Yeast not settling properly in bottle?!

[DavidLH]

Hi, this is my first mead (a Cyser). I used Lalvin K1-V1116 and carbonated in the bottle. Now that a month has gone by, the carbonation is finished and the mead is totally clear and i wanted to try some.

The problem is that the yeast "cake" at the bottom of the bottle is not settled/flocculated properly. Just turning the bottle causes the yeast at the bottom to swirl around and when i poured half the bottle, the first half was clear but the mead left behind was totally hazy with yeast.

Is this normal? Can i do anything about it? I haven't had this problem when brewing beer.

 

[nitack]

You need to let it clear BEFORE you bottle. Not really anything to do at this point but drink the cloudy stuff, unless you want to dump it all back in your bucket, let it clear and then bottle again.

 

[FrodeM]

I think the problem here is that when you carbonate in the bottle, you'll always get some residue yeast in there.

There's some century-old techniques on how to remove lees from bottles, but it is pretty advanced stuff. Look up the "riddling" and "disgorging" steps in Champagne-production.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Or use those sed-ex bottle caps that trap the sediment in the topper instead of bottom of the bottle. ( never used them personally only saw them used on craigtube.

 

[Maylar]

If you let the mead clear completely before bottling then the sediment you'll get from carbonating is typically very small, unless you're going for champagne levels of carb.

It's also yeast dependent - some yeasts make tight compact lees that stick to the bottom and some make loose fluffy lees that cloud up when disturbed.

 

[DavidLH]

How bad is oxidation for mead compared to beer? Could I pour the bottles back into my fermentation bucket, let it clear, and rebottle it without getting bad mead?

 

[Maylar]

A traditional mead, yes. Honey doesn't oxidize easily. A cyser, no. Oxygen is a cider's enemy.