Why would pectinase clear a mead?

[Mr. No-Tip]

So I racked 10l of 6 week fermented mead into two 5l demijons earlier this week.

One demi had about a cup of candied rose hips in it...because why not? Being a fruit, I thought pectinase would be in order. I forgot about it until the point of racking so estimated the amount - pretty sure on the underside. Maybe 1/4teaspoon in the 5l.

Two days later, the mead with the pectinase and rose hips is crystal clear:

View attachment 62245

I thought the haze in mead was yeast. I didn't think pectinsase would drop yeast.

Any idea what's going on here?

 

[Airgead]

It won't.

But it will break down pectins which are protiens. So if you have a protien haze in mead (which can happen especially if its unfiltered honey with lots of bee bits in it) pectinaise may help. The rose hips will also have some pectins in them. The broken down pectins would clump and drop possibly taking other haze with them.

Never thought of that before. I have a couple of meads that steadfastly refuse to clear. Didn't consider protien haze. I'll try a bit of pectinaise and see what happens.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

How did the pectinase go?

After another week or so the fruit has moved around a bit, maybe due to some more fermentation - but still crystal clear. Looks a bit like a fomaldehyde project.

 

[Airgead]

Didn't solve my problem. My mead is still stubbornly cloudy. I'm guessing in your case its the fruit plus the pectinaise that has caused the sediment to clump and fall out.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Adr_0]

It won't.

But it will break down pectins which are protiens. So if you have a protien haze in mead (which can happen especially if its unfiltered honey with lots of bee bits in it) pectinaise may help. The rose hips will also have some pectins in them. The broken down pectins would clump and drop possibly taking other haze with them.

Never thought of that before. I have a couple of meads that steadfastly refuse to clear. Didn't consider protien haze. I'll try a bit of pectinaise and see what happens.

Cheers
Dave

I thought that too, but they are carbohydrates. Makes zero difference though, they still cause haze. Pectinase is an enzyme (which is a protein) which eats up the pectin.

I have just bottled a cider which I had 'cleared' with Turbo Clear (used for distilling...) and I re-pitched yeast when bottling. The yeast has absolutely dropped out and it has helped somewhat, but there is a definite haze in the cider. I now have some pectinase in the mail to throw in at the start of fermentation. Hopefully both of these will clear the cider, and some aeration when transferring to secondary and bottling buckets will knock some of the sulphur down sooner.

 

[Airgead]

Aeration when transferring to bottling buckets will cause oxidisation and potential acetobacter infections... best avoided.

If you are getting sulphur, some nutrient in the ferment will likely fix. Too late for this batch though. Just letting it age will help any sulphur to dissapate.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Adr_0]

Aeration when transferring to bottling buckets will cause oxidisation and potential acetobacter infections... best avoided.

If you are getting sulphur, some nutrient in the ferment will likely fix. Too late for this batch though. Just letting it age will help any sulphur to dissapate.

Cheers
Dave

Yeah I think I'm spreading myself a bit thin with work. Aeration shouldn't introducing oxygen, so agitation or CO2 bubbling will probably do the job... if you have the equip. As will nutrients, I guess.

So, what I probably should do next time is give the yeasties some delicious nutrition; otherwise maybe a bit of shaking while the fermenter is full of CO2, to at least stir it up without exposing it to O2 moleculeseses.

 

[Greg.L]

The product you buy as pectinase is actually a cocktail of chemicals designed to work together. Different brands might have different composition, some may work in specific situations better than others.

 

[Airgead]

Yeah... good point. Pectinaise ain't pectinaise.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Adr_0]

If you are getting sulphur, some nutrient in the ferment will likely fix. Too late for this batch though. Just letting it age will help any sulphur to dissapate.

Cheers
Dave

On this, my first cider was fermented at 20°C (Wyeast 4766), which had a lot of sulphur on the nose and taste as well. This latest has been fermenting at 16°C and not a hint of sulphur. Recipe had about 0.5kg honey (24.5L batch) and gravity of 1.043, and still no nutrients - BUT the yeast was on its second generation. I would say the cooler temps have probably helped quite a lot.

 

[boonchu]

I have found with our meads that as soon as we rack them that the sediment will drop within 2 days and then nothing more will drop till we rack them again. We generally onpy need to rack them twice for them to be crystal clear. You could try gelatine as well.