Mead Clarity??

[bizmark21]

If anyone could help me with this issue I would be very thankful.

I made a batch of mead and when I transferred from the primary to the secondary I had some left over in the primary vessel. Being quite frugal I decided to save whatever I could and transferred the last little bit into smaller bottles. One of the bottle has an airlock on it and the other does not (still covered). The bottle without the airlock has clarified very quickly and the bottle with the airlock is still murky. How does oxygen effect the Mead? Also, if the answer is not much then should I allow all the mead to "breathe" before I bottle?

 

[Thundernick]

I just use Super Kleer. I've had great success with it, and it's only a couple dollars to clear 5 gallons quickly.

 

[fatbloke]

Oxidation doesn't generally affect meads as quickly as grape wines, but it can do.

Could be a number of reason why you spare bit dropped clear in one bottle before the other, but letting it "breathe" ? No.

 

[saramc]

Once a ferment has reached its natural final gravity its protective blanket of CO2 starts to diminish. Sulfites contribute an antioxidant chatacteristic, but that too diminishes. The bottom line: for a wine that is no longer fermenting & not yet bottled, the less exposure to oxygen the better.

There are specific reasons you expose a must to oxygen: to encourage the growth of yeast when the current S.G. is still above the 2/3 sugar depletion point; to try to offgas an overdose of k-meta; to try to offgas the rotten egg odor caused by hydrogen sulfide, H2S, that some ferments generate; part of the sherry making process; to make vinegar.

There are no reasons that I can think of when it comes to why you would want to purposely expose a wine to oxygen as you prepare for bottling.