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White spot on mead question.

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G

Golden Sun God

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 1, 2011
52
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0
Redmond, OR
I made a 20 oz mead with the following recipe: 7.5-ish oz honey, 1/2 packet red star rapid rise bread yeast, 1 7/8 tsp lemon juice, pinch of lemon peel, 3 raisins, and water to fill. I originally messed up by adding cold water and then by adding everything at once. Then because I don't have an airlock I used a balloon stretched over the top of the bottle. The notes I took are as follows: 04/07/11 4:37PM: Added all at same time, shooke 5-6 minutes.
04/07/11 8:30PM: Balloon filled and venting.
Within 2-3 days(not sure): Has a little sediment on bottom with small floating particles, gases venting from balloon smell like a sourdough starter.
04/14/11 8:50PM: Strained into new bottle and tasted. Cold crashing to clear, was still fermenting. Smells like alcohol. The mead taste had a(for me) unidentifiable sweetness, with a little bit in the mouth(maybe acid or carbornation?), and very little alcohol burn going down. It is an opaque golden-yellow color. And it must be pretty strong because about 4 oz got me a little tipsy.
Sorry for being long winded about the recipe. Anyway, when I was looking at my mead this morning I noticed some white spots(wine flowers?) I didn't know what to do with it and how/if I messed up. Please help.
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
Check it closely, it's quite possible that it's continuing to ferment and you're just seeing the bubbles made from a colony of yeast in one place on the bottom.

You only gave it a week to ferment out (mine made with bread yeast usually take a couple weeks to completely finish) so it's more than likely it wasn't done fermenting when you cold-crashed it and since you didn't treat it with chemicals to keep it from starting back up, it did restart but only in little pockets because your yeast are no longer suspended evenly through your must, they've mostly fallen to the bottom... At least, that's my theory. Have you got it under airlock, I hope? If not and you've sealed it with a screw-top or something, be careful when you open it, if it's still fermenting, it'll be pressurised, the sooner you let off the pressure, the better.

If you want to get into more meadmaking, I strongly suggest you invest the $12 into a hydrometer, it will tell you better than airlock activity whether you should be racking or cold crashing. If I'm doing a JAO (Joe's Ancient Orange, check it out on the Search function here) batch without using my hydrometer, I mix it up and let it sit at least two months before I do anything with it.
 
G

Golden Sun God

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 1, 2011
52
0
0
Redmond, OR
Thanks for the answer, I was just wondering about the spots because they formed when it was in the fridge which I thought would be cold enough to stop the fermentation.
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
I could be wrong, it's certainly happened before.;D

I do know that I've tried to put rising bread dough in the fridge overnight hoping that it would pause the yeast but still had to scrape dough off the container's lid.
 
G

Golden Sun God

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 1, 2011
52
0
0
Redmond, OR
I strained it this morning just to see if it would prevent it and some more formed and when I gently swirled the bottle it mixed back in so I think that your right and it is yeast. Thanks for helping.
 
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