Last night I added american oak to an orange blossom show mead.
I soaked the oak chips in water for 12 hours per the instructions, and then steamed them for about 20minnutes. Then I added them to the carboy, and things got wierd. Immediately, a 1/2 inch layer of champagne-like head formed on the top of the mead, and shinning a light into the mead revealed tons of tiny bubbles rising from the bottom. Within ten minnutes, the head had increased to a full inch, and my carboy looked lie a big glass of champagne. Airlock activity increased from none to multiple blips per second.
???
I moved into my new house 2 weeks ago, and racked this before I moved. At that time, there was a steady flow of small bubbles rising, and I believe the batch was undergoing MLF (though I did not test to be sure) The batch remained fairly quiet until the oak addition.
So what caused the sudden erruption? was there a reaction from the Oak? There is a very small, and thin ammount of lees on the bottom. The batch has been racked twice, and is newsprint clear.
Greenblood
I soaked the oak chips in water for 12 hours per the instructions, and then steamed them for about 20minnutes. Then I added them to the carboy, and things got wierd. Immediately, a 1/2 inch layer of champagne-like head formed on the top of the mead, and shinning a light into the mead revealed tons of tiny bubbles rising from the bottom. Within ten minnutes, the head had increased to a full inch, and my carboy looked lie a big glass of champagne. Airlock activity increased from none to multiple blips per second.
???
I moved into my new house 2 weeks ago, and racked this before I moved. At that time, there was a steady flow of small bubbles rising, and I believe the batch was undergoing MLF (though I did not test to be sure) The batch remained fairly quiet until the oak addition.
So what caused the sudden erruption? was there a reaction from the Oak? There is a very small, and thin ammount of lees on the bottom. The batch has been racked twice, and is newsprint clear.
Greenblood