Mead Made Easy

clarifying

There are a number of ways to clarify meads. Which you use depends on what's clouding your mead.

If yeast is still in suspension, the best thing to do is probably to wait. The yeast will naturally settle in time. Bentonite, which is a negatively charged clay and will attach to the positively charged yeast, can also be added to take the yeast out of suspension more quickly.

On the other hand, it's possible to have a haze of tannins. Traditionally, egg white or fresh blood from the slaughterhouse were used to clear tannin hazes. The reason these work is that the tannins and other bits of haze are typically negatively charged. Adding positively charged particles, such as proteins, will neutralize the charges, allowing the particles to clump together and settle out of solution more quickly. Today, gelatin is usually used.

If you use too much gelatin, and go from having a tannin haze to having a gelatin haze, you can add Bentonite.

More information is available at The Science of Cidermaking: When things go wrong. There is also a great page on how to use Sparkolloid at How to Home Brew Beer.

#appendix #clarifying


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