Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1631, 26 April 2013 Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:20:12 -0600 (MDT) From: mead-request@talisman.com Mead Lover's Digest #1631 26 April 2013 Mead Discussion Forum Contents: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 ("Shaggyman") Re: Filtering/Fining a melomel (Phil) Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 () RE: Filtering/Fining a melomel? ("Dempsey, Steve AZ") Re: Lalvin D-47 wine yeast: (Richard Koppinger) Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 (Tim Leber) 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: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 From: "Shaggyman" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:03:01 -0500 > Filtering/Fining a melomel? (Caroline Taymor) > Do you have any experience dealing with a melomel with lots of bits of > fruit in it? Any suggestions? Use a package of Super Kleer K.C.- Follow the instructions and it should settle out all the gunk overnight. Lane O AKA: The Great And Powerful Shaggyman Never pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Filtering/Fining a melomel From: Phil Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:57:31 -0700 (PDT) Caroline, >From what you've written, it sounds like you oxidized the living hell out of your mead. That, unfortunately, is not a good thing. There is a little gadget called an Auto-Syphon. It's a racking cane/hand pump combination. It allows you to restart a syphon even there's only a little liquid left to move. I recommend that you get one for future racking. The next time you rack (whether through a racking cane or auto-syphon) wrap the bottom of the cane with a copper scrubbing pad. Just secure it with a rubber band. The scrubbie catches the solids on a wider surface than a hop bag, reducing the chance of clogging. When it happens, you can just give the scrubbie and cane a quick rinse and start the syphon again. In regards to the fining agent, you'll need to use pectic enzyme to get rid of the pectic haze created by the fruit. In addition to this, you will need to use another fining agent on the batch. I recommend Super-Kleer. Hope this helps. Phil ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 From: Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:09:22 -0400 > Subject: Filtering/Fining a melomel? > From: Caroline Taymor > Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:21:29 -0700 I have been making fruit meads for a number of years with fairly good racking results (pomegranites excepted(; ), I like to slice the fruit and put it in a bag with a little pectin enzyme over night in the fridge, then process it in a blender until mostly liquid. I add this to a 3 day fermenting mead in the primary. after 4 or so weeks, you'll get a nice separation in the middle of the carboy, spent yeast and most of the fruit matter on the bottom and often a thin layer of fruit matter on top that refuses to sink, I put the racking cane in with the sediment cap on the bottom just above the the sediment layer, being careful not to disturb the yeast bed, I stuff a clean paper towel in the neck of the carboy to hold the racking cane in place then start the siphon. as the siphon progresses you can slowly slide the bottom of the cane into the sediment bed against the side of the carboy and even slowly tilt the carboy back to minimize any wasted liquid, this technique has worked pretty well for me with most fruits, and after a 2nd or 3rd racking over the course of fermentation and aging, results in a nice and clear mead at the end with no additional fining products required. Davis R ------------------------------ Subject: RE: Filtering/Fining a melomel? From: "Dempsey, Steve AZ" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:50:50 +0000 >From: Caroline Taymor > >...Do you have any experience dealing with a melomel with lots of bits of >fruit in it? Any suggestions? I have had numerous successes with melomels including peach that have a deep fluffy sediment, as well as bits that seem to have neutral buoyancy and never drop, by using bentonite. Its advantage is just being heavy, pushing big bits to the bottom. The lees also can become more compact than with other finings that may leave a very clear top product layer but deeper sediment layer. - -Steve ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Lalvin D-47 wine yeast: From: Richard Koppinger Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:52:09 -0700 (PDT) Henry, I've just started a cyser that seems to be going well with Lalvin D-47. I'll let you know as things progress. This is the first time I've used Lalvin D-47 since I made my first batch of mead about four years ago. I wound up dumping it down the sink thanks to fusels that formed because it fermented at too high of a temperature. I was told that D-47 was very susceptible to fusels under these circumstances, but I can't speak with any authority on that subject. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1630, 23 April 2013 From: Tim Leber Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:44:34 -0700 Filtering/Fining a melomel? I make a lot of melomels and I do two things to keep the pulp from clogging up the racking canes. First I bought a couple of brew-in-a-bag bags from the homebrew shop and put all the fruit in one of them. This means you end up in a bucket, but I shoot carbon dioxide from my kegging rig over the top and seal them up for secondary. Then when the time comes I can lift out the bag of fruit mush and let the mead sit for a few days and rack off of whatever little bits are left. Second, and this was hard for me, I learned not to be greedy. I rack off the clear mead and stop when it gets into the pulp in the bottom. I have also had good luck with using bentonite up front to help the extra floaties flocculate out with the yeast, but found I don't need to since I now bag the fruit as above. Tim Leber ------------------------------ End of Mead Lover's Digest #1631 *******************************