Fridge as clarifier?

[vulture1963]

I have a young mead (12 months old) in secondary that I'm waiting on, and now that my basement temps are dipping into the high 50's it's clearing a little faster. Does anyone use a refrigerator to help clarify their meads?

 

[KCPyrate]

I've cold crashed cider in the fridge but never tried this for mead... anyone?

 

[wayneb]

It works well. I've never used a fridge, though - I wait for the nighttime temperatures outside to dip down in the vicinity of freezing (usually that's more than half the year, at my location and altitude, but I do have to be careful not to keep it out when temps are forecast to be really low), and then I'll put out a carboy or two under our deck. I notice clearing after as little as 3 days in the outdoor "cooler."

 

[mosyslack]

cold crashing works well in beer and should do the same for a mead. I have not done this yet with my mead, but i have only finished one batch. I have just gone thru the thread about the burnt mead and really want to try this when I return home.

 

[summersolstice]

I've used a fridge for gallon sized batches. It works well on some but not all.

 

[Yooper]

My basement is in the high 40's in the winter, so I put my wines and meads down there to clear. It's pretty effective, but takes some time.

Usually, I make the mead/wine/cider at this time of year upstairs, and by Christmas next year it's ready to put in the basement to cold stabilize. Then, it's bottled in the late spring when it warms up a bit.