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Racking gone wrong

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Stormbringer

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 12, 2009
18
0
0
New York
Hi. I haven't made mead in a while and decided to make a raspberry mead.(Melomel)

Everything is turning out great.
Until today when I decided to rack the mead off the raspberries.

The cheese cloth on the end of the racking cane just clogged up and the mead wouldn't flow. I had to pour it through a sieve. I was wondering how bad was this to do. It got aerated a bit and I am hoping it will not speed up oxidation before it is ready to drink.

What are the chances that it will come out all right?
 
I haven't got too much experience, but it should be fine, especially if you plan on drinking it relatively soon.
 
I did the exact same thing with my orange cranberry mel, only I did it twice. g I am a newbie also. First I tried to run it though a racing cane and with no luck, Then I dumped it though a paint strainer, and it got most of the of the fruit out. I plan to rack it again in the next few days and I am hoping for the best. I will let it age out for another 5 months and see how it tastes again (It was started on or about the middle of November). I also used the EC strain of yeast so at first i
 
I did the exact same thing with my orange cranberry mel, only I did it twice. g I am a newbie also. First I tried to run it though a racing cane and with no luck, Then I dumped it though a paint strainer, and it got most of the of the fruit out. I plan to rack it again in the next few days and I am hoping for the best. I will let it age out for another month and store a few bottles away to see if it improves with ad st and see how it tastes again (It was started on or about the middle of November). I also used the EC strain of yeast so at first it was a bit dry.

I think it should be ok if you drink it relatively soon.

Someone told me here to use a large nylon bag in the future and that appears to work a lot better.

I think others here on this board should be able to give you better advice on the subject so I am writing simply on my experience on what has happened.
 
How long had it been sitting on the fruit? If it's still degassing or wasn't quite done fermenting and is still making bubbles now that you've got it in the carboy, you're fine.

And yeah, in the future, I highly recommend fermenting in a bucket and bagging the fruit, saves a lot on racking losses due to fruit volume.

My other way of dealing with it is with my JAO variants, I just leave it for two months until all the fruit has sunk, although this is not a recommended method if you're not making a sweet mead with bread yeast.

The other possibility is run it through something that will catch MOST of the fruit but let the juice through easily and quickly (coarse sceen, colander etc), emphasis on the quickly to minimize oxygen exposure, and then letting it settle out for a few days before racking it off whatever's settled out.
 
I added the fruit for secondary fermentation. It was pretty much done fermenting and all activity was complete before this racking fiasco. I did notice the agitation started a tiny bit of bubbling near the head space. I guess I will just see how it comes out and try not to do this again.

The yeast I used for this batch was KV-1118. Overall I think it will be fine. I was just hoping it wouldn't create premature oxidation.

Thanks again for he comments.:)
 
Sounds to me like it's degassing then, so it should be OK, I think that if there's a lot of CO2 dissolved in the must, it won't be able to absorb a lot of oxygen anyway even if it's exposed to a fair amount.
 
In wine making, they say a little oxygen exposure (micro-oxygenation) actually helps improve the character of the wine. So, what happened there I wouldn't worry about, but just what might happen during the aging process. I would get some dry ice and put in there so the CO2 fills up my headspace.
 
Thanks for the responses.
I have been sampling the mead a little. I had a glass a maybe a month and a half ago and it was a little harsh but had a nice raspberry character.

Today I am trying it out and It has improved a bit. It has a lot more raspberry character and is not harsh at all. I will bottle it and forget about a bottle then drink the rest.

The initial issue didn't seem to harm the mead at this stage which I am happy about.

I still have a ways to go with mead making but am enjoying the journey.
:)
 
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