Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:14:27 -0600 (MDT) From: mead-request@talisman.com Mead Lover's Digest #1630 23 April 2013 Mead Discussion Forum Contents: Filtering/Fining a melomel? (Caroline Taymor) Lalvin D-47 wine yeast: (Henry Murray) NOTE: Digest appears whenever there is enough material to send one. Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com. Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe and admin requests. Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead#Archives A searchable archive is at http://www.gotmead.com/mldarchives.html Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Filtering/Fining a melomel? From: Caroline Taymor Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:21:29 -0700 I made a peach melomel last summer. What I didn't realize was that it was going to be a nightmare to rack and filter. When I was racking from primary, I tried using siphoning with a racking cane with a hop bag over the end in the primary fermenter. The little stringy particles of peach in the mead kept clogging up the filter and I kept having to resiphon. I tried a few different arrangements, and finally gave up, pouring the mead through cheesecloth over a funnel. Even that took about an hour, because I kept having to rinse the cheesecloth. Needless to say, it was kind of a nightmare. I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to rack it out of primary, and I'm dreading dealing with it. I know that a lot of particulate got through the grain bag into secondary. I have two main concerns: a) ease of racking. How can I manage to rack it easily? b) clarity for drinking. I don't need it perfectly clear, but the stringy bits are kind of unappetizing. I thought maybe a fining agent might be helpful, but it's not haze I'm worried about. I've never used a fining agent and I'm not sure whether I would want a positively charged or negatively charged one. Would a fining agent be helpful? Do you have any experience dealing with a melomel with lots of bits of fruit in it? Any suggestions? Thank you! - -- Caroline Taymor ctaymor@gmail.com 415-302-2416 ------------------------------ Subject: Lalvin D-47 wine yeast: From: Henry Murray Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:39:49 -0400 Lalvin D-47 wine yeast: I recently brewed three 5-gal. batches of mead, two with Lalvin D47 and the other with something else, perhaps a Lalvin 1122. The two batches with the Lalvin D47 are almost perfectly clear 4 months and two rackings, something I have never seen before. And the honey fermented in two weeks [based on SG and gravity after two weeks] and in 4 months the taste is on the way to a good, dry mead. Anyone else have exceptionally good luck with D47? - -- Hal Murray ------------------------------ End of Mead Lover's Digest #1630 *******************************