Mead Clarification

I brewed up a batch of Mead about 8 months ago, its was a straight mead with just honey and water, I didn't boil the mead and since it was my first attempt I kept poor records. The only thing I have written down goes something like this:

15 pounds clover honey
fill carboy with tap water
add yeast nutrient
add yeast

I know the age is around 8 months and I know it has fermented out because i took a refracotmeter reading(not really accurate at the end of fermentation). But tasting it it was dried out and pretty good. It tastes like it needs some more time to age out but I will do that in the bottle.

The point of this post is that the mead never cleared out. Never. Its been in a 33 degree fridge in the basement for over a month and is as cloudy as it was three months ago. So tonight I started the clearing process with a chitin based clarifier called Super-Kleer KC. Its a chitin( a shellfish derivative)  based clarifier that binds to the gunk(technical term) in the solution and drops it into the bottom of the fermenter. The instructions claim 24 to 48 hours will give you crystal clear results so we will see. The picture below is of the mead when I added the first part of the combination.

I think I will be bottling this in wine bottles and corking them, I was tempted to keg it and have it on tap but I don't think it has aged out enough and I need the fermenter for cider. I want to be able to check the bottles every few months or so until I know I have great simple mead.

Update: around 14 hours or so later the mead is really starting to clear, I will grab some photos tonight around the 24 hour mark and see where it has gotten to. Very impressed with the clearing agent so far.

Ian's Vanilla Cinnamon Mead

So I whipped up a quick mead last night. 5 gallons of great smelling booze that should end up between 10 and 12 % alcohol. It will be a doombringer that tastes like liquid satin.

Recipe for Ian's Vanilla Cinnamon Mead
12 pounds local honey
4 whole vanilla beans
4 all spice berries
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Water to 5 gallons

Yeast: White Labs sweet Mead Yeast WLP720

I dissolved the honey in 130 degree water and added the stick and ground cinnamon and allspice. I allowed it to steep for 20 minutes before racking into a carboy leaving the cinnamon stick and allspice berries behind.

Racked into carboy and added 4 vanilla beans and filled to 5 gallon mark with cool water.

Pitched starter of WLP720 and yeast nutrient and yeast energizer according to the directions on the bottle.

It should ferment out within a few months and in 6 months should be ready for drinking. maybe even before that. Mead usually takes a little while to clear out and for all the flavors to meld appropriately.

The carboy is shaped oddly because after a really long brew day- I think it was 1 AM, I didn't chill my wort and just poured into a carboy(rookie mistake), it mushroomed like this but it still works - just holds 5 gallons instead of 6.