[voon]

Before I found this web site, back in September of 2008, I made a mead from local wildflower honey. It was a 2 pound mead (2 pounds of honey per gallon of water), so it is fairly light. I fermented it dry. There is almost no residual sweetness. I bottled it about a year ago. I didn't really care for the taste at 3, 6, or 9 months, but now it's starting to smooth out. It tastes pretty good. It has a pleasant, if light, aroma and color.

BUT I have a couple of problems.

The first one is gas. I didn't do a good job of degassing this mead. I didn't have a vacuum pump back then, so I just stirred hard to degas. I didn't stir enough apparently. It's not as bubbly as a sparkling wine, but you can watch the bubbles rise as it slowly effervesces in the glass.

The other problem is clarity. I thought it was clear when I bottled it, but alas, there is a fair amount of sediment in the bottle that mixes and ruins the clarity when you pour. It ends up looking a bit murky.

So - I was wondering if I could fix it by uncorking it, returning it to a carboy, and vacuum degas it. Then, I'd like to try using a clarifying agent to help it clear. Then let it settle for a few weeks, rack it off the sediment, and bottle it again.

Do you think the mead will stand up to this fairly harsh treatment? I never added any metabisulfite to it originally. Should I do so if I go through with this procedure? How much should I add, considering that I never added any previously?

Will Sparkolloid work with mead? If not, what does? How long will I need to let it clear before racking and bottling again?

Is mead as susceptible to oxidation as wine is? Am I likely to end up with oxidized mead by following this plan?

I can drink it as it is, but the carbonation detracts a lot from the enjoyment of the wine. The cloudiness doesn't bother me that much, but I wouldn't want to serve this to someone else if I can't clear it up.


(Edit: I poured a glass of this mead 30 minutes ago. The carbonation is still bubbling out even now!)

[Medsen Fey]

Traditional meads tend to be less oxidation prone than wines, much less so in fact (though it can be done - trust me). You can pour it back into a carboy and let it sit and clear then rebottle. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to treat with Kmeta while doing this however. If you let it sit quietly, it may not even need sparkolloid. It sounds like the initial problem was that it wasn't finished fermenting before it was bottled. That can often happen when a mead is made with insufficient nutrients - the fermentation can peter along almost imperceptibly for months.

[Chef Neil]

Is mead as susceptible to oxidation as wine is?

I have found, that some of my meads- I treated less than fair with, have fared well...
I have had a few, that in the gallon jug I bulked aged in, I didn't top up, and the air lock dried up.
the wine not only was drinkable but seemed to age well- looking at notes, the flavors softened and the high alcohol smoothed out...
I have not bottled my lemonade mead, and this past week- finished the last glass, I never topped up and used a plastic baggie and a rubber band for a seal
not the best methods.

if that mead was in my cellar- I would open and put in a bucket (all sanitary) campden as per, and cap off bulk ager-
and get it in cold storage for a month- minimum -
I also put an oak stave in the jug- carboy- which attracts the fine lees like a magnet...
I never used anything to clarify my meads, just racking ant time...

[voon]

Medsen Fey, it is true, I didn't add any yeast nutrients to the mead as it was fermenting. I think it was completely fermented, because my hydrometer readings didn't change for over a month. But you never know. Honey is slow to ferment.

I will add k-meta when I unbottle. Do you have an idea how much I should add?

Chef Neil, adding oak is a fascinating idea. It sounds like you are using it to attract particulate matter in the wine. But I wonder; does mead take up oak flavor well? Do you like the flavor of an oaked mead? Perhaps a spiral of medium hungarian oak would be interesting.

[Medsen Fey]

voon, on 09 February 2010 - 12:29 AM, said:

I think it was completely fermented, because my hydrometer readings didn't change for over a month.

I will add k-meta when I unbottle. Do you have an idea how much I should add?

With a mead that is fermented without nutrients, a month of stability may not be enough, especially if it is in a cool place. When the bottle gets moved to a warmer area, you can get surprised. I always let them spend some weeks bulk aging at room temperature to be sure. In the case of sweet sack meads, refermentation has been know to occur up to 2 years later.

You can dose the Kmeta as you would for a white wine and adjust per the pH. If you want to keep it simple, just add 1 Campden tablet per gallon.

Oak can be very good with mead, but I find a very little goes a long way. One of the easiest ways to botch up a mead is to over-oak it. When overdone, it tends to drown out the fruity/floral aromas from the honey. This of course is a very personal thing - someone who loves heavily oaked wines may like a lot more in their meads. If you want to separate the batch and oak a portion and compare the two, you'll be able to see for yourself how you like it best.

And melomels are a whole different story. When you have fruit meads, some of them are extremely sensitive to oxidation and I have had some that became oxidized within a year. It will depend on what type of fruit and how the mead is made, but they rarely will have the oxidation resistance of traditional meads.

Medsen

[Chef Neil]

voon, on 08 February 2010 - 09:29 PM, said:

Medsen Fey, it is true, I didn't add any yeast nutrients to the mead as it was fermenting. I think it was completely fermented, because my hydrometer readings didn't change for over a month. But you never know. Honey is slow to ferment. I will add k-meta when I unbottle. Do you have an idea how much I should add? Chef Neil, adding oak is a fascinating idea. It sounds like you are using it to attract particulate matter in the wine. But I wonder; does mead take up oak flavor well? Do you like the flavor of an oaked mead? Perhaps a spiral of medium hungarian oak would be interesting.

the size of the stick to the amount of wine- and the time in... I can't taste any oak, side by side of an unoaked batch- the oaked seems softer. the oak stave when removed has a slimey feel- and the wine a bit more clear- it really showed up in the pineapple jalapeno- the shimmer were like sun rays in my glass. the staves are 1/2 inch square by 18 inches and I break them down to fit-( a gallon jug has a 4-5 inch stave.)

just happens to have two pixs for ya - I racked my friendship wine- and the stave was covered.

http://winemakingfoo.../wine-diamonds/

[voon]

Medsen Fey, I don't have a PH meter, so I'll keep it simple. I don't have campden tabs either, so I'll use the rough equivalence of 10 Campden tablets (.44 gram) equal 1 teaspoon of powdered potassium metabisulfite. Five gallons of mead (less a couple bottles) means a scant 1/2 teaspoon.

I may try a melomel, pyment, metheglin (most appealing to me), or braggot in the future ... gotta make sure I really like mead enough to justify the space for the bottles.

Chef Neil, thanks for the photos. Do you toast your own oak staves? What temp range is best for cold stabilizing. I have a unused chest freezer...

[Chef Neil]

gotta make sure I really like mead enough

even my worst mead- given time, came out better than "Chaucer's" (my opinion and not meant to knock another product- also not saying my mead is the best either...
oh- boy no- I have had my share of cringing tastes)

Rabbit's Foot meadery out of Sunnyvale Ca. the three bottles I had bought- were good- though I like them dryer...

Voon- I did toast my oak stave- on the stove, I'm always messing about- like adding one jalapeno to a batch of sangria... not enough to notice- yet overall I bet it helped.
Probably why my wines taste different, the ingredient combination and tweeks here and there.
I am a chef- right down to my soul- this is what I do... (all the science based wine makers laugh)

Cold stabilizing- I am lucky in a way that the garage gets down in temps in Dec-March- it is in the 40's, maybe lower at night- but the overall temps of the wine doesn't drop under 40*
I have used my spare fridge and CS. for a month- the temps are about 40* I did this- because my garage also hits high temps in July and August.
my goal this year is to get everything racked, stabilized and degassed by end of spring- so I can bottle and get them stored in the back closet before the summer hits.
I will have a few wines just starting bulk aging- and have another spare closet to keep them in. I will have to do this seasonal game of hiding them, untill I can get a Wine room built in garage with a cooler in it.

[Medsen Fey]

Just to clarify terminology, cold-stabilization is a treatment for wines to help precipitate potassium bitartrate crystals (so they don't form in a bottle of wine when chilled - a purely cosmetic defect)and sometimes to lower the TA as a result. Traditional meads really don't have tartaric acid (except when acid blend is added) and so meads don't need "cold stabilization." Only if you are making a pyment with grape juice, or perhaps a melomel with another fruit that contains a lot of tartaric acid (tamarind) would you have to consider it.

With that said, putting mead in a fridge to help it clear faster often works and I do it frequently.

[Mrgoodcheese]

voon, on 08 February 2010 - 10:01 PM, said:

So - I was wondering if I could fix it by uncorking it, returning it to a carboy, and vacuum degas it. Then, I'd like to try using a clarifying agent to help it clear. Then let it settle for a few weeks, rack it off the sediment, and bottle it again.

Your plan will work very well. I've had to do the same with a few batches in the past, and it's always worked out. As others stated, mead doesn't oxidize too quickly, so you don't have to worry about that. As for clearing the mead, I would first unbottle into a carboy, then clear the mead with Bentonite, rack to a clear carboy, degas, then rebottle. I highly suggest using Bentonite to clear since you have a normal mead (no fruit), as it doesn't affect taste at all, and works quickly. Any Bentonite will work, but E.C. Kraus has a good article about how to use it : http://www.eckraus.c...-bentonite.html

[Medsen Fey]

Mrgoodcheese, on 16 February 2010 - 03:57 PM, said:

I highly suggest using Bentonite to clear since you have a normal mead (no fruit), as it doesn't affect taste at all, and works quickly.

The absolute best fining agent for mead (and the cheapest) is time. If you let it sit quietly for enough months, most meads will become crystal clear.

Still I understand that tying up a carboy for long months may not be practical, and in those cases the fining agents can work well. For traditional meads, I'm partial to Sparkolloid and usually get good results with it. Bentonite is also effective, but one word of caution - you can strip aroma and flavor from a mead (even a traditional mead, or a wine for that matter) using Bentonite. I did that with some orange blossom traditional mead a couple of years ago. Usually if you don't go beyond 0.5 g per liter it won't be an issue (The E.C. Kraus directions work out to be about 0.75 g/L). Higher doses can cause stripping, and that is one reason why wineries use bench trials.

Medsen

[Mrgoodcheese]

Medsen Fey, on 18 February 2010 - 09:23 AM, said:

Bentonite is also effective, but one word of caution - you can strip aroma and flavor from a mead (even a traditional mead, or a wine for that matter) using Bentonite.

16+ batches of various traditional, fruit, and spiced meads using Bentonite according to the E.C. Kraus directions, and I haven't yet stripped aroma or flavor.

There's a reason the Wine Expert and RJ Spagnols companies use Bentonite in their wine kits to clarify.

[Medsen Fey]

Mrgoodcheese, on 08 July 2010 - 10:45 AM, said:

There's a reason the Wine Expert and RJ Spagnols companies use Bentonite in their wine kits to clarify.

There are actually several reasons why they use Bentonite. For one, with highly clarified juices having the particulate matter actually helps give the yeast binding sites and allows the fermentation to finish faster. Obviously, clearing faster is important for kit makers who want you to be able to bottle in a matter of 4-6 weeks. Most white wines are fined with Bentonite to prevent protein haze later and insure high-temperature stability. I've never said that Bentonite serves no purpose; it can be quite useful.

However, above a certain threshold (I draw the line at 1 gram per liter) it can have a negative impact on aroma and flavor. I have done identical batches of mead side by side and compared it for myself. When treated with a bit more than 1 gram per liter, the Bentonite treated batch cleared faster, and had a slightly lighter color, but the aroma was impacted in a noticeable way compared to the batch that did not get the treatment. This was done using a blinded, triangular testing method, so I'm fairly confident that my personal biases (whatever they may be) and those of the others who tasted this were not a factor in the results.

I'm not sure if I would be able to identify the effect of the Bentonite without the untreated batch to compare with, and I'm not saying the Bentonite treated batch was bad. In fact, the batch treated with Bentonite was quite good. The batch that was not treated just had better aroma and flavor (especially aroma). It is on this basis, in addition to what I have read in various texts including the Handbook of Enology, and Wine Science that I say that the use of Bentonite (in amounts above a certain level)can lead to stripping of aroma and flavor.

I salute you on making 16+ batches of good mead, and if you are using Bentonite and getting a good result, that is what's most important.

Medsen

[Mrgoodcheese]

Medsen Fey, on 08 July 2010 - 10:37 AM, said:

I salute you on making 16+ batches of good mead, and if you are using Bentonite and getting a good result, that is what's most important.

Medsen

More importantly, I'm using Bentonite and getting good results with no loss of aroma or taste. I'm not sure what variable(s) you had different in your test.

I always do taste/aroma comparisons of batches of wine and mead.. with/without clarifying with Bentonite, with/without clarifying with Sparkoloid, with/without backsweetening, etc. and have had many others from our wine clubs and friends help. It's always been the same results with the 16 or so batches compared by 30+ persons' tastebuds/noses... no difference in aroma or smell with or without using Bentonite to clear, but always a great improvement in clarity. That is using 2 tablespoons of the saturated Bentonite slurry per gallon of wine/mead. I always make more than the intended amount (4 gal for a 3 gal batch, 6 gal for a 5 gal) so I have extra to test and such.

Mrgoodcheese said:

There's a reason the Wine Expert and RJ Spagnols companies use Bentonite in their wine kits to clarify.

For the reasons you stated, and, because the Bentonite doesn't reduce aroma or flavor of their juice.

[Medsen Fey]

There are many reasons why someone may get greater or lesser impact from Bentonite, starting with the Bentonite itself. There are two forms, Sodium Bentonite and Calcium Bentonite. The calcium form is less aggressive at binding than the sodium form so you may see less stripping from the calcium form at the same dosage. The nature of the wine/mead also has an impact - lees aging, as an example, may reduce the stripping of aroma compounds by Bentonite. However dose is an important factor.

The was a very nice study published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture just last month. Am. J. Enol. Vitic., Jun 2010; 61: 225 - 233.

Quote

Effect of Bentonite Fining on Odor-Active Compounds in Two Different White Wine Styles
Milena Lambri,1* Roberta Dordoni,2 Angela Silva,3 and Dante Marco De Faveri4

Abstract:
Bentonite fining is commonly used in the wine industry as a clarifying technique to remove proteins that are a potential source of haze in wines. Because of mutual flocculation with positively charged hydrocolloids and adsorption, bentonite interacts not only with proteins, but also with other molecules. Aroma depletion during fining is generally observed as a secondary, nonspecific effect of bentonite, but mechanisms and occurrence in white wines are not clear. The effect of fining on odor-active compounds of two white wines was examined using three samples of sodium bentonite applied at three different concentrations. Two Chardonnay wines were produced with different winemaking processes to obtain two wine styles. The period of aging on lees was adjusted to produce two different protein contents. Bentonite dose, bentonite sample, and wine style significantly affected the percent reduction of some odor-active white wine compounds during bentonite fining. Most of these volatiles were indirectly removed via deproteinization, as they can be fixed to macromolecules by weak bonds, and only a few odor-active molecules were directly removed by bentonite through adsorption. Moreover, low adsorbent amounts (20 g/hL), useful to stabilize wine, did not significantly affect the concentration of the most odorous substances. Results suggested that the chemical nature, the hydrophobicity, initial concentration of wine odor-active compounds, and the abundance and nature of wine proteins are the “matrix factors” modulating the removal of wine odor-active compounds during bentonite fining.

At doses of 50 g/hL and 100 g/hL (1 gram per liter), there was a much greater reduction of the amount of measured aroma molecules. They also noted that different brands of the Sodium Bentonite had different removal rates for some of the aroma molecules so all Bentonite is not created equally. Attached below are a couple of the graphs which show some of the test results. There is much about the removal of aroma molecules by Bentonite which is not understood, but the fact that it occurs is quite well documented. The references in this article can give you a library full of good reading on the subject.

Mrgoodcheese, as you have not seen this effect with your own eyes (or palate) I do not expect to convince you of that which you choose not believe, but I am posting this so that others who may be interested can have more facts on which to base their decision about the use and dosing of Bentonite.

Medsen

Attached File(s)

•  Bentonite article 1.JPG (37.06K)
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•  Bentonite article 2.JPG (40.92K)
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