Clarifying issues

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Jbarrow

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I recently used gelatin finings to clarify my lavender oak mead while cold crashing. It's been a few days and the top 1/3 of the carboy is crystal clear and beautiful. Under that, however, there is still cloudiness. The weird thing is that there is a distinct line where it becomes cloudy, almost like that chemistry project with different liquids from when we were kids. Anyone else ever deal with this? Is this because of the cold temperature? Should I just siphon and re-clarify?
 
Just wait longer. You can watch that line slowly drop.

I've never done a mead, but with beer you can just rack it into a keg or bottles and it will continue to clear in those. Or you can wait until it is clear in the carboy and rack then. I'd imagine mead isn't much different from beer.
 
I recently used gelatin finings to clarify my lavender oak mead while cold crashing. It's been a few days and the top 1/3 of the carboy is crystal clear and beautiful. Under that, however, there is still cloudiness. The weird thing is that there is a distinct line where it becomes cloudy, almost like that chemistry project with different liquids from when we were kids. Anyone else ever deal with this? Is this because of the cold temperature? Should I just siphon and re-clarify?

Did you degas? That happened to me all the time before I started degassing. Finings are all but useless with dissolved co2 in the mead.
 
Degas? I thought that was the point of having an airlock. What wise do I need to do?
 
There are several ways one can degas. You can beat it out of the mead with a "wine whip" connected to a power drill, or vacuum debasing using various methods. There are plenty of YouTube videos on said methods that you would find helpful.
 
Degas? I thought that was the point of having an airlock. What wise do I need to do?

Nothing. Just wait. If you let it sit long enough, the mead will degas enough on its own.

Cold crashing isn't usually done for wine or mead, as by the time it's clear, it's about ready to bottle. If it's done fermenting, it won't hurt it but normally cold stabilizing a clear mead will mean a brilliantly clear mead with some time.

If you're sure it's done, and has been done for a while and there is no headspace, it'll be fine where it is.

Mead clears from the top down. The top is clear, so that's good. Gravity will take care of the rest.
 
Nothing. Just wait. If you let it sit long enough, the mead will degas enough on its own.

Cold crashing isn't usually done for wine or mead, as by the time it's clear, it's about ready to bottle. If it's done fermenting, it won't hurt it but normally cold stabilizing a clear mead will mean a brilliantly clear mead with some time.

If you're sure it's done, and has been done for a while and there is no headspace, it'll be fine where it is.

Mead clears from the top down. The top is clear, so that's good. Gravity will take care of the rest.

I have to disagree. I've had wines/meads that sat for a year or more bulk aging and were still petilent.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys. I think I'm just gonna mark a line on my carboy and wait a month. If I don't see any improvement, I'll get a wine wand. After all, bulk aged our bottle aged; not a huge difference either way. Thanks again
 
Have you noticed the yeast level falling only to rise again yet? That was one of the most frustrating things I noticed happening when I first started out.
 
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