Skeeter Mead

Hmm I didnt actually use any clarifying agents. I might have filtered but I cant recall, my gut says I did not. How much bentonite did you use?

the package said 4 tsps in 1 1/3 cup of hot water and that is what I have used. I know Arpolis used Bentonite in his but I am not sure if I did something wrong or what I should do now. Do I let it sit for a few more weeks and see what it does or do I need to take action right away.

Thanks

Yea with my bentonite I went a little more than 4 tsp if I remember correctly. But only about 5 max I think, not a whole 2 TBS. Only difference from you to me was that I put the hot water and bentonite in a blender to mix well. When I added it to the carboy I did not mix it in at all. I just poured it in and left alone. After several hours it started clearing and it was like a murky grey cloud was slowly falling and leaving behind a crystal clear liquid above it.

Not sure what is happening with yours. It may be best to leave it for now rather than using more or different finnings. Now this is pure guess since bentonite as not reacted like this with me but it may be good to stir it up back into suspension if it looks like it did not clear it at all and just fall to the bottom. But take that with a grain of salt.

Ok thanks maybe I will give that a shot. I have worked very hard on this and have been very patient so I just dont want to mess it up!

Thanks

newbiewinemaker said:

Ok thanks maybe I will give that a shot. I have worked very hard on this and have been very patient so I just dont want to mess it up!

Thanks

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Worst case you do just let it settle clear. I have made some meads that cleared amazingly, then sweetened and had to wait a year for them to fully clear after that. Granted its a rare case but as with all meads it seems, it is still worth the wait.

This will most likely be my first successful attempt at making mead. I tasted this when I backsweetened and oh my!! is it delicious! Back sweetening really took the acidic edge off of it that the lemon had given it. I cant wait to get this in the bottles for our good old South Dakota Summers!

newbiewinemaker said:

This will most likely be my first successful attempt at making mead. I tasted this when I backsweetened and oh my!! is it delicious! Back sweetening really took the acidic edge off of it that the lemon had given it. I cant wait to get this in the bottles for our good old South Dakota Summers!

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The stuff is really tasty. As long as you get the yeast rolling good this is a hard one to mess up I think.

So i am not having any luck getting it to clear. I mixed the bentonite back up in suspension and it did the same thing. I am thinking I should rack it off the bentonite and just allow time for it to clear on its own. I am leery about leaving it sit on top of the bentonite for that long while it clears naturally. Thoughts? Or any other ideas to get it to clear?

Thanks

Keyboard malfunction Arpolis?? haha

newbiewinemaker said:

Keyboard malfunction Arpolis?? haha

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Wow that is strange. I know I types up a whole deal. Hmmmm now what did I say again?

Well back to your last post I bet time is just going to be your friend. I am not sure what is happening but some meads just do not like to clear quickly. Bentonite is just clay so it should not give any off flavors. But go with what you are most comfortable with. If you can rack it and not have headspace issues then there is no harm and racking off the sediment. Best of luck to you.

Great News! I check my skeeter mead the other day and it was cystal clear! I bottled it up right away and it tastes great! I must say it is still very lemony! Maybe I didn't put enough honey in while backsweetening but its still good! I have some trader joes tart cherry juice that I am going to combine with 1 Gallon that I have set aside yet! This is my first success at mead!
Thanks for all the help along the way!

I've got a gallon of "heavy" skeeter mead and a gallon of "heavy" lemon/lime mead starting to clear....small samples taste great, don't wanna take a whole OG sample till they're completely done, beings as they're only 1 gal "experiments" ....didn't follow the recipe(s), necessarily, used, iirc, 4 lbs of honey each and Lalvin 1116 yeast. The lemon/lime (2 parts lemon juice to 1 part lime) is still a lil strong on the lime, so I might just blend them at bottling time....both taste really good, should be quite good blended.....and perhaps mixed with some iced tea for serving, as it's pretty decently strong....don't think they'll bottle carb, no biggie.

Well its getting to be that time of year again!! This went over GREAT with all the family this last summer and sadly I am all out!! I am going to double this up and make 10 gallons this time around!! This recipe is PERFECT and turned out way better than I could ever hope for!

Thanks for the great idea!

I have two gallons sitting, just waiting to be bottled. But it worries me because I have what looks like floating bits of clumped yeast that keep floating to the top and not settling on the bottom in one of the gallon jugs. I hope it is just stubborn yeast, hopefully a wild strain that snuck in somehow? Because the 71b I used should not be doing that. One of these days soon I'll rack it, sulfite and sorbate it and may even use some bentonite to really clear it out if I think it needs it. And we will see how it tastes.

Arpolis, have you sulfited it at all yet? Still sitting on the lees?

I have racked it off the Lees and there is a fine dust on the bottom. I may have sulfited and sorbated it now that I think about it. I need to pull up my notes but as I wrote the above last night I did not remember stabilizing and back sweetening.

The stuff on the top is wiered. It is little chunks of yeast like substance and if you slightly rock the jug a bit will disperse into the mead making it ever so slightly cloudy but still very clear and the more solid chunks kind of float about the mead slowly suspended through it and slowly rise back to the top. I started these batches on 2/5/14, they finished fermenting 2/14/14, finally they were racked off of lees and topped up with lemon water about a month later. And I don't think I stabilized then but kept all equipment clean like I did for several other batches I racked that night and all of them have no issues.

Ahh I have seen that in my own brews before as well. Not sure what it is but thus far it has filtered out just fine and no noticeable issues from it.