I have black stuff in my mead

Shm0 · Jan 8, 2014

so this is the story
about a year ago a friend landed me a 10L wooden barrel he used for beer
i made a 10L batch let it ferment for a while and rack it to the barrel
for about a week or so ,and than racked it from there to 2X5L demijohns for the final fermentation and aging.
the fermentation was stuck on 1.032 SG for a while (few months)
and finished dry in the end.

any way it still is aging and and today i fortified one of the demijohn with whiskey
but than when i picked it up for a swirl i noticed black stuff in the bottom which i'm not sure what it is.

the same demijohn airlock did dry out at one point so it makes me think a contamination(the other demijohn is clean)

another thought is it my been some kind of reaction from iodine i cleaned the tools that came in contact with the whiskey

ingredients:water,honey,d-47,wooden barrel,glenfiddich 14

any thoughts what it might be?
or if it's safe for bottling?

i'll try to add pics later..

Marshmallow Blue · Jan 8, 2014

could be a bit of barrel or something? Not sure we'll be able to tell what it is without a photo.

In the end there are no known pathogens that live in alcohol, so as long as you drink the black thing itself, you're 99% ok. But yeah photos will help narrow it down.

Shm0 · Jan 8, 2014

i don't think it's from the barrel cause i haven't seen it before today

Marshmallow Blue · Jan 8, 2014

Looks like maybe just some dense yeast sediment in low light. But who knows. If you are quite concerned about it, it won't hurt to rack off of it.

Shm0 · Jan 8, 2014

yeah i will gonna rack it but still i wish i could know what it is...
it's definitely black it's not just the light
the quality sucks so you can't see the lighter yeast sediment

could the yeast turn black in some cases?!it's never happend to me..

mannye · Jan 8, 2014

Isn't the barrel charred inside? Could it be bits of carbon that fell out of suspension and are now visible all clumped together?

Honeyhog · Jan 8, 2014

mannye said:
Isn't the barrel charred inside? Could it be bits of carbon that fell out of suspension and are now visible all clumped together?

That's exactly what I was thinking that a little char came off the inside of the barrel and is now falling out of suspension. If I'm not mistaken when they bottle whiskey they lay the barrel flat and a little gets left behind in the bulged middle of the barrel so any char would likely settle into that and be left behind.

Chevette Girl · Jan 8, 2014

Could be tannins settling out or something like that?

Generally, if it smells OK and it tastes OK, it is OK...

skunkboy · Jan 8, 2014

Yeast and barrel char, probably, I got that kinda gunk out my 20 liter barrel the first couple of times I put still fermenting mead into it...just racked off of it and tossed it.

mannye · Jan 9, 2014

And regardless of where it's from, like CG says, just smell and taste. If it's good, rack it and bottle!

Or, like I do, pour a big glass and raise the mead flag so the neighbors know it's time for mead!

Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G

Shm0 · Feb 6, 2014

thanks everybody!
turned out great no weird smell or anything..i guess it's really is barrel char..
and mannye that's a good idea i'm going to get me a mead flag

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