Using Sparkolloid - suspended jellyfish

[ddavis1979]

Good morning fellow mead heads,

Just a quick recap so you don't have to look back or remember:
3 gallons of must (OG 1.121)
pitched Wyeast 4184 smack pack on Dec 27th. Didn't have any noticeable action until 7 Jan. Fed it the nutrient blend from Wyeast.

Aerated about 2-3 times a week. and fermentation continued slowly over serveral weeks,
Jan 23rd (SG 1.090)
Feb 3rd (SG 1.070)
Feb 24 (SG 1.050)

After 2 months I decided that is enough primary fermentation, so I racked it into 1 gallon carboys, and racked it into some Potassium Sorbate, and Sodium Metabisulfate, let it sit for 12 hours and then did the hot Sparkolliod treatment.

That stuff was pretty amazing and it cleared up in 8 hours, however I have the golden jellyfish looking blobs suspended in the must.

What needs to be my plan for this? Is it a problem? will it settle out with the rest? Do I need to re-rack? How does the group typically proceed with this?

 

[Stasis]

Well the group typically doesn't start like this so they probably don't proceed from here...
It is quite clear that this was a problem batch and these types of batches either need fine handling and tweaking or a lot of patience. It seems you used/have neither of those.
Take a very precise hydrometer reading, wait a week and make sure gravity hasn't changed at all. If the gravity hasn't budged AT ALL, fingers crossed you managed to stop the ferment. There are several reasons why the ferment might restart:
- It was so slow that it might trick you that it stopped but in reality it is so weakened that it will take time for the yeast to recover and start fermenting again
- Sulfites and sorbate are best used on clarified musts
- Sorbate is more effective on higher abv meads, although this wasn't a particularly low abv mead at this point

I don't think the math works out the same for stabilizing an active ferment. If it were so easy Squatchy wouldn't have recently posted this thread here http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/27263-Please-read-this!!! in which he stated
"Part of the confusion about this entire concept is people believe you can stop an active fermentation part way through. They think through certain activities, they can halt the process of fermentation at a given ABV. This is virtually impossible. I’m not saying you can’t be done. But I am saying it’s pretty unlikely you can without causing some related problems that can lead to off flavors. And you will never be able to stop it at a certain place because every biomass is different."

I don;t even know what to suggest you do from here. It seems like you want to drink this very quick so cold crash, hope they settle out, rack off of them and if it tastes good to you it's up to you

 

[ddavis1979]

Everything you are saying to coming to be true

I just took a video tonight....the mead is very clear and around 10% ABV. But there are still very visible CO2 bubbles being produced from the lees hanging out at the bottom. My assumption is that the sparkolloid did what it was supposed to do by sticking to the suspended particles and sinking to the bottom, but as you clearly stated, even after 8 weeks of fermenting, its not done yet. I was getting more concerned about mold, or funk from from lees so I wanted to try and stabilize. I also was using a practice performed by a very successful local meadery in hopes it would work for me.

In any case I will probably try to rack the clear mead off the lees still at the bottom and continue to age while also drinking occasionally, and I will start on the next batch with some better tools and education on my side.

 

[Stasis]

Btw isn't 1.050 a bit too sweet even for a dessert mead? Problem ferments can take a very long time to finish and even longer to age into something drinkable.
Rack off those lees. I have absolutely no idea how active yeast behave when attached to sparkalloid. Maybe they don't enjoy it and will produce even more off flavors. Plus lees don't like it when they're active and piled up all on each other at the bottom of the carboy. So this will prevent some off flavors for sure.
On the other hand racking off the lees will mean your yeast population will go down drastically. Any yeast that survived will have a very tough time chewing through the rest of the sugars, especially when you consider that they were already having troubles fermenting at full population.
It seems anything you do from here could lead to off flavors. I would personally rack off the lees. This sort of scenario is why we strongly discourage trying to stop ferments mid-action.
The lees will not form mould unless you did something VERY, VERY wrong. In the case that you use fruit, racking off the sediment might be a good idea since some fruit pulp tastes funny when you leave it at the bottom of the fermenter. This is referred to as racking off the gross lees, gross meaning the larger particle lees. If you had a lot of yeast lees piling up at the bottom there are some who would rack off of it. It is also something you would commonly see on older recipes. Doing this during an active ferment is usually a bad idea because the lees are still helping the ferment along, according to Squatchy they clean up after themselves (can't recall what this means exactly), and because the lees are usually not compact enough and you would be wasting precious mead when racking off fluffy lees.
Actually you should be stirring up those lees daily and re-suspending them. Compact lees at the bottom of the fermenter will produce off flavors.
In your case Perhaps this batch did produce more lees than usual and the ferment was taking more time than usual so racking off the lees is understandable. The sparkalloid wasn't.
I wonder what the practices of the meadery you mention are and in what type of mead they use this method. Mind you there are probably quite a bit of meaderies who use bad practices when making mead so while we look up to them we should still be critical of their practices

 

[ddavis1979]

I do realize that 1.050 is pretty darn sweet. But I do enjoy drinking Barenjager Honey Liquor and Bunratty Meade (although not really a mead) and I cant imagine anything sweeter than those outside of just drinking straight honey LOL!

I am going to rack off the lees in a day or two and then let age for a few months and will keep an eye out for additional fermentation and Gravity readings and cross fingers.

Then I will start a new batch with better practices and see what happens.

 

[Squatchy]

I do realize that 1.050 is pretty darn sweet. But I do enjoy drinking Barenjager Honey Liquor and Bunratty Meade (although not really a mead) and I cant imagine anything sweeter than those outside of just drinking straight honey LOL!

I am going to rack off the lees in a day or two and then let age for a few months and will keep an eye out for additional fermentation and Gravity readings and cross fingers.

Then I will start a new batch with better practices and see what happens.

You will do weel to listen to the Gotmeadlive podcast starting on 9/5/17

 

[ddavis1979]

Yes I will look into that. I think I have gotten a lot of good knowledge from a combination of asking questions, reading forums and personal trials.

The semi-final conclusion is really not bad!

The first batch I made I used the Champagne yeast and it fermented down to a FG of .998 and tasted quite hot....as predicted, but I also over cloved it by added too many cloves to the initial ferment, instead of adding fewer cloves to a secondary.

2nd batch was the 4184 finicky yeast which I sparkolloided an active ferment at an FG of 1.050. This batch had a more reasonable flavor with a few cardamom and all spice added. I split this batch into 3 1 gal jugs, and then racked all the super clear mead off the active lees at the bottom of 1 jug, I reshook up the 2d jug and will wait for that to settle and hopefully stop the ferment.

I did find with the Batch 2A where I racked the clear mead, I mixed 2 part of that with 1 part of the hot clove mead, and I really like it! I am sure that makes most of you pro meaders cringe a little, but I have a beverage that I find very enjoyable for a first foray into mead making.

It still has a pretty sweet flavor to it, its very floral and aromatic, my wife says it smells and taste reminiscent of perfume, but me and a neighbor killed about 16 ounces of it last night and really enjoyed it.

So that is my plan for the rest of the batch once I get it clear again, and we will do more again soon. Thanks!