Is my mead clear? (PIC included)

My first mead/cyser (in secondary) looks clear, but I wanted to ask the experts.

How do I know when it is clear?

I don't want to leave it with this much head space any longer than I need.
I want to rack into a corny keg and serve lightly carbonated out of my keezer.

It tasted amazing when I racked to the secondary, and added spices. I was told in another thread to make sure and let it clear, or the yeast would contribute off flavors down the road, and don't rush it into the keg early.

Based upon dates
Primary start 10/06
Racked to secondary 11/10
Considering rack to keg 12/09

Most people will tell you that it is clear once it has not thrown any lees in a 30-60 day period. I say most people because I usually cannot wait that long and unfortunately do end up with some sediment in my bottles. I am trying my hardest on my latest blackberry wine and apfelwein to wait until no more lees are dropping.

As far as headspace goes, if you wanted to you could occupy the dead volume with sanitized marbles though that would be a lot of marbles for a 5g better bottle. Taking a stab in the dark here but you might be able to purge the headspace with argon which should not react/spoil your mead like air will.

You can also purge with CO2, I've never heard of using argon before...

Devo9 said:

You can also purge with CO2, I've never heard of using argon before...

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That's because all the helpful posts relating to it argon.

PaddyMurphy said:

That's because all the helpful posts relating to it argon.

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Yikes, what a lame joke.... I love it! :-D

IMO/IME, unless that's a very low ABV mead, you're better off giving it at least 6 months aging time (if it's under 12%). Higher ABV meads seriously benefit from more time to age. Bulk aging is used more, when a mead is young, since you can still do things with it as/if needed. Once it's in bottles, you're pretty much locked in.

Personally, I wouldn't even consider bottling/serving a mead (up to 14%) for a year form start. I have a traditional mead that's just over two years old and it's improved more than a bit over the past 6-9 months. I bottled it after a year of bulk aging, since I wasn't going to do anything more with it. This is a still mead I'm talking about, since I really don't want to have bubbles in my mead. To me, that's just not right.

I've posted my ABV/time before mead bottling parameters in another thread today.

It doesn't look clear to me. It's clear when you can read a newspaper through it. Or you could if you didn't have parallax from the carboy.

I vote not clear yet either. If you want an idea of what a truly clear, colored liquid looks like, try putting a few red and yellow food coloring drops in some bottled water, and hold it beside it for comparison.

Sorry for off topic, but had a fanboy moment when I saw parallax mentioned. But anyway, give it a bit longer. From seeing what my wine making buddies do it needs some more time to clear. Now lets see if I can follow my own advice.

jkingery79 said:

Sorry for off topic, but had a fanboy moment when I saw parallax mentioned. But anyway, give it a bit longer. From seeing what my wine making buddies do it needs some more time to clear. Now lets see if I can follow my own advice.

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If you can't wait, then brewing isn't for you! ;-)

As others have already mentioned, clarity for mead means it's actually CLEAR. As in you can see/read through it. Well, unless it's so dark that doing so just can't happen.

Give it 3-4 months and check on it again. Rack to new vessel and give it another 5-6 months (or more)... Rinse, repeat. IMO, a year in vessels is a good baseline with not racking more than once every few months (once fermentation is complete and you do the first racking).

Devo9 said:

If you can't wait, then brewing isn't for you! ;-)

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Touché! I'll have to make myself wait it out.

jkingery79 said:

Touché! I'll have to make myself wait it out.

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IMO/IME, beer is fast. You can go grain to glass in just a couple/few weeks depending on your carbonation method. Mead, and many wines, take significantly longer. Depending on the ABV and composition, you could be looking at several months or years, before it's actually ready for bottle or glass. IMO/IME bottling too soon is (or should be) a sin when it comes to such things. I'd rather go longer in bulk before bottling than rush to bottle. Especially with how much honey can cost.