I was experimenting with my first batch and split it during later fermentation. 3 gallons went into bottles and 2 gallons went into gallon jugs. Since it was cloudy, I tried different things on the two gallon batches to try to clarify. I tried restarting fermentation in one, and grape tannin in the other. Neither seemed to have much effect. After I had been messing around with them for two months, someone suggested bentonite. Which, cracks me up by the way. A large portion of my family is geologist, civil engineers and geotechs. They buy bentonite by the ton and use it to stabilize drill holes and excavation. Obviously not food-grade. 
Anyway, my two gallon jugs were getting full of marbles from rackings and stuff and I was getting tired of messing with them so I merged them and added some bentonite. I tasted them when I merged and they both had some nasty bitter tastes at the end. One day later they were amazingly clear. I waited two more days and bottled. When I bottled I tasted again expecting to find similar tastes. However, they tasted very nice. A little weak, maybe mild is a better term, but none of the nasty tastes. I'm assuming that the cloudiness was pollen and protein that the bentonite pulled out. So losing those tastes was great. However, I expected the flavor to be stronger. It should be around 10% ABV, so I don't expect to really taste the alcohol that much.
So my questions are:
How much taste should I expect from a 3lb wildflower honey per gallon mead?
Should it be very strong?
It tastes like a nice honey-flavored mild white wine. It would be great with any meal. But, could the bentonite have pulled out higher alcohols or other sugars 'weakening' the flavor?
Thanks for any info!
-Andrew
Anyway, my two gallon jugs were getting full of marbles from rackings and stuff and I was getting tired of messing with them so I merged them and added some bentonite. I tasted them when I merged and they both had some nasty bitter tastes at the end. One day later they were amazingly clear. I waited two more days and bottled. When I bottled I tasted again expecting to find similar tastes. However, they tasted very nice. A little weak, maybe mild is a better term, but none of the nasty tastes. I'm assuming that the cloudiness was pollen and protein that the bentonite pulled out. So losing those tastes was great. However, I expected the flavor to be stronger. It should be around 10% ABV, so I don't expect to really taste the alcohol that much.So my questions are:
How much taste should I expect from a 3lb wildflower honey per gallon mead?
Should it be very strong?
It tastes like a nice honey-flavored mild white wine. It would be great with any meal. But, could the bentonite have pulled out higher alcohols or other sugars 'weakening' the flavor?
Thanks for any info!
-Andrew
