What is this???

[Crashdeane]

I made a batch of saskatoon berry mead a couple months ago, getting it into bottles in the middle of August. It started off very well and finished a little dry for my taste but at 14%. So I racked it off the berry pulp, back sweetened it a little, and added more strained berry juice to bring up the berry flavour a little more. This is generally my practice for fruit meads as i find a lot of the fruit flavour is lost adding to primary. It sat like that in secondary to ensure it didnt start back up for a good month before it was bottled. Now it has been in bottles for a month or so in my closet, i went to take one out for the first time to have with dinner last night and i noticed a small froth of CO2 bubbles on top (not overly concerning, there isnt enough to make the bottles explode, and they are swingtops not corks so i can vent them if i need). But in addition to that, there is a blob of what looks like... jellyfish with little white bleps of something in it (i dont really have a better way to describe it, see picture) floating just off the bottom that rises with the CO2 if i vent the bottle. My thought is potentially pectin accumulating from adding the additional berry juice as i didnt add any enzyme? It doesn’t smell sour at all, but i just want to be sure it isnt something toxic.
Thanks for any imput!
J

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

I get white stuff at the bottom of some of my bottles, too. Never seems to affect the taste, I think I'm just not letting things settle out long enough before bottling.

As for the dots, is it possible you missed some seeds when straining the juice?

 

[Crashdeane]

A little bit of white yeast sludge at the bottom is one this, this looks like floating jello. Also, Saskatoon berry seeds are large brown things that look like flax.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

A little bit of white yeast sludge at the bottom is one this, this looks like floating jello. Also, Saskatoon berry seeds are large brown things that look like flax.

Well, if it were me, I'd re-bottle that mead, filtering it through a coffee filter, and plan on drinking it a bit younger than expected. You might be on the way to making some vinegar.