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Mead Lovers Digest #0198
Mead Lover's Digest #198 Fri 20 August 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Oxidation is EVERYTHING in a mead ("Bob Jones")
Chill Out! ("Larry Lynch-Freshner")
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Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1993 07:44:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Bob Jones" <bjones@novax.llnl.gov>
Subject: Oxidation is EVERYTHING in a mead
Mead is much, much, much more sensitive to oxidation than beer. An oxidized
mead has those sherry notes, that some people mistake for proper mead
flavors and characteristics. Those sherry notes and those weird smells from fro
m
poor yeast nutrient (those with ammonia in it) will kill a mead. Get good
nutrients, be VERY carefull about oxidizing that mead and you can make a
mead thats very good. I am not a big mead maker, but have hung around with
some excellent mead makers and enjoyed their product. I was one of those
people who really didn't care for mead very much until I had one that was
made properly! What a difference.
Bob Jones
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Date: 19 Aug 1993 09:55:44 -0800
From: "Larry Lynch-Freshner" <Larry_Lynch-Freshner@taligent.com>
Subject: Chill Out!
Chill Out!
Reguarding my last post on chilling & oxidation:
It was very politly pointed out to me via EMail that I had made a mistake in
confusing Oxidation (a reducing reaction, like rusting) and Oxigenation (the
introduction of oxigen into the wort/must). While, under certain conditions
the later can produce the former, they are indeed very different, and I thank
the writer for reminding me of this.
Getting this EMail prompted me to hit my books again, to understand oxidation
and the effect of quickly chilling the wort or must. Most of the following is
pulled from Principles of Brewing Science, by George Fix, sections IID & IIF.
There are several ways beer can be oxidized. The ones that relate to hot wort
involve compounds called Melanoidins, and Polyphenols (I'm ignoring the Hop &
Fatty acid methods, as they seem to be caused more by treatment of the Hop
before the boil). I'm not going to go into the detail that Dr. Fix does in
his book, but basicly, if these compounds are exposed to oxygen while hot,
they go through a reduction reaction that will cause oxidized beer. If
Melanoidins are exposed while the wort is cool, they will actually help
prevent oxidation. The key here is that you want to aerate the wort AFTER it
has cooled. I failed to find any information that the rapid cooling caused by
a chiller has any effect at all on these reactions, except that it does cause
a good cold break (which contains Melanoidins), but this only help if the cold
break is filtered out. The rapid chilling will also reduce the time that hot
wort is exposed to oxygen at its surface, but this _seems_ to be minor
compared to agitating the wort while hot.
So I will stand by a modified version of my original comment. The PRIMARY
reasons to use a chiller are to reduce exposure to contaminents and to cause
the cold-break to seperate out (Which, even if not filtered will improve
stability & flavor). The PRIMARY way to avoid oxididation is to avoid
aeration before the wort is cooled.
How does all this relate to mead? not much, actually. Melanoidins are
produced by carbohydrates, of which there are few in mead. The primary source
I can think of of polyphenols would be the addition of Tannin (?), which is
still very minor in mead. This leads me to beleive that, unless old hops are
added, mead will not have a problem with oxidation caused by cooking the wort.
Sorry Rick - but chilling _does_not_ have everthing to do with oxidation.
AERATING WORT HOT has everything to do with oxidation. Aerate hot wort, and
the fasted chilling will not help it. Furthermore, as mentioned above, mead
must has even less of a problem.
If anybody has any conflicting information, please let me know, especially
your refrences. I am interested in this as a topic.
Larry
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End of Mead Lover's Digest
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