chocolate mead

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intoxicating

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Last year I made a three gallon batch of chocolate mead. Simmered the Dutch cocoa powder in the hot water for 20 minutes before dissolving the honey. Tasted FABULOUS, in spite of being young, but didn't clear like I wanted it to. At 9 months it hadn't dropped any sediment in four months and I didn't want to filter or add finings because the original recipe said that would strip out some of the chocolate flavor. I got tired of waiting and decided to bottle it to keep from screwing it up. I hadn't added sulfite, since mead ferments slowly, and I usually don't add sulfite till the wine shows signs of trying to clear on its own. Added the sulfite and sorbate, and back sweetened it. Then bottled it. I didn't know I was supposed to wait, to be sure it was stable. Within three weeks it had dropped cocoa powder in the bottles.

I am hoping in another year it is good enough to enter in a competition. I am thinking I can open about six bottles and run them through the little gravity filter and rebottle. How far ahead of the competition deadling should I do this to ensure no bottle shock or what-ever? Or do I just request they decant it?
 
I would try and siphon the liquid off the sediment before you send it in to any competitions. Just looks better that way and I would give the mead 3 or 4 months to get over the re-corking.
I have made a couple of meads with chocolate in them and have not experienced a loss of flavor due to clearing it with finings. Maybe because I add extra chocolate........ Chocolate powder can take a bit (understatement) to clear and lots of time to develop into a nice mead or wine. Worth the effort, but expect a longer wait for the bitterness to leave.
Which recipe did you use?
VC
 

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