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Egg White fining got terribly wrong

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Allen Brown

Allen Brown

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 21, 2009
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Brownsburg, Indiana
www.indyblueprints.com
OK, I have a small experimental batch of mead going. I used sparkloid for fining, let it settle, racked, then used about 1 tsp of egg whites on it, put the lid on, then shook it up. The result was egg whites suspended at the bottom, and egg whites suspended at the top.

I have two theories as to why this might have happened;

1. I shook the mead instead of stirring it, which made lots of bubbles, and those many small bubbles stuck to some of the egg whites, which is keeping them suspended.

2. The sparkloid is negatively charged, adhered to the positively charged particles and took them out. The egg whites are also negatively charged, and once added, had nothing to bond to, therefore just sit there with nothing to do.

Close on either? Now what do I do to save as much of this mead that I can?

Thanks,
 
It is hard to fine a mead that is not de-gassed. It is much easier to use any of these agents once all the CO2 has been released. So that accounts for part of the problem.

Did you solubilize the egg white with some salty water? If not, it will just clump together.

Both Sparkolloid and Albumins are positively charged in an acidic environment.

If you just wait, some of the stuff floating on top will probably sink. Some may still be floating on top when you rack, and in that case, just rack between the layers.

Also, you have way too much headspace, and that air needs to be eliminated or you run the risk of spoilage.
 
I am too new to give advice, but I did use the product Egg Whites to fine and then Betonite; they worked welll together. My batch became crystal clear.

Egg Whites is a powdered, pasteurized form of egg whites.


Stephen
 
If you've got bubbles stuck in your egg white, maybe giving it a stir or swirl will dislodge the bubbles? I know it'll kick up some of the stuff again, but it settled out once, it should settle out again.
 
Update:

Because of the headspace in my vessell, I decided not to wait for it to clear. I tried to rack off without getting the majority of the egg, then I took the 1 gallon jug, rubber banded a coffee filter to it, and propped it upside down until it drained. Took about 2 hours, had just a little bit of solids, poured it through a funnel lined with a paper towel, and it is fine now!

Thanks Guys!
 
Egg whites are made up of mostly Protein. You can denature these proteins in one of two ways. Either by dragging them through themselves (ie with a whisk or by shaking them) or by mixing them with air. This causes the proteins to unfold (denature). These denatured proteins like to clump together where air and water meet and create new bonds with other denatured proteins. This causes a foam that incorporates air. This happens because of the split nature of the amino acids in egg white, half are hydrophobic and half are hydophilic.

Hence meringue and all sorts of other good things are possible.

It sounds like by shaking you managed to do both, agitate the egg whites and mix them with air. You just needed a lemon pie to put it all on :-)

Cheers
Jay
 
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