Fermentation - It's not over until its over

[MightyMosin]

I pulled a mead to open last night and there was a slight dusty sediment on the side that slightly wisped into the mead and disappeared when it was stood up. I pulled the cork and was greeted with slight carbonation pop... which shouldn't have been there for a still mead that was 0.996 SG when it was bottled.

I used K-Meta, but no sorbate as I wasn't sweetening it. I guess I will add some in future batches. I have three bottles of this mead and two of those show the same slight dusty sediment. The carbonation was very petilant and I don't expect that the slight pressure is an issue for the bottle and I don't think there is any sugar left in there to work on.

 

[lumpher]

Yep, can't rush it. Mead can potentially go down to .990

 

[CKuhns]

Very little risk of popping a cork or over pressuring the bottles but It might not hurt to chill them to slow the yeast down even more.

I have had a few bottles do this, usually from not clarifying or racking well.

Note: 0.004 remaining sugars will give you about 2.5 volumes of CO2. (The equivalent of a typical beer)

Just my thoughts.

 

[MightyMosin]

I'm thinking it's related to summer warming of the mead as is/was sparkling clear.
It's the first time I have had this happen; though I usually use some Sorbate, which I didn't on this specific batch as the gravity was so low.

Reading the notes, I see that I also didn't pass it through a filter.

 

[D.B.Moody]

Maybe if you offer her some, she might sing:

 

[Dan O]

I'm thinking it's related to summer warming of the mead as is/was sparkling clear.
It's the first time I have had this happen; though I usually use some Sorbate, which I didn't on this specific batch as the gravity was so low.

Reading the notes, I see that I also didn't pass it through a filter.

I'm curious. I thought filtering introduced oxygen. That said, I really never looked into it any further than what I've seen in a couple of forums.

 

[MightyMosin]

I'm curious. I thought filtering introduced oxygen. That said, I really never looked into it any further than what I've seen in a couple of forums.

You are mostly correct, but I guess that depends on your filter setup and to what extent you want to go to with flushing lines with inert gas before filtering.

I use an inexpensive gravity filter and I haven't yet decided to push CO2 through the line before use. As I don't yet flush the line, the mead will push O2 in front of the mead into the filter and then the mead will be exposed to the O2 while the filter chamber fills before draining into the receiving keg/carboy. The volume of O2 in the line and filter chamber is pretty small and certainly doesn't add anything much compared to a normal racking.

I do flush my receiving keg/carboy with CO2 to try and purge as much O2 out of the receiving vessel and I will have the CO2 on a very slight trickle during the filter transfer as well as intermittently adding CO2 to the vessel I am filtering from.

At some point I may get a filter system that can put up with a few pounds of pressure and then I can try to keep it as a keg to keg transfer and really minimize the O2 amounts. For what I am doing right now, the gravity filter works decently well, though a 1 micron filter is just painful without some kind of pressure; I force the auto siphon a bit to help get it through a 1 micron the few times I decide to go that low on filtering.

I am open to suggestions on how to better do this without breaking the bank.

 

[Dan O]

You are mostly correct, but I guess that depends on your filter setup and to what extent you want to go to with flushing lines with inert gas before filtering.

I use an inexpensive gravity filter and I haven't yet decided to push CO2 through the line before use. As I don't yet flush the line, the mead will push O2 in front of the mead into the filter and then the mead will be exposed to the O2 while the filter chamber fills before draining into the receiving keg/carboy. The volume of O2 in the line and filter chamber is pretty small and certainly doesn't add anything much compared to a normal racking.
I do flush my receiving keg/carboy with CO2 to try and purge as much O2 out of the receiving vessel and I will have the CO2 on a very slight trickle during the filter transfer as well as intermittently adding CO2 to the vessel I am filtering from.

At some point I may get a filter system that can put up with a few pounds of pressure and then I can try to keep it as a keg to keg transfer and really minimize the O2 amounts. For what I am doing right now, the gravity filter works decently well, though a 1 micron filter is just painful without some kind of pressure; I force the auto siphon a bit to help get it through a 1 micron the few times I decide to go that low on filtering.

I am open to suggestions on how to better do this without breaking the bank.

Thank you for clarifying your process, unfortunately, as I do not have any filtration setup & only use an auto-siphon, I can't offer any advice on not breaking the bank. But, I will keep my eyes peeled for a setup that other people use & can verify that it is a viable solution.

 

[CKuhns]

I have used gravity filters down to 0.45 micron. Not really a fan as it takes too long, is messy. Went to pasteurization instead.

@Dan O sweet session Meads "still" I target about 1.010 FG. I almost always pasteurize and bottle or just chill and keg it without pasteurizing. I never use the chemicals to inhibit the yeast as I'm sensitive to them.

 

[MightyMosin]

I just started using an auto siphon with1/2" hose instead of the 3/8" and I will say that it has made a marked improvement with the gravity filter and probably cut the filtering time by ~ half.

 

[Dan O]

I just started using an auto siphon with1/2" hose instead of the 3/8" and I will say that it has made a marked improvement with the gravity filter and probably cut the filtering time by ~ half.

I need to look into the 1/2 auto-siphon. The 3/8 takes longer than I would like to spend racking.

 

[MightyMosin]

That 1/8" increase is close to doubling the area.