Maple Mead/Acerglyn Experiment gone wrong?

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S_carve

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So back in March I received 1gal of pure Vermont Grade B maple syrup and 6gal of maple sap that had been run through a reverse osmosis system. Every spring I make 10gal of maple wheat beer. This year I had extra of both so I decided to experiment.

I started off with 6gal of the maple sap, which after the reverse osmosis had a OG of 1.135. I used some in the beer and decided to make a maple mead with the leftovers. It was watered down slightly and I ended up with 7gal of sap at 1.120. All of it was heated to a boil then turned off and cooled.

I took 5gal and put it in a 6.5gal carboy with a "mead packet" from a local homebrew store ,which is actually well known for producing good mead, and D47 yeast. The "mead packet" includes yeast nutrient, tannins and some other stuff.

The remaining 2gal were seperated into 1gal carboys and had a pack of EC1118 split between the two of them and some yeast nutrient added.

After a month both were fermenting and bubbling well then slowed. I took a gravity reading of them and the first 1gal read 1.000, the second read 1.009, and 5gal batch read 1.040. So I decided to transfer them all into secondary carboys. The first two 1gal batches transferred with no problems. The 5gal batch has issues, and here they go.

Im not sure why the gravity didnt as much as the other, maybe yeast, the 5gal batch has the consistancy of snot. There is no better way for me to describe it. Its stringy and barely moves through my auto-siphon, I first noticed a little of it on the hydrometer when I read the gravity. So I tried to transfer it anyway but its really not working out.

WTF? Why is this? It really is like slime. Im going to transfer the whole thing anyway but I know its just not right. My brother did this last spring and had a similar result. It only happened on on the larger batches. Any help would be appreciated.:(
 
Sounds like a bacterial infection to me. I had one in a melomel I made once & used Jack Keller's advice to fix it; it worked for me, maybe it'll work for you too.

"Oiliness or Ropiness: The wine develops an oily look with rope- like treads or strings appearing within it. It pours slowly and thickly with a consistency similar to egg whites, but neither its smell nor taste are effected. The culprit is a lactic acid bacterium and is only fatal to the wine if left untreated. Pour the wine into an open container with greater volume than required. Use an egg whip to beat the wine into a frothiness. Add two crushed Campden tablets per gallon of wine and stir these in with the egg whip. Cover with a sterile cloth and stir the wine every hour or so for about four hours. Return it to a sterile secondary and fit the airlock. After two days, run the wine through a wine filter and return it to another sterile secondary. Again, this problem, like most, can be prevented by pre- treating the must with Campden and sterilizing your equipment scrupulously."

Hope that helps. Regards, GF.
 
Awesome! Sounds like what i have going on. Should I repitch the yeast after the campden tabs?

Thanks
 
If you filter this, you should use a "sterile" filter & that will also filter out yeast; I think that is the 1 micron size, not sure off the top of my head though. After filtering, take a hydrometer reading & go from there. If it's so close as to be considered to be done, I don't think I'd repitch; but if it still has a significant way to go, I'd certainly repitch. I'd wait 12 hours before repitching though, to give the SO2 time to dissipate. Regards, GF.
 
"Sterile" would mead getting rid of the bacteria including the lactic acid bacteria and that requires 0.45 micron absolute filters.
 
I'm bumping this thread cause I'm having the same problem with a batch of maple wine I started about a month ago. I know I should probably just do what was suggested earlier, but I'm lazy and this batch was made from what was left in the pan at the end of the "maple syrup season", stuff that many people would have thrown away. Also I think I have seen a post where soemone had this problem and the wine eventually cleared by itself. Isn't the rising alcohol level supposed to take care of that bacteria? thanks in advance for your input.
 
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