Bottled Mead Sediments

[Freetime000]

I bottled 2 separate 1 gallon jugs of mead 2 weeks ago in Easy Cap bottles. After about 2 months they were super dry at .995. After stabilizing them with the potassium sorbate & potassium metabisulphite for a few days, I back-sweetened them with maybe a 1/2 cup up to 1.025. The guides i'd been following made it sound like it was a good time to bottle after that.
They looked pretty enough but the clarity was not as crystal as before and I figured thats ok since I backsweetened.
Question 1: Is this ok or should I have waited for them to clear?

After a couple weeks in bottles there's some sediment and I see what looks like honey swirls.
Question 2: is that ok?

Question 3 (this is the one i expect some slaps for): They are in Easy Cap bottles so I could open them easy nuff. Am I past the point of transferring them back to a carboy to settle out the sediments and bottle them again?

Maybe this is all normal for backsweetening?

thanks!

 

[Freetime000]

Sorry this is under Recipes and apparently newbs can't delete their newb threads

 

[CKuhns]

Sediment is pretty common if you don't give it enough time to settle or clarify using a fining agent and or cold crash. Even when my Mead looks crystal clear i sometimes still get some sediment after a number of months in the bottle. Does not hurt the flavor.

Personally i would let it go. Age in the bottles upright and decant slowly leaving behind the sediment when pouring it up. In my opinion the risk of oxidation albeit relatively low would outweigh the clarity and or sediment concern.

 

[Freetime000]

Thanks for the positive response. It was beautifully transparent clear and i cold crashed before backsweetening so i wondered if maybe the backsweet was normal for taking away from that clarity and adding some sediment. I suspect these got a year to get well?

 

[CKuhns]

I do try to age mine a year or more prior to drinking but i prefer a just off dry at 1.006 or so. Many folks who do short Meads or really sweet ones don't age as long. In my opinion it is amazing how the flavor profile changes and mellows over time. Yours may not take a year as 1.025 is really sweet. I don't "ate" / "ite" or sweeten my Meads and can't speak to the clarity after doing so. But again the small amount of sediment should not impact flavor.

 

[OHVolsfan23]

Best thing we've done lately to help with clarity is use our red wine degassing tool to really stir all of the clarifying agent throughout the Mead. A minute or two and it looks like cloudy crap. But you'll slowly see the sediment fall and leave clear Mead above. (Kinda like a Mead Sunset). I have zero patience for stirring but a fair amount of patience when power tools are involved.

 

[voltron]

I bottled 2 separate 1 gallon jugs of mead 2 weeks ago in Easy Cap bottles. After about 2 months they were super dry at .995. After stabilizing them with the potassium sorbate & potassium metabisulphite for a few days, I back-sweetened them with maybe a 1/2 cup up to 1.025. The guides i'd been following made it sound like it was a good time to bottle after that.
They looked pretty enough but the clarity was not as crystal as before and I figured thats ok since I backsweetened.
Question 1: Is this ok or should I have waited for them to clear?

After a couple weeks in bottles there's some sediment and I see what looks like honey swirls.
Question 2: is that ok?



Question 3 (this is the one i expect some slaps for): They are in Easy Cap bottles so I could open them easy nuff. Am I past the point of transferring them back to a carboy to settle out the sediments and bottle them again?

Maybe this is all normal for backsweetening?

thanks!

When you homebrew, your going to eventually get some sediment in bottles, and this is not a bad thing. Some high price all natural wines will have sediment. So to answer question one and two yes it is ok. .you canlet it bottle age and it will clear up with sediment on the bottom, when you are ready to drink decant to a clean container gently pouring to ensure you leave the sediment behind and enjoy. To answer question 3, No do not re open and pour them back to carboy, it will clear in the bottle sojust decant when your ready to drink.

I have attached a picture of a one gallon batch i made a while ago. This was a grape mead, i was ready to bottle but accidently knocked the bottle as i was racking to a clean container to bottle, as a result my mead got very cloudy. Since was racking into a clean one gallon contaier i could just let it clear again, but i decided to experiment just to see what happen, i recycled some other bottles (for the experiemtn did not want to waste new fancy wine bottles). I bottle about four of these all super cloudy put them away. Three months later (from the point where i accidently restirred the sediment) the bottles cleared with a small sediment layer on the bottom, I opened one and decanted it and it was great. Invited some friends opens a second ine decant and they loved it.

but sediment if you home brew is going to happen at one points unless you decided to with filters. And it is not a bad thing. Early in my brewing period i hated it, then when i realized high priced nstural wines had it too, i wasnt to worry about it.

 

[voltron]

Here is another example. Here is the story behind his one. This is a Pumkin wine. My work send me places and many of the remote communities i get shipped to dont sell beer, wine or any alcohol, as a result you have to workmwith what you have. Anyway I was sent to Nunavut Canada and found out this village had no beer or wine, so decided to make my own. The one store there which was like a quick mart had sugar, pumkin pie fillin, raisains and bread yeast. So decided to brew a pumkin wine last year inmate style (since i had to do with what was locally availabe) Anyway ended up with a nice but very cloudy pumkin wine for Nov 2016, shared it with locals and they loved it. I decided to put some of the wine in mason jars and just leave them alone. So i took a picture of what ine of the pumkin wines looks like today. As you can see it has cleared and there is sediment ment on the bottom. The wine is really good as I opened one last week and decanted into a clean wine glass. I have two more left and will save the last two for Thanksgiving 2017. So sediment really is not that big of an issue unless your going for ultimate esthethics.

 

[Freetime000]

Volton, thanks for the encouragement and sharing your experience. The canada pumpkin wine is a great story. Nice "mason jar" Looks like I many months ahead!

 

[voltron]

self delete double post