Hi all! Any advice would help. I have been making mead for about 5 years now (maybe 20 or so batches). I made 2 batches last fall, one in October and one in November. One is a traditional mead fermented with D-47 and the other a ginger mead fermented with EC-1118. Both are on there 3rd racking and still not entirely clear and they are both roughly 10 months old. I estimate they both are around 13% alcohol content. Never had it take this long to clear. Also one of my air locks had a small bit of mold floating in it, which I don't understand because I use vodka in my air locks. Again any thoughts on this? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Cloudy mead and mold?
- Thread starter koolegged
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bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
If there is a great deal of CO2 in the liquid a wine takes far longer to clear. Notwithstanding the number of batches you have made, is it possible that you have not racked these meads as frequently as you have racked other batches? Could you check to see whether there is significant amounts of CO2 still in the liquid (pull a vacuum to see if the CO2 drops out of "solution", or use a stirring rod, perhaps attached to a drill to see if you can agitate the liquid enough to pull out CO2, or (and this may be risky) drop in some sanitized stainless steel or silicone screws to nucleate the gas and see if the mead releases any CO2 - the risk here can be a volcano if there is a great deal of gas absorbed in the mead.. )
stella_tigre
Queen of the Upper Mississippi
Was there a lot of headspace?
stella_tigre
Queen of the Upper Mississippi
Sounds like the yeast woke up, maybe because the racking gave them a little air, or the temp warmed up? If there is still some sugars left, or you topped off when you racked. Did you take a gravity reading? Burbled up through the airlock then back down again, hence the crud in the airlock. I would think about taking a sanitized turkey baster, suck up the cruddily bits in the top of the must, clean and replace the airlock, and hope.
One time when I had a little dubious stuff at the top of one of my jugs, I pulverized a part of a campden tablet to powder and sprinkled it just in the top of the jug. The iffy stuff disappeared and the wine has cleared as hoped. Don't know how it tastes yet though!
One time when I had a little dubious stuff at the top of one of my jugs, I pulverized a part of a campden tablet to powder and sprinkled it just in the top of the jug. The iffy stuff disappeared and the wine has cleared as hoped. Don't know how it tastes yet though!
