Thanks. I will.
I'm pretty sure I will be doing the Kmeta/Sorbate/Sparkolloid addition (2nd racking) tomorrow, but I do have a bit of a dilemma though. I've been researching off and on for the last few days and have been finding that the instructions for the Sparkolloid addition stated by the Scott Laboratories' site, my package (re-package it looks like) of Sparkolloid from Brewcraft and the Mead forums' 'Sticky: Mead Making FAQs' are all a little different. They can't seem to agree and since I've never used it before I'm not exactly in the position to be able to tell which one I should follow.
I will admit that I haven't done the math for the Scott Laboratories's instructions yet. Theirs is listed for 1000 gallon batches. Listing 1 - 4 pounds of Sparkolloid per 1000 gallons of wine using 1-2 two gallons of water per pound to dissolve. I wish I knew what the variables were that give them such a large range of options. I mean do they use 1 pound for red wine and 4 pounds for white? I'm assuming they use the second gallon of water when they use the 3 or 4 pounds. Anyway, like I said, haven't done the math on that one yet.
My package instructions say to use 1 teaspoon per gallon of wine to 2 cups of water. I'm assuming it's only the teaspoons scaling so for a 5 gallon batch of Margarita wine it would be 5 teaspoons in 2 cups of water. The rest of the instructions, regarding the 5-10 minute boil and adding warm I understand.
The Mead forum sticky lists it by weight. 1/4 to 1 gram of dry Sparkolloid powder per gallon of wine. I haven't opened my package and weighed 1 teaspoon yet to see if it falls into that weight range. The newbie here is a little paranoid about contamination. I have also read a few threads where people say to use 1 tablespoon. I'm guessing that may be because of the lovely 1/4 to 1 gram option in the sticky. I still want to know what should influence you to use 1/4 gram over 1 gram or vice versa. Anyway.
The gigantic noticeable difference between my package instructions and the sticky however is in regards to the amount of water used to dissolve it in. Like I already stated, my package say 2 cups of boiling water. The sticky in the mead forum states 100 ml. 100 ml is 3.3814 oz or just over .42 cups. Or if you look at it the other way, my package says to use just over 473 ml of water and the sticky says to use 100 ml of water. Big difference.
To those of you who have done this before what do I use? My package instructions for 1 tsp per gallon in 2 cups (473 ml) of water or the stickies instruction of 1/4 g - 1 g per gallon in . 42 cups (100 ml) of water?
Or do I use something else? My brain hurts. Help.
Thanks in advance. I'll be rocking in a corner.