Kiwi Mead = Sludge on Bottom?

[Mead Mangler]

Hey guys-

I have a gallon of strawberry mead which was finished with primary; racked to secondayr, and was almost finished there.

I deliberately racked again before fermentation was complete, and added more strawberries...

...and here'e the kicker: I added 3 kiwis (no skins; flesh cut in quarters and plopped into jug).

Within 1 day, there was a 3-4" deep layer of green sludge on the bottom of the gallon jug.

Will this go away? Is it normal with kiwi?

If not, should I rack the whole thing now (or just try to rack the non-sludge part)?

Or, should I just give the whole works a good shake?

Note: A slight bit of refermentation occurred, but barely.

 

[Stasis]

Why did you rack before ferment was complete? By racking and adding fruit multiple times rather than all at once you're racking more and you're racking less compact yeast i.e. you're probably wasting mead.
Why didn't you either add all strawberries at once or if not, halt ferment and add strawberries in secondary for more flavor?
I hope you realize you need a lot of strawberries for the taste to kick in.. which leads to: why add the kiwi? Are you sure strawberry and kiwi makes it better than straight kiwi and why just 3 kiwis?
Of course ferment restarted a bit. You added more sugars without 1st stabilizing the ferment through sulfites and sorbate. Of course just a little bit, you're maltreating the yeast by racking them off then giving the reduced colony more work to do on their own. Plus they had little sugars to eat from the fruit anyway.
Is the ferment still going? What is the gravity reading?
Yes, it's normal for fruit to become pulp and settle at the bottom. The yeast just eat the sugars and take nutrients and leave most of the rest of the fruit alone. This breaks down and becomes sludge. The sludge will never disappear so if it's bothering you or causing problems you have to rack off of it i.e. rack everything except the sludge. Shaking re-suspends any yeast and might help out clearing but if you want to rack now you wouldn't shake. I don't know what your plan or full recipe/method is, if you have one, so I can't really help. Do you plan on adding more stuff? How long has the sludge been at the bottom? How long ago did you start this mead? How does it taste? When did you last rack?

The plan would be something like: a strawberry melomel with a slight hint of kiwi finishing at medium sweetness. Fruit added post ferment in secondary to add a more raw fruit flavour (people call it 'jammy' but in my opinion it's just raw fruit.. like adding fruit juice to your finished wine. Not for me, but to all their own). Fruit racked or not racked at these specific times because of the plan to add more fruit or because the sediment was present for a long time and there was fear of adding off flavours.

Seems you have a lot to learn and I recommend reading the newbie guide, listening to the gotmead podcasts (personally I'm more than a reading person rather than listening because I don't take down accurate notes while listening) , and use the search on these forums as much as you can. We have too little detail and you have much you still need to learn for us to be of much help without writing a thousand word essay. The simplest and safest way to do this is to rack and age the mead, racking every few months or when the lees are thick. Could very well not be the best thing to do though

 

[Stasis]

Wait a second...
I see you have 2 other threads started not too long ago (one was by mistake, so let's say 1 thread) in which you were given a lot of advice. Looking back it seems a lot of that advice could simply be copied and pasted in this thread. Is this the same batch or did you start a new batch and repeated some (many?) of the same mistakes from before? I rarely check on people to see what they posted in the past but after writing my reply I had a strong sense of deja-vu and it seems I was right. Just be careful. Read up. Don't make us repeat the same advice over and over. If you're not sure about something clarify that before starting a new batch, botching it up and asking for advice to salvage it when it's possibly a bit too late. It's also easier for us to give advice before you start a batch rather than trying to troubleshoot a batch and reply to every possible thing that could have gone wrong

 

[Mead Mangler]

Wait a second...
I see you have 2 other threads started not too long ago (one was by mistake, so let's say 1 thread) in which you were given a lot of advice. Looking back it seems a lot of that advice could simply be copied and pasted in this thread. Is this the same batch or did you start a new batch and repeated some (many?) of the same mistakes from before? I rarely check on people to see what they posted in the past but after writing my reply I had a strong sense of deja-vu and it seems I was right. Just be careful. Read up. Don't make us repeat the same advice over and over. If you're not sure about something clarify that before starting a new batch, botching it up and asking for advice to salvage it when it's possibly a bit too late. It's also easier for us to give advice before you start a batch rather than trying to troubleshoot a batch and reply to every possible thing that could have gone wrong

Sure: Show me where in that previous thread the issue of kiwi sludge was addressed.

 

[Stasis]

In the previous thread there were a couple of issues, including not fully understanding racking and stabilizing. There's actually potentially quite a bit more issues but that's ok, nobody started perfect. The kiwi sludge issue is a racking thing. It's actually a very basic concept linked to racking that when you add fruit there will be leftover stuff you must rack off of. I am concerned that you're not doing enough research and these types of issues will continue.