Bentonite Haze in Mead

Question

I have been doing mead for a few years on-and-off now, and have a few 25L batches that finished a 3 week primary and 3 week secondary ferment. There is still a tiny bit of bubbling inside, and I was going to rack it off the bentonite to a tertiary carboy to let any residual bentonite settle to the bottom again before bottling.

In the past, when I add bentonite to the must, it only takes about an hour for a thick, cloudy 1.5" layer to form at the bottom, and the rest of the must above it to become completely clear. When I raised these carboys up, they were agitated a bit, and the bentonite made the entire clear carboy cloud up. So, I left it overnight to re-settle, but it hasn't settled all, and is still cloudy. It was clear before it was hauled up to a higher height with our ratchet lifter, but the darn stuff seems intent on staying in solution.

Is there any way to force the bentonite to re-settle at the bottom of the carboy again? It's being kept at about 68 °F right now, and isn't being physically agitated.

Answer 1

Don't start running finings through your mead to clear up finings. Patience is key here and fining and clarifying strategies tend to strip flavor. Try checking the pH.

Both temperature and wine pH affect the fining process. The precipitation of the large, combined particles will be hastened at low temperatures and slowed at warmer temperatures. Thus, if at all possible, wine should be fined in the winter or at least chilled or cooled prior to fining. Secondly, as the pH of a wine increases, the strength of the relative charge of suspended particles decreases. For example, at a high pH, organic protein fining agents may not have enough of a positive charge to sufficiently bind with the negatively charged particulates. Thus, they may actually increase the turbidity of the wine when it is chilled or warmed. This effect is often called "over fining" and naturally should be avoided. In the case of a high pH wine, Sparkolloid (with its pH-independent strong positive charge) should be used.

Answer 2

You could try adding some pectolase, mix it up and see if that fixes it.

If that doesn't would I would try adding some stronger finings such as the Youngs 2 part sachet. These have never failed me.

Failing all of that I suppose the last resort would be to use a wine filter.