Cloudy after backsweetening

i have backsweetened with ~3 lbs of honey (to 4 gallons). It has been quite cloudy ever since, is this normal? It has been 5-6 days now. Do you normally have to wait awhile after backsweetening for it to clear up? It was cloudy immediately after I added it- opposed to becoming cloudy a day after adding it.

edit: when i say "cloudy", i don't mean that I can see any particles. I just can no longer see all the way through it. I can see light through it, but can't make out a newspaper.

I moved your post to a new thread, so it doesn't get lost at the end of the other thread.

Well, I'm surprised it is now cloudy. How did you add the honey? Did you heat it up, or add water to it before you put it in there?

YooperBrew said:

I moved your post to a new thread, so it doesn't get lost at the end of the other thread.

Well, I'm surprised it is now cloudy. How did you add the honey? Did you heat it up, or add water to it before you put it in there?

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thanks. hm, i am concerned now. i thought it would be normal for it to be cloudy after adding honey. I heated up the honey by letting the container it came in sit in hot water (i filled a pot up with hot water out of the faucet- did not heat on the stove). This decreased the viscosity substantially. I then dissolved it in a couple glasses of the same mead and then added back to the batch.

So it is not normal for mead to become more opaque (harder to see through) after back sweetening?

i have another concern to. There is a small amount of air gap right now (4 gal in 5 gal carboy). A thin white film as developed on the top. It had also developed a couple days before I stabilized and back sweetened. It is back now. Should I be concerned? I read about "Flor" with sherries.. .and I now hope this isn't a flor.

my recipe was 12 lbs honey, 6 lbs cherry puree, lavlin D47. It fermented from 1.090 to 1.01 in 5-6 wks. I stabilized with sulfite and sorbate after it had held steady at 1.01 for a couple weeks and was clear enough to read a newspaper through.

THANKS

edit: after taking a second look i did not describe that white film correctly: it is only noticeable when looking the with a flashlight. u can't see it normally- it is that fine.

anybody have any experience with back sweetening?? Does your mead usually get less translucent after backsweetening?

My understanding is that it can, if the honey you add is not clear. I tied looking it up on the internet, but haven't found much out. I guess wait and see. If it's still cloudy after a couple of weeks, you could use some finings like Sparkelloid or Isinglas.

YooperBrew said:

My understanding is that it can, if the honey you add is not clear. I tied looking it up on the internet, but haven't found much out. I guess wait and see. If it's still cloudy after a couple of weeks, you could use some finings like Sparkelloid or Isinglas.

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cool, thanks. Yeah, i couldn't find anything on the net either. THe honey was not crystal clear. It was actually less clear than the honey I had used before. Once I got to the bottom of it, it was actually chunky and partially crystallized.

The other thing about mead...that I know and have a hard time practicing. Forget about bottling for 6 or 8 months...or a year or 2. ALL things clear with time. and the taste will continue to improve for a long time too.

BigKahuna said:

The other thing about mead...that I know and have a hard time practicing. Forget about bottling for 6 or 8 months...or a year or 2. ALL things clear with time. and the taste will continue to improve for a long time too.

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yeah that is what i had planned on originally, now i am concerned about the air gap. i have about 4 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy....

dqeuvtcxotaa said:

yeah that is what i had planned on originally, now i am concerned about the air gap. i have about 4 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy....

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I would correct that ASAP. Maybe rack to a 3 gallon carboy and a 1 gallon jug. Mead is susceptible to oxidation. You want to be topped up almost to the bung, within an inch or two. If you have about 3.5 gallons, that would actually fit in a 3 gallon carboy.

I may have missed you saying it somewhere but did you kill off the yeast prior to back sweetening, it could be fermenting again.

savion47 said:

I may have missed you saying it somewhere but did you kill off the yeast prior to back sweetening, it could be fermenting again.

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yeh, i used sorbate and sulfites to kill off the yeast. After adding the honey it was immediately "unclear"/opaque and hasn't changed in appearance since. It might be clearing a little.... but it is hard to tell.