Cold Crashing Orange Blossom Mead

03/27/2018

I've been looking over the different carboy's sitting in the room slowly becoming mead and have become a bit frustrated by the Orange Blossom Mead. First, it hasn't developed the way that I've been hoping it would instead becoming dryer than I was expecting with a lower alcohol content as well. Now, it’s sitting here refusing to clear up and the airlock is almost daily having issues needing me to reset it. The solution, I believe, is to quickly finish it up before it starts to spoil and mold or even worse. One solution is a process called Cold Crash.

I looked around inside the refrigerator and realized that there was no room for the carboy to sit in there without hitting the top. I instead opted for a cooler using one of the ones provided in the mail when I get my prescriptions filled. This, too, would be too small but I know that I will be able to easily modify it to fit in the carboy inside of it. I first set the carboy inside packed with some of the icepackes next to it to cool down the bulk of the contents. I then cut a hold in the lid bit enough for the remaining carboy to be able to pop out of the top without knocking off the airlock. Finally, I needed to use my sweatshirt to cover the exposed carboy and help insulate it from the room temperate keeping it cold inside.

I will be watch this process over the next few days and if I am not satisfied with the results, I may need to result to more desperate actions. One option that is available for me is to use Bentionite to help clarify the mead as I’ve seen others do on YouTube. I’m a bit resistant to this as I would like to make the mead without chemical interventions. However, I also feel it would be good to have mead that is drinkable instead of tossing the entire batch due to my ego. I’ll keep posting on the results of the little experiment.