Clearing and Melomels?

skunkboy · Mar 3, 2008

Hi,

When I make plain or spiced meads I usually get the you can read a newspaper through the carboy effect.
Even some of my fruit tea, and melomels clear up a lot, and you can see something through them.
Last year I started 3 gallon batches of both an elderberry and a black current, and it doesn't look like
these will ever clear. They are both totally opaque, even though they both stopped running 4-5 months
ago. Does this sound right for lots of darker fruit?

beachfrontmeadman · Mar 3, 2008

in what way is i cloudy,
totally opaque
striated
chunky little floaters

have you tried any clearing agents or finings

Oskaar · Mar 4, 2008

Exact recipe and process please.

Include everything you did and added.

This will help us figure it out.

Cheers,

Oskaar

skunkboy · Mar 4, 2008

Haven't ever tried finings, I'm not sure how to use them. Also nervous about them since I have read a lot
people complain that using them changes the mead flavor, sometimes a lot.

Very fine particles floating in them, they are both completely opaque. Not light shines through them with
a flashlight behind them.

They both taste great, just afraid that if I try to bottle them any time soon that they will eventually lay
down a heavy load of sediment at the bottom of the bottles.

---Elderberry---
10 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
1 96 fld ozs Elderberry Juice, Vinter's Blend
H20 to a little over 3 gallons
No gravity readings taken

1 packet lalvin k1b-1122

fed 3/5(1/2 tsp DAP + 1/4 tsp Fermaid K) 4 days in a row and aerated a little

fermentation ran for about 28 days; moved to a secondary which had been purged with C02

moved to tertiary after about 3 months

---Black Current---
10 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
1 96 fld ozs Black Current Juice, Vinter's Blend
H20 to a little over 3 gallons
No gravity readings taken

1 packet lalvin k1b-1122

fed 3/5(1/2 tsp DAP + 1/4 tsp Fermaid K) 4 days in a row and aerated a little

fermentation ran for about 32 days; moved to a secondary which had been purged with C02

Still sitting in secondary after about 2 months...

Medsen Fey · Mar 4, 2008

At what temperature are you storing them? Sometimes refrigeration can help. If you can squeeze it into a fridge (or otherwise cool it down to around 30F) you might get more settling. It might be worth a shot prior to any fining.

Medsen

Oskaar · Mar 4, 2008

Were the juice you used pasteurized by chance?

Also did you heat the must at all?

This is a bit odd, but sometimes melomels can take a while before the clear. It looks like these are about 6 months old or so. I'd say let them go for another month and rack again, then let stand until they're a year old. If they're still cloudy, then go ahead and fine them with whatever fining material you feel would affect the flavor less.

Cheers,

Oskaar

Medsen Fey · Mar 5, 2008

If neither of these batches was treated with pectinase enzymes, you might try that as well. Although they work better prior to fermentation, they can still be helpful if there is any pectin haze contributing.

skunkboy · Mar 6, 2008

Hmm... I didn't heat the must or use pectinase. Not sure if the manufacturer pasteurized the fruit juice, but I
would probably guess now that they did. I'm pretty sure that next time I use canned fruit juice/puree I should use
pectinase.

If I was to try and cold shock the mead, pretty easy to do outside this time of year in Michigan, would I leave it
outside for a set period of time, or just check up on every couple of hours? I have never tried to do this before.

I also guess that it is high time that look at explore finning agents of some sort.

wayneb · Mar 7, 2008

Keep in mind that virtually any canned fruit and/or puree has to be pasteurized in order to be sold here in the US. Fresh juices can be "flash pasteurized" by UV lamps provided the juice is clear enough to allow transmission of the light completely throughout, but most darker juices are still processed the old fashioned way -- via heat pasteurization. That heating will set pectins in the fruit, and will thus require the addition of some pectic enzyme to your batch in order to prevent pectic haze.

skunkboy · Apr 6, 2008

Well, I finally picked up some bentonite and sparkloid to help with problem children. I have also obtained some pectinase to use when I get ahold of some fruit during fruit season in Michigan this year.

I used some bentonite in the elderberry mead, then drew of a sample a few days later. It is very dark, but
clear. So I bottled it. Now I can serve elderberry mead this halloween. >

wildaho · Apr 7, 2008

Bentonite has always worked well for me, even without the hydration. 2-3 days after adding, I'm ready for bottling. It's fun to watch it separate your mead, even in the first hour or so. You can literally watch it form layers and the layers drop quickly.

vahan · Apr 7, 2008

Hey skunkboy,

how does the flavor of the elderberry mead seem to be? I've been intriqued by elderberries, and was thinking of picking up some from honey gardens in vermont to make a nice mead....

skunkboy · Apr 8, 2008

I like it. It is much more complex than the results I have gotten from using blackberries or marrionberries before.
Definitely worth using in a batch, at least in my opinion. ;-)

vahan · Apr 11, 2008

sounds tasty, thanks!

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