what I've been told. Most of my meads will clear up with time, though I've heard that certain honeys will have a lot of residual wax which makes them a pain to clear. This is probably not your problem, since it was looking clear for a while.

Yan said:

I'm not too big on using sulfites myself, but if you're using sorbate, there's really no way around it.

Click to expand...

I'm have to beg to differ. I've used sorbate without sulfites repeatedly, with no rotting geranium odor in the least. I don't induce any MLF, so my meads may just be missing the offending bacterial strain.

Ken,
I tried to respond to your private message but got this:

KenSchramm has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.

Click to expand...

I'll post the message here so that others can read it too.

I went with the bentonite per your recommendation, and was also able to taste and check the gravity. Gravity is unchanged (1.044). The mead is very sweet, almost cloying, but with a strong cinnamon flavor and aroma from the cinnamon oil to balance. Higher alcohols have mostly faded away, either from aging for the last four months or from the cinnamon oil hiding them. I taste some fruit/floral notes (not rotten geraniums, probably from poor yeast health), but overall it really tastes like atomic fireballs. Definitely a dessert mead, and one to sip. However, I could spend the night with the one I had from the AHA conference.

Any recommendations for next time to make it smoother and more drinkable? Other than taking better care of my yeast, that is.

Thanks for all your help with this!

Does anyone know how long bentonite usually takes to clear? My mead is still murky and I have a thick layer of bentonite on the bottom of the carboy.

I'd say two weeks to clear and three before it's packed enough to move and rack. Even at that, I generally like to let it clear in the spot I'll be racking from, as it swirls up into the mead readily when disturbed.

Update: After a couple weeks at 66-68 the mead was still quite hazy. After talking to my LHBS owner, he suggested that finings require higher temps to work, so I brought the mead upstairs (shaking the bentonite back into the mead), where it warmed to about 70. The mead is now clear, but I wonder, if I move it back downstairs, will it turn hazy again?

Does mead get chill haze?

Thanks!

It probably won't turn hazy, but it may continue to drop some sediment as the lower temperature speeds the precipitation of particles out of solution.

Personally, I would not leave a sweet mead with 11% ABV and sorbate without treating with something to protect against lactic acid bacteria. They are ubiquitous, and are just as happy eating sugar as they are malic acid so your mead could make a happy home for them. I'm not sure if the cinnamon oil offers protection.

If you don't like using sulfites, you can use lysozyme instead.

Medsen