Mead Lovers Digest #1511

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in 

Mead Lovers Digest

 · 7 months ago

Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1511, 18 January 2011 
From: mead-request@talisman.com 

 
Mead Lover's Digest #1511                                  18 January 2011 

                      Mead Discussion Forum 

Contents: 
  Clay and sulfites ("M. Graham Clark") 
  hazy must ("Micah Millspaw") 

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Subject: Clay and sulfites 
From: "M. Graham Clark" <mclark04@gmail.com> 
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:04:59 -0400 

Hello all, 

I would first like to elaborate on the effects of using clays in mead. 
Clays have a high cation exchange capacity (relative to something like 
sand), and what this means is that they will attract any particles with a 
postive charge and hold them close.  Since fine clay is more dense then 
alcohol and water, it will eventually settle out of your mead taking with it 
any of those pesky suspended particles with a positive charge.  This is also 
why it does not work 100% of the time, because if your solution contains 
mostly things with negative charges, it will not have any affect.  However, 
this is not a chemical reaction and will not leave anything undesirable in 
the mead, as all the clay will settle out as long as its given the proper 
amount of time.  The amount of time is relative to the size of the clay 
molecules, but the directions on the pack will tell you how long this is. 
You do risk taking some flavor with it, much like how a filter could take 
some flavor away, but the risk is low.  From what I understand, most of the 
things that cause cloudiness in mead do not affect flavor and thus clay may 
even be safer then filtering.  It certainly is a lot cheaper, and its a lot 
easier then messing with the temperature of your carboy to obtain the same 
effect. 

I have a question for the gurus out there.  A wine maker friend and I have 
been debating the effects of sulfites in mead/wine.  I would like to say 
upfront that I avoid any additives I can, including sulfites.  In particular 
we were debating the aging of a fine ferment.  His stance was that sulfites 
help with producing a high quality product years down the road.  The debate 
hinged around two points, 1) sulfites help keep out unwanted yeast strains, 
such as mother of vinegar.  I understand that this can be circumvented 
through a reasonably high alcohol percentage.   2) Sulfites bond to the same 
molecules which would oxidize without the presence of sulfites, and thus 
help preserve the fresh fruity notes that would otherwise degrade with 
time.  This arguement intrigued me.  My organic chemistry is rusty, so I 
thought I would ask our little community here what people have noticed.  Do 
those of you who add sulfites notice that your older batches are more fruity 
then your batches without sulfites.  This may affect malomels and metheglin 
more then a traditional mead, as there are more complex molecules available 
for oxidation.  I know many good wineries are moving to screw tops for the 
wines they want to age, because cork lets too much air in.  They save their 
cork for the middle of the road consumers, who will still pay 40 bucks for a 
corked wine over not.  So the logic is there in the market as far as I can 
see.  Any opinions on this one out there? 

I'm going to run a test.  The next few batches of mead I make I will sulfite 
half of the batch before bottling.  However, the results of this experiment 
will be years to come. 

Hope all are well and happy with their latest batches, 
- --  
M. Graham Clark 

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Subject: hazy must 
From: "Micah Millspaw" <MMillspaw@Silgancontainers.com> 
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:43:29 -0600 

FWTW a change in the iron content of your water (higher) can create a 
haze in the must. You can have you water analyzed if you are on a well 
or ask your city water dept if on public water. 
I use soften and carbon filtered water for mead making to even things 
out. 

Micah Millspaw 

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1511 
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