Orange - Update

Well, I started cold crashing to clear the mead. I have broken with the format to post two pictures.

The one on the left is of the mead at 23 seconds per bubble. Notice that the fruit is suspended and it is slightly cloudy.

The one of the right is after 3 hours in the fridge cold crashing. Notice the clarity compared to the one on the left and also that there is now fruit at the bottom.





At this pace it will be clear and ready in a week or so.

I am still doing the math on the carbonation. I may need to force carbonate with a keg in order to do it. The mead is going to finish sweet and the yeast have hit their alcohol tolerance. In order to naturally carbonate I would need to add extra yeast with a higher tolerance than 12% ABV and add some extra sugar, but I might end up with bottle bombs. If too much pressure gets created the bottles will blow up sending glass at deadly velocities around the room.

Using the keg relieves all of those worries. By force carbonating and then filling bottles from teh keg I guarantee that the extact pressure I want I will get, I won't need to do the math on the yeast and sugar add, and I won't have to worry about potential explosions.