On mead, backsweetening and clearing

[Yuri]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question, I have noticed that when backsweetening a mead with honey, it tends to go cloudy again. I found this logical as mead starts out cloudy, but now that mead has started to go clear again without any drop in gravity. I thought all sweet meads were basically cloudy? There is sediment now, what is dropping out exactly? Pollen? I am very confused as I am new to backsweetening. Does anybody have more experience, is this normal? Should I always wait for a mead to clear up after backsweetening?

Yuri

 

[jof]

I'm not a mead expert, but I would suspect that the honey you added to back sweeten has been fermented by any yeast left & that's what has generated the sediment.
The same way you get extra sediment from carbonating beer when you bottle it or make fizzy wine.

 

[Yuri]

I'm not a mead expert, but I would suspect that the honey you added to back sweeten has been fermented by any yeast left & that's what has generated the sediment.
The same way you get extra sediment from carbonating beer when you bottle it or make fizzy wine.

Thanks for the reply, I neglected to mention that the mead has been done fermenting for about 4-5 months, I highly doubt any yeast could have survived for that long (or at least enough for a colony that quickly). Typed this thread a little too quickly, thanks for that observation.

 

[Druss]

Has it been stabilised?

If not then there's likely still some dormant yeast hanging around that will wake up pretty quickly with the addition of more honey.

I find that even after adding a Campden tablet and a half teaspoon of potassium sorbate per gallon and waiting a couple of weeks, backsweetening can still cause some haze.

It's entirely possible it's just the particulate matter in the honey, if you put it somewhere cold after backsweetening then it should drop out pretty quickly.

 

[Yuri]

Has it been stabilised?

If not then there's likely still some dormant yeast hanging around that will wake up pretty quickly with the addition of more honey.

I find that even after adding a Campden tablet and a half teaspoon of potassium sorbate per gallon and waiting a couple of weeks, backsweetening can still cause some haze.

It's entirely possible it's just the particulate matter in the honey, if you put it somewhere cold after backsweetening then it should drop out pretty quickly.

Thanks for the reply. It hasn't been stabilised actually, but I really doubt it starting up again after 5 months as it was completely clear and not sitting on any lees. But nonetheless, I will check if the gravity has moved in a week or so, as for now it hasn't.