Pollen, To filter it? or, Is there another way to deal with it?

[Noe Palacios]

Hello again from Chinandega, Nicaragua. :wave:

Let me explain something about mead making here in Nicaragua. Because of our hot weather I ferment in a big vertical refrigerator and I am not able to age mead in nothing but in bottles, but first I use to filter in two stages, fine and sterile, if I don´t do this the result is hell knows is everything else but I am sure is not mead. So I have to remove as much as possible yeast from my mead in order to have a good ending.

For fine filtration I use a Buon Vino Super Jet Filter pads # 2, and for sterile I use Enolmatic filter with a 0.5 micron element. I always have been pleased with this procedure and its results. :cheers:

But the last weekend I had a terrible experience, I had to stop the filtration flow of my Buon Vino filter every 2 seconds because the pressure raise well above the recommended, so it took me about 2 hours to filter what usually takes 10 minutes. When I finished I look to the pads and the filtrate had a very yellow color, so I assume that the concentration of pollen was to high. I asked to myself why I never had this problem before, well may be because it is my first time I make mead with “raw honey” which means “with everything in”.

I have another batch of mead made with that honey, I should filter it by February 29 but I don´t want to have that bad time again. Is there any how I can clarify my mead from pollen before filtration? Will make it sense to use a coarse pads before fine pads? Or, Maybe I am not dealing with pollen? ???

Any advise will be received gratefully.

Noe

 

[Medsen Fey]

Hello Noe,

Was there anything else added to your batch (such as fruit) that might be adding to the clogged filter?

Generally if you get a clogged filter, it is a good idea to do the filtering in 2 stages - first a coarse filter, then the fine filter. This may solve the problem.

Allowing more time for the mead to settle and clear on its own may also reduce the problem if you can leave the mead sitting in the refrigerator. If you do not have that much time, using fining agents prior to filtering is another option. A good discussion on fining can be found here. If this material that is clogging the filter is pollen (mostly proteins) a negatively charged agent such as bentonite might allow much of it to settle out prior to your filtration.

Good luck with it.

Medsen