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Smaller equals clear??

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W

Welshie

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 13, 2013
50
0
0
Sidney, Ohio
Hello, me again! Just had a question about why something would be happening. Back in Jan., I made a 6 gal. batch according to Ken Schramms semi-sweet recipe from his book. I soon realized that I wouldn't want that much "plain" mead. With a few metheglin recipes in mind, I saved 3 gallons of semi-sweet in a better bottle and divided the remaining into 3 one gal. glass carboys. I spiced the 3 carboys as per recipe, airlocked them, and put them away in a dark spot. Please bear in mind that this mead was very cloudy and will not settle out. I know the ferment is done and the batch is young. It has even sat on Bentonite and, a month later, I tried Quick Kleer. Both of these produced no change. I just figured it would take some patience and time, so I sat back and waited. Now, back to the question. The three one gallon carboys cleared out in one day and dropped it all to the bottom. Perfectly beautiful crystal clear mead. I thought it might have been the spices and additives, but during this process, I had one bottle of untouched, undoctored mead left over and no place to put it. So, I bottled the cloudy stuff and put it away. I looked at this bottle and it too had dropped everything to the bottom and is crystal clear. Why is it that the smaller batches of one gallons and even 750ml in a bottle clear out so quickly, but the 6 gallon and now the 3 gallon remain cloudy with haze? I found this to be odd and for the life of me I cannot come up with an answer. Any insight?
 
I'm fairly sure the size of the batch does not effect clarity. Did you draw the 3 individual gallons form the beginning of the rack? Leaving any yeast that got accidentally moved to the less clear 3 gallon?

Temperature can effect clarity. Things will settle out faster in cold environments. It takes longer for 3 Gallons to cool down at night (assuming that nights are colder where you are) than it would for a 1 gal or 750ml. Those are my two guesses.
 
As I typed this out, It occurred to me that temperature might be the culprit. Six or even three gallons would hold heat a lot better than one gallon or a bottle. The cold crash would happen a lot quicker in the smaller batches. Sounds like you hit it on the head. You're my boy, Marshmellow Blue!!
 
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