Eggs Whites for Clearing Mead

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Well the mead is done.

I have two options now. Let it sit in my 4 gallon carboy and age. Problem with this is topping up. I have no mead reserves.
Bottle it and let it sit.

I mixed a half ounce apple juice with 1 1/2 ounce mead. It really brought out the honey.
First it was meh.. Added AJ and it was like POP!

Maybe I should top up the missing 2 liters with apple juice? Recommendations?
 
Well the mead is done.

I have two options now. Let it sit in my 4 gallon carboy and age. Problem with this is topping up. I have no mead reserves.
Bottle it and let it sit.

I mixed a half ounce apple juice with 1 1/2 ounce mead. It really brought out the honey.
First it was meh.. Added AJ and it was like POP!

Maybe I should top up the missing 2 liters with apple juice? Recommendations?
Well done, you're getting your head round the possibility of different tastes that can make a big difference.

So the apple juice works, well so does grape juice/concentrate. My mate "Mad Keith" suggested I tried chenin blanc concentrate. It does have the grape concentrate sort of taste but its got honey notes to the flavour too and helps with lack of body in a brew.

Just remember that if you're adding stuff like that for flavour, if there's any room left in the yeast tolerance then there is also room for refermentation. So stabilise to prevent bottle bombs.
 
I already hit it with sorbate and k meta after I racked off the lees from the egg whites.
It's surprisingly clear for unfiltered.
And for some reason the addition if the AJ made it re clear even more. Minimal lees now. But I'll rack it (possibly filter it) and bottle on Sunday.
Wanna keep it under vacuum for 3 more days just in case.
 
I already hit it with sorbate and k meta after I racked off the lees from the egg whites.
It's surprisingly clear for unfiltered.
And for some reason the addition if the AJ made it re clear even more. Minimal lees now. But I'll rack it (possibly filter it) and bottle on Sunday.
Wanna keep it under vacuum for 3 more days just in case.
Well if already stabilised, excellent you should be ready to go.

As an extra point, just remember that when back sweetening an already cleared batch, some natural sweeteners (honey is bad for this) can cause hazing. It's, I believe, a protein thing. If it happens then it needs re-clearing.
 
It did haze up a bit (I expected it to) but it cleared when I added the Apple Juice. I read another forum where this same thing occurred.
 
So after reading your post today, I know what you do wioth the egg whites and the shells. What are you doing with all the left over yolks :)
 
Back to original question: I start all my meads with bentonite and have never needed to clarify at end.
 
I like bentonite.
Using it up front can often work/be a handy technique.

For some reason, I've got a thought in my head why it's not the best idea, though for the life of me I can't recall what the downside of using it up front was. Something about it can remove something in wines, or at least affect colour or flavour or something like that, and that adding it to beer worts up front, is less of an issue.......

If I can find the reason, I'll post it for you......
 

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