Flowers of Wine

[Anthony]

I have some mead that has finished fermenting and is just starting to through off solids. This morning I noticed "Flowers of Wine" just starting to form, and I want to stop this now.

Any thoughts on ridding 2 1/2 gallons of mead of Flowers of Wine other then racking the mead out from under the growth and sulfiting?

Anthony

p.s. At this point they are tiny white specks floating on top of the mead. It's a Black Currant melomel, I suspect the bact. hitched in on the fruit.

[Ben Brewcat]

It depends on a lot of things. Some strains in some meads will leave dots (colonies). What strain did you use? If it's a pellicle-forming strain like flor sherry, then they might be normal (flors, it's supposed to do that). If it's a spoilage organism, you'll need to act quickly. Jack Keller's site (http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/problems.asp) (a good online resource; this link is the problems page) has some troubleshooting tips. Racking and sulfiting are the only ways I'm familiar with to treat. For future batches, either sulfite the must (it's not the evil plot some would have you think it is) or consider freezing the washed fruit and adding it to the secondary. Not only will the decreased pH and increasing alcohol content provide some protection from contamination, but you'll lose fewer aromatics that get scrubbed out by CO2. Maybe you did that anyway and still got pellicles/flor/contamination, sometimes that's the breaks.

Some Flowers of Wine form (obviously assuming the contamination that allows it) because of oxygen presence like an acetobacter colony does; if this batch was under cheesecloth instead of an airlock, you might consider making the investment. They're 99 cents, and will protect mead from O2, fruit flies (which can sometimes get through cheesecloth... vinegar is the result you HOPE for in that case), and allow you to monitor fermentation activity. Though the crock method has a lot of old-timey aesthetic appeal, my $.02 is for modern methods. You'll hear a lot of arguments on that opinion and on sulfites, and that's cool! Thank goodness for variety of opinions, these just happens to be mine. Hope your mead turns out a BOS! Never know.

<edit> BOS-"Best Of Show", before someone thinks I'm either mean or concealing profanity!

[Anthony]

I used 71B-1122, I did not freeze the currants before adding them to the must, in the future I will add fruit to the secondary in a grain bag, and I will freeze it before use.

I did add them to the primary and the must was under cloth for the first three days, after racking to secondary an airlock was fitted to the carboy. The fermentation of this mead is nearing the end, there is still a small amount activity in the airlock.

Thank You, for the link and advice,

Anthony

[Ben Brewcat]

The 71-B Narbonne shouldn't throw a pellicle, so you probably do have a bug. That's a yummy strain for a dark fruit like that... tasty choice!

[ScottS]

Are you sure it is a bug? I frequently get bubble formations on the top of long-aging mead that look like they could be colonies of some sort. My rule of thumb is - if it smells all right, leave it alone. This rule has never failed me.

[Anthony]

Hey Scott,

I wasn't sure,but it didn't look like the bubbles I'[ve seen before. This was white and fluffy, though there was no off odor. I racked the mead out from under the fluff into a sanitized carboy, but have not done any thing other then check the SG & PA daily since. There's been no change in flavor, aroma, SG, PA or ABV (15%).

So it may have been nothing more then froth.

Anthony

[BWrangler]

Hi Guys,

I didn't know what flowers of wine were until this topic was posted.

My first batch of mead was coming along great. I used campden tables in the must before primary fermentation with an airlock in place at all times. Primary fermentation was vigorous. The mead tasted great at first racking after the primary fermentation slowed. It was the best mead I had tasted so far.

Then the weather got very hot here. We've had weeks of 100 to 100+ temps so I moved the batch to the basement. Before that, I kept it in a bedroom closet where temps stayed right at 63 to 65 degrees. Even in the basement, temps rose to the high 70's.

Something happened at that point. The fruity yeast smell emerging from the airlock changed to a none smell and the bubbling rates greatly decreased. I figured that was normal. I noticed a thin, patchy mold/colony like film on the surface of the mead.

What to do? I drew a sample and checked the SG. There were no off aromas but the mead now tastes just like rubbing alcohol smells, extremely medicinal.

I sulfited this batch today and all fermentation activity has stopped. Beginner driver hitting the brakes :>)))

I hadn't anticipated extended temps above 100 degrees. And will start my next batch at a different time of the year to avoid them.

Regards
Dennis
Thinking I like vinegar too!

[Ben Brewcat]

Anthony, I notice that you've usually mentioned measuring specific gravity, potential alcohol, and fermentable sugars. If I'm assuming correctly (dangerous), they're all the same reading off your hydrometer, like referring to Fahrenheit, Centigrade and Kelvin for today's temperature. If that's the case, you could save some pencil lead just recording the SG, or whichever of the scales appeals to you. Just a thought from a lazy man.

That said, there are some infections out there that could be eating something that wouldn't necessarily change the gravity or offgass. I'm with ScottS; let your nose be your guide (though hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) is normal for some strains). My recommendation for you and BWrangler is to let it age... young meads can be like young kids. Pleasant at first but you fuss a lot over them, then frustrating when something changes seemingly for the worse, then you just hang in there for a while, then you get busy and figure well it'll do its thing whether I interfere or not, and then just when you've given up you notice how wonderful it became when you weren't looking.

There, the Zen of meadmaking.

[Anthony]

Thanks Ben,

I see your point about SG, PA, & Brix.

There are no off flavors or odors from the Mel in question, but I've desided to filter it to 0.5 microns before I let it age, just for the piece of mind in knowing nothing as big as a yeast cell made it through the filter.

If it sours, it will make for a lovely (3 gal.) batch of Black Currant vinegar, just in time for the holidays.

Anthony