Sorbate and Sulfite

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StevenGoodson

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 27, 2010
31
0
0
Columbia, Mo
I'm getting ready to bottle my first mead and have a question. I will be sorbating and sulfiting the mead before bottling.

Right now the mead is crystal clear, will adding the sorbate and sulfite effect this or cause it to become cloudy again?
 
I haven't used these methods so I can't speak from experience, but my off the cuff post from the hip reply is, probably not, at least not from any effects from adding sulfite and sorbate. Somebody else may weigh in with better info.

Have you bulk aged the mead for a while? Even a crystal clear mead can continue to drop material out of suspension over time and could have a potential for clouding up if it's not fully stable.

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Neither potassium sorbate nor metabisulphite should affect the clarity of your mead at all. But as McFeeley noted, unless it has been clearing for a substantial amount of time, there may be more still waiting to drop out of suspension, even in a mead that at first glance appears crystal clear.
 
Thanks for the quick response and information.

The mead had mostly cleared on it's own; however, I hit it with sparkaloid and everything dropped in about 2 hours. I don't think it's going to get any clearer, or at least it hasn't in the past three weeks.

The FG hasn't changed in the past month or so, but I still want to hit it with some pot sorb to be sure.
 
I usually rack it over the sulphites and then add the sorbate when I use chemicals, I definitely would rack it off whatever's settled out first...