Two tone mead

I've got a caremel apple spice mead bout 3 weeks into bulk aging and it's started to separate into two distinct zones. The top is a darker amber color, bout three inches tall, the bottom foot or so is a golden color. Now I do have a little more headspace than I want, but when I put it in there it was pretty heavely carbonated, so there should be a good amount of co2 sitting on it. My main question is if you think it's oxidization that's coloring it or just separation and aging. Thanks for any help.

Looks like yeast dropping out to me.

bodhi86 said:

I've got a caremel apple spice mead bout 3 weeks into bulk aging and it's started to separate into two distinct zones. The top is a darker amber color, bout three inches tall, the bottom foot or so is a golden color. Now I do have a little more headspace than I want, but when I put it in there it was pretty heavely carbonated, so there should be a good amount of co2 sitting on it. My main question is if you think it's oxidization that's coloring it or just separation and aging. Thanks for any help.

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Oh, that looks like oxidation to me. I'm no expert, but from the little bit of research I've done I'd say that is oxidation...

Maybe someone with more experience can tell you more confidently.

Definitely just clearing. Why sarcastic answers? No one will ever know...

Its clearing now but will start oxidizing SOON if you dont top off. WVMJ

Better option is buy a cheap CO2 blaster for cleaning keyboards. My local brewshop actually carries them now. Spray a bit of CO2 in there to form a protective layer and keep the oxygen off the mead. That way you don't screw up your gravity and ABV %.

If it's only been in bulk age for 3 weeks and you just moved it out of primary there's still a LOT of trapped CO2 in the liquid that slowly seeps out. Unless you've degassed the batch already topping off shouldn't be much of a problem unless you're bulk aging for more than a year. As long as you have it sealed up it should produce it's own layer of CO2 as it off-gasses.

Thank you guys for all the input, I'll rack in a couple days again into a few 1 gal carboys so I quit worrying. I just wish I could figure out why the color change. Maybe it is just separating. Thx again