Mead

[becks77]

Hi Everyone,
Hope one of you clever people can help, My mead I put on in Oct 08 has stopped bubbling so I have done one racking, but how long do I leave it to clear, or can I help it along with some isinglass?(this is my first attempt at mead) "CJBerry" suggests the mead should be OK for this Christmas but others suggest it needs yonks to clear and finish,
Does anyone have any advice please
Thanks
Becks

[StripyPixieSocks]

We've left our mead to clear for anything up to 6 months, it really depends on what was in it to be honest. Our first one was clear in two weeks but if you are in a hurry you can use finings such as Isinglass but please bear in mind anyone Vegetarian or Vegan cannot drink the mead if you use Isinglass as it comes from the swim bladders of tropical fish.

As for maturing anything from 3 months to 6 years depending on how strong it was to begin with.

[the.fee.fairy]

My mead was pretty clear from the start, but if you're serving it to vegans/vegetarians, then i'm sure there's something in the CJJ Berry book about using banana skins as finings.

I left mine to mature for about 6 months, and its now well over a year old (it was maturing for christmas last year), and its definitely getting better with age.

[Beekeeping]

Is it a straight mead with no other ingredients?

What yeast did you use?

[becks77]

Hi,
No the recipe called for yeast nutrient also, so honey yeast and nutrient oh and a bit of citric acid
Have put a small amount of issinglass in but it still seems reluctant to clear....Help?
Becks

[Beekeeping]

Give it a few days to start clearing.

How much honey/water did you use?

If its a dry it may be ready for xmas.

I have a 2 month mead recipe that I will type up later and add that has orange,cloves and cinnamon.

Go chat with the guys and gals over here http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/ for help

[StripyPixieSocks]

Hi,
No the recipe called for yeast nutrient also, so honey yeast and nutrient oh and a bit of citric acid
Have put a small amount of issinglass in but it still seems reluctant to clear....Help?
Becks

How warm is the room it is in? If it's too warm it may not clear very quickly.

Basically the warmth can keep the thermal convection process going so it can take longer for the sediment to settle.

Try moving it to a cooler place (like a shed or just outside the back door with a bucket over it or something to keep it cool.

We have made lots of meads and they are all different but a plain one shouldn't take too long to mature.

Beekeepers site looks ok but seems very American based (at a quick glance) you could try http://www.brew-it-yourself.co.uk/forum ... /index.php my OH posts there and will be glad to help you out with the mead problems as he knows an awful lot about brewing and it's a great site in general for brewing problems :)

[becks77]

Have just moved the demi johns outside the backdoor, the near frosty temps ought to put a stop to any convection, thanks for the tip.

[the.fee.fairy]

The recipe for my mead is on here somewhere.

I think the recipe was:

4 jars of runny honey (they had them in the pound shop...)
4 tea bags
2tsp lemon juice
Bread yeast (it was before i got some 'proper' brewing yeast).

boil the tea bags in a gallon of water. Make the tea as strong as you can. Let the mixture cool slioghtly, adn whole still fairly hot, add the honey. Use some of the water to rinse the jars out to get all of it.
Allow it to cool to blood temperature, and add the lemon juice. Mic throughly and decant into demi-john. Add yeast and apply airlock.

Leave until it stops bubbling and rack into another clean demijohn, again, leave it to stop bubbling and settle, and rack again.

Leave to settle and decant into bottles.

[becks77]

Thanks FF that's one I'm going to try.
The current mead is still not clearing after a few days outside any thoughts as to what to try next please anyone
Becks

[red]

wait, probably. or drink it cloudy.

wine making usually takes longer than the recipes say.. in my experience. then again we keep them in a cool place...

[sleepyowl]

By the way don't give mead to vegans they don't do animal products