Two questions

I've made a few traditional/show meads, but I've recently stepped up the creativity and need some advice. My most recent batch is a Blood Orange Blueberry mead using Starthistle honey, somewhere in the 13-14% abv range. In the past I've bottled using crown caps, but I wanted to start corking.

1. Does hot-mix Sparkolloid clear fruit mead as well as it does traditional meads? This batch has already hit terminal or near terminal (FG<1.000) gravity and been transferred off the fruit.

2. When purchasing wine bottles that accept both #8 and #9 corks, aside from getting a better seal with the #9 are there any downsides other than more work to cork them?

bonus question: I'm thinking of purchasing an Italian Floor Corker, can anyone provide a reason why I shouldn't other than price?

I have a floor corker and its amazing, super easy to use, takes me less than 30 seconds to cork a bottle.

I would think having a correctly sized cork would make a great deal of difference to the long term shelf life of the product.

Bluespark said:

I have a floor corker and its amazing, super easy to use, takes me less than 30 seconds to cork a bottle.

I would think having a correctly sized cork would make a great deal of difference to the long term shelf life of the product.

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Thanks! About the cork, that is the heart of my question. The bottles I looked at said "accepts #8 and #9 corks" and I thought there is a quarter of an inch difference in the diameter of them. Would you recommend the larger diameter cork?

moviebrain said:

Thanks! About the cork, that is the heart of my question. The bottles I looked at said "accepts #8 and #9 corks" and I thought there is a quarter of an inch difference in the diameter of them. Would you recommend the larger diameter cork?

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Yes. The #8 corks are only used by people with hand corkers who can't compress #9 corks easily. If you have a good corker, always go with #9 corks. (for the tiny 375ml bottles, I tend to use #8 corks but I have got #9s in there with the floor corker!).

Sparkelloid works great, assuming you don't have a pectin haze. Even for a pectin haze, it works ok but not as well as pectic enzyme first.

Yooper said:

Yes. The #8 corks are only used by people with hand corkers who can't compress #9 corks easily. If you have a good corker, always go with #9 corks. (for the tiny 375ml bottles, I tend to use #8 corks but I have got #9s in there with the floor corker!).

Sparkelloid works great, assuming you don't have a pectin haze. Even for a pectin haze, it works ok but not as well as pectic enzyme first.

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Thanks Yooper! I hit my must with pectic enzyme pre-fermentation when I dosed it with K-meta. It has already cleared significantly, but it has suck an amazing purple-red hue that I want it fully clarified. I figure I will hit it with sparkelloid when I transfer again in a month or two for bulk aging.