Clarifying Meads, if, when & how

[madwilliamflint]

So I'm in to this madness for a dozen batches or so, mostly in parallel, mostly experiments, with a couple startling successes (Apricot Vanilla.)

But I have a couple one gallon test batches (mostly just testing different yeasts, one cherry, and one cinnamon/ginger) that do NOT want to clear. I'm 5-8 weeks in on these and they're still as opaque as after the initial fermentation burst.

I'm tempted to succumb to my lack of patience and pour some bentonite in there to clear it out. (There's no fruit in most of these, so it's not pectin haze.))

Is that just a "shrug, yeah fine." or should I stick this stuff in a closet and forget about it until Christmas?

(and is bentonite what I should be using? I've had great success with that 'super kleer' or whatever the heck it is, but those packets are for 5 gallons.)

 

[kcmobrewer]

You could try cold crashing it and adding gelatin


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[bernardsmith]

You say one is cherry and one cinnamon ginger but that there is no fruit in either. Well cherry is fruit. And you may have pectic haze. Did you use pectic enzyme? The cinnamon ginger may also be releasing particulates and if your wine still has a great deal of CO2 absorbed in the liquid (five weeks is not long enough for the CO2 to slowly dissipate by itself) then it is possible fruit particulates and yeast may be being held in suspension by the gas in the carboy.
You could add bentonite and you could rack the wines to see if that might help clear them with no further action (racking would remove some of the yeast that would have flocculated and dropped out of suspension) and it would help de-gas the wine if you allowed your racking tube to run the wine down the inside wall of the target carboy (that would increase the surface area and reduce the depth of the flowing liquid forcing out some of the CO2. A third option might be to gently whip the CO2 out of the carboy (or create a vacuum and suck it out). My guess is that with the removal of CO2 your wine will tend to clear unless there is a pectic haze. In which case you may want to wait until all fermentation has ceased and you have removed all the yeast through multiple rackings and then you add some pectic enzyme. (My understanding is that yeast neutralizes the action of the enzyme but others in this forum may view that as an urban myth).

 

[madwilliamflint]

You say one is cherry and one cinnamon ginger but that there is no fruit in either. Well cherry is fruit. And you may have pectic haze. Did you use pectic enzyme? The cinnamon ginger may also be releasing particulates and if your wine still has a great deal of CO2 absorbed in the liquid (five weeks is not long enough for the CO2 to slowly dissipate by itself) then it is possible fruit particulates and yeast may be being held in suspension by the gas in the carboy.
You could add bentonite and you could rack the wines to see if that might help clear them with no further action (racking would remove some of the yeast that would have flocculated and dropped out of suspension) and it would help de-gas the wine if you allowed your racking tube to run the wine down the inside wall of the target carboy (that would increase the surface area and reduce the depth of the flowing liquid forcing out some of the CO2. A third option might be to gently whip the CO2 out of the carboy (or create a vacuum and suck it out). My guess is that with the removal of CO2 your wine will tend to clear unless there is a pectic haze. In which case you may want to wait until all fermentation has ceased and you have removed all the yeast through multiple rackings and then you add some pectic enzyme. (My understanding is that yeast neutralizes the action of the enzyme but others in this forum may view that as an urban myth).

Err, sorry yes. I've got about 8 one gallon batches, and only the cherry one is fruit, the rest are 'plain' and one cinnamon/ginger, so I've been thinking in terms of the general problem being "un fruit related."

The amount of wastage with the racking process (especially on these little one gallon batches) is heartbreaking. So I'll see what I can come up with as far as degassing goes. I wasn't aware CO2 content was related.

Thanks. Definitely gives me a couple things to go on.

o7

 

[madwilliamflint]

You could try cold crashing it and adding gelatin


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I hadn't considered crashing it. Given that these are 1 gallon jars, I could just stick 'em in the fridge and see what happens.

But..... gelatin? really?

 

[jpcoote]

I had a batch of mead a while back that took months to clear. Then all of a sudden, seemingly overnight, it was crystal clear. Just give it time.

If you get really impatient though, bentonite definitely works.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

If it isn't cleared in 5 months or so, Think about adding a pinch or two of bentonite. But like bernard says above. % weeks is too early to worry about clarity problems. You can also try pectic enzyme, but so early it may just clear on its own just fine.

 

[noblesquirrel]

I personally add bentonite to all of my meads once they start to drop. It accelerates the process and when I rack, I'm racking quite bright mead. I use more than a pinch, though. It also aids in degassing towards the end of primary as well.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I personally add bentonite to all of my meads once they start to drop. It accelerates the process and when I rack, I'm racking quite bright mead. I use more than a pinch, though. It also aids in degassing towards the end of primary as well.

Sorry I forgot to mention that it's in 1 gallon batches, so it never really needs more than a pinch or two.

 

[madwilliamflint]

Okay, got it. Looks like my sense of time scale is way off.

I'll stick these in another room where they're not staring at me like that, tempting me to crash/clear/bottle them early...

...and start a bunch more

*\o/*

Thanks again guys. o7

 

[loveofrose]

After 8 months or so, I grow impatient and use SuperKleer.


Better brewing through science!