Raspberry Mead- clearing

[archthered]

I have a raspberry mead that has been sitting for just over a year. I want to add a clearing agent but can't figure out which I should use. I am primarily considering Super Kleer or Sparkolloid. I haven't tried either before but it is my understanding that Sparkolloid is often used for meands because it strips out less color and aroma, I'm not really worried about this mead since it's color is quite dark and it's aroma is robust so a bit of loss in either would probably not do real harm. I'm just wondering what others would suggest and why? Thanks

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Did you heat the raspberries at all? It may need pectic enzyme instead of the other clarifiers (if it is pectin haze, super kleer and others might not even work). I don't like to use clearing agents when I don't need to, but at 1 year, it should be cleared.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

If pectic enzyme doesnt work (I'd try that first), I've had reasonably good results with super kleer. The only potential issue with it is (I think) it has a shellfish derivative in it. Not sure if it's enough to matter for people with allergies, but it's worth knowing.

Out of curiosity, what recipe did you use? Looking into a raspberry mead myself.

 

[archthered]

MarshmellowBlue- I'm not sure if it is pectin haze, this is my first fruit wine so I'm not sure what pectin haze looks like. I do know that they very top of the carboy is almost completely clear. I did heat the raspberries and use pectic enzyme when I made the must. How do you use pectic enzyme afterwards? Do you just heat some water, boil it and chuck it in?

Cheesy Goodness- Thanks, that's one vote for Super Kleer, I'm not worried about the shellfish thing. I made the recipe my self. It is below, sorry my notes back in those days were no as good as they are now.

Raspberry Heather Melomel
12 lbs. of Clover honey
5 lbs. of Wildflower honey
10lbs of raspberries
½ cup of heather tips- Blanched
Wyeast 4184- with one hell of a starter

I was a bit of a noob at brewing (still am but not so much as to do this again) so I didn't appropriately account for the volume of honey so I split the heating. I heated about 2 gal of water and most of the honey then cooled it a bit and put it into primary. Then added all 10lbs of rasp, bought fresh then froze and squished then put in the pot, heating to 150-160 for 5 min and added peptic enzyme and heather, let sit then water bath to cool; combined boils, including the heather and raspberry pulp, and chilled in tub shook to aerate before put in tub and added the yeast nutrients and the yeast. I periodically shook the carboy over the next few days to keep oxygen in it (I have the right equipment for that now) and to make sure the fermentation didn't get stuck. It's been racked 4 times in the last year but has been left alone for the last 6 months.

O.G. 1.150 but this included a lot of pulp calculator said it should be around 1.127
PH- 3.6

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Just add it in, no need to dilute or boil. Pectin haze looks no different than any other unclear mead, But if it was heated, it's got pectins for sure. Looks like heat kills pectic enzyme, or at least makes it less effective. So maybe the first addition didn't really do anything for you.

 

[archthered]

Thanks, I will give the pectic enzyme a go before anything else. Anyone else reading can feel free to give their 2cents on the super kleer/sparkolloid debate

 

[archthered]

I meant to ask this on the last one, how long does the pectic enzyme take to work?

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Can't comment on how long pectic enzyme takes, but one more quick comment on super kleer: I added the stuff to a difficult batch of skeeter pee this past weekend, and there wasn't any noticeable improvement until Tuesday or Wednesday. Moral of the story: it doesn't always work as fast as advertised.