I've ben working on a troublesome Apricot mead for quite some time for a friend of mine. It fermented slowly (somewhat by design), was bitter, wouldn't clear... It's been a very tricky batch.
The clarifying has been my recent bane. I've re-racked it two or three times to get it to clear, heck, even just trying to get all the apricot chunks out. This past Sunday I decided to re-rack it again. To say this mead was not pretty, would be an understatement. Ugly would be a good description. It was a yellowish, milky color and it still had chunks of apricot in it. Overall it looked like something that had curdled and gone bad.
I siphoned the mead off, using a fine net as a filter (which I had done before with this same batch) into a clean, sanitized five gallon carboy. Then I added a clarifier, Kwik Kleer I believe, and tucked it away again. I always take the opportunity to taste a batch when I re-rack or do just about anything to it, but not this time. This wasn't a mead I wanted to look at, much less taste.
Little more than a day later, the transformation has been dramatic. Where before it was a milky brownish yellow. Now almost all the sediment has settled and it's been revealed as an absolutely beautiful warm chestnut color that's begging to be sampled. When I went to check on it, I wondered where I had put it because the change was so complete. I didn't believe that was really the apricot batch I had looked down on in disgust the day before.
It hasn't completely cleared yet, I'll give it a bit more time to finish, but the next time my friend is over we'll certainly be giving it a try.
