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Mead Lovers Digest #0211
Mead Lover's Digest #211 Tue 21 September 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
First Mead Follow Up. (mpl)
My mead (I can't wait any more!) (Diane Palme x2617)
Grapefruit Mead Recipe Suggestion (Michael Tighe)
RE Grapefruit Mead ("Larry Lynch-Freshner")
Re: Grapefruit Mead (J. Abraham)
Re: Grapefruit Mead recipe needed (Brian Smithey)
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NOTE: There is now an MLD FTP archive on sierra.stanford.edu in pub/mead
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Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 8:37:55 EDT
From: mpl@cmprime.att.com
Subject: First Mead Follow Up.
As I mentioned in an earlier article, I started my first mead, based on
Papazian's "Bark Shack Ginger Mead" but with the addition of apricots, about
6 weeks ago. Anyway, since then I have racked it off the fruit pulp and
junk (after a week) and, bottled (I debated letting it age longer in the
carboy, but since there was considerable head room, I didn't want problems
with oxidation, so I figured I'd let it age in the bottle. I primed with
3/4 cup corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water (let it cool before
adding to the mead, or course), and filled and capped 50 12 oz. beer
bottles. The mead at this point smells and tastes rather alcoholic, but if
you can get past that, there is a wonderful bouquet of apricot and ginger.
It's pretty undrinkable right now, but we'll see how it is in six months.
I'm not worried - I'm drinking homebrew :^)
- --
Mike Lindner
attmail!mikel
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 08:13:30 -0500 (CDT)
From: dspalme@mke.ab.com (Diane Palme x2617)
Subject: My mead (I can't wait any more!)
Hi all!
Since traffic has been somewhat low of late, I thought I would post
here and try to glean some net.wisdom on the fate of my mead. Here's the
story:
Somewhere around the end of June/beginning of July (forget which), I
came into posession of 12# of clover honey and decided to make a mead. Well,
it has been bubbling away quietly in my closet and something happened last
night. As my boyfriend and I were putting an Oatmeal Stout to rest next to
the mead, I got the bright idea to give it a quick taste. Just to see how
it was doing, ya know? Well, we pulled about 1/4 cup out of the 5 gallon
carboy and *WOW*! This stuff is *GREAT*! Now, it is still bubbling at a
rate of ~1/30 seconds and I was wondering if I can put it in the bottle now
and have some nice sparkling mead ready for mid-winter. A friend is being
exceptionally nice and passing on 4 or 5 champagne bottles, but the rest
would have to go in some of my nice Grolsch bottles. What do you all think?
I would really like to do this soon so that I can have another carboy open
for beer brewing. With the cold weather coming to the mid-west, I will soon
be able to turn the back bedroom into a lagering room!
Anxiously awaiting replies (and trying not to drink all the mead now ...)
D.
- --
Diane Palme
Department Engineer, Central Inspection
Allen-Bradley Co.
(414) 382-2617
dspalme@mkelan5.remnet.ab.com
dspalme@mke.ab.com
" I have found that it is much easier to fake an
orgasm than to pretend to like basketball. "
Oh yeah, um, what I say is my opinion, um, what I think are my own ideas, uh,
Allen-Bradley has nothing to do with them, uh, yeah. That's about it.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 10:23:53 EDT
From: tighe@inmet.camb.inmet.com (Michael Tighe)
Subject: Grapefruit Mead Recipe Suggestion
I make a lemon-ginger mead that I've done a couple of times using
grapefruit (orange, too).
Make a basic mead with 3 lbs of honey per gallon. Use a clover honey
or a wildflower honey for this version of the recipe. Just before taking
the must off the boil, add a small amount of sliced ginger (about the size
of one's thumb for a 5-gallon batch) and then add the thinnest peel of
grapefruit skin (orange skin, lemon skin). Be careful not to get the
white pith of the skin, it leaves a bitter taste.
Let it cool naturally about 1/2 hour and then remove the ginger and
grapefruit peel. Put in a carboy to cool, then add yeast and let it
go for two-three weeks. Bottle, let sit for a week (to charge the bottles)
and then chill and serve. If you use a lot of grapefruit peel, it will
certainly be a hit. For the first try, don't use more than the peel of
one grapefruit for 5-gallons. It's a strong flavor.
Good Luck!
Michael F. Tighe
Intermetrics, Inc.
733 Concord Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
tighe@inmet.com
work: (617) 661-1840
------------------------------
Date: 20 Sep 1993 09:37:04 -0800
From: "Larry Lynch-Freshner" <Larry_Lynch-Freshner@taligent.com>
Subject: RE Grapefruit Mead
RE Grapefruit Mead
Another idea - Find Grapefruit blossem honey, and use it in a straight mead.
It should have a subtle, plesent flavor.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 13:31:11 MDT
From: jabraham@enci.ucalgary.ca (J. Abraham)
Subject: Re: Grapefruit Mead
Wow, somebody else posted the entry out of my brewlog before *I* had a
chance to. I'm flattered!!
An update on the recipe below: my parent's-in-law love the stuff -
every time I have them over for dinner they consume about 600 mL
between the two of them. I like it to, but I *might* be a bit biased.
We served it at a friend's wedding to mixed reviews - some loved it,
others found the spices overpowering (which is interesting, since most
of the other people couldn't even taste the spices). Comments ranged
from "champagne with a bunch of cinnamon" to "like nothing I've ever
tasted before". Nobody can taste the grapefruit flavour, but then
there's only a litre of the stuff. Partially pasteurizing the
grapefruit seemed to do a number on all the wild yeasts. I imagine you
could do the same with a campden tablet.
It's very dry - final SG about 0.996. And it keeps getting better, so
I'm trying not to drink too much. It keeps getting smoother (i.e. less
like listerine) but it always seems to have quite a "warming" feeling
to it.
> >Brew 4: Mead
> >
> >93 04 15
> > 7 cloves (cracked)
> > 2 sticks cinnamon (broken)
> > 12 lbs clover honey
> > 2 pckgs champagne yeast (saccharomyces beyanus)
> > 1 L Just Pikt(tm) frozen florida grapefruit juice (NOT from concentrate)
> > 2 tsp Diammonium phosphate (yeast nutrient)
> >
> >o Spices simmered for 20 min
> >
> >o honey and Nutrient added
> >
> >o much later, full boil for 15 minutes (partial boil for about 40 min),
> >some scum and spices skimmed off.
> >
> >o bunch of cups removed to brew vessel to make room for grapefruit
> >juice
> >
> >o grapefruit juice added, held @ about 90degC for 15 min to pasteurise
> >grapefruit juice
> >
> >o thrown into brew vessel, water added to 26L (about 5 gallons) and
> >75degF
> >
> >o SG 1.073
> >
> >o pitched yeast
> >
> >- -----
> >93 04 19 SG 1.054 man, this stuff is churning
> >- -----
> >93 04 27 Racked, SG 1.007, cloudy peachy colour, kind of like
> >honey&/or grapefruit. Lots of CO2. Champagne taste.
> >- -----
> >93 05 30 SG 0.996 clear, delicious smelling, a little strong
> >tasting, needs to smooth out a bit in the bottle.
> >
> >John E. Abraham, P.Eng. \ ryryryryry / Mathematical Modelling
> >jabraham@acs6.acs.ucalgary.ca \______________/ Computer Simulation
> >******* Current research: Transportation and Land Use Interaction *******
> >trombone/piano/harmonica blues/jazz/rock player <> backpacker <> traveller
>
oops- I guess I should add in here, bottled with 1/2 cup of clover
honey in (mostly) 300mL Mister Softdrink Bottles.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 17:55:39 +0700
From: Brian.Smithey@Central.Sun.COM (Brian Smithey)
Subject: Re: Grapefruit Mead recipe needed
>>>>> scojam@scojam.Auto-trol.COM (Scott James.) writes:
Scott> I just found out my girlfriend loves grapefruit, she also likes
Scott> my homebrews (beer/mead). I'd like to hear from anyone who has
Scott> experience with using grapefruit in thier meads.
Duncan's & Acton's "Making Mead" book has a recipe for grapefruit
mead. I remember this because I thought it sounded pretty strange
when I came across the recipe. I'll try to remember to look it
up this evening and post the ingredients in the next day or so.
Brian
- --
Brian Smithey / Sun Microsystems / Colorado Springs, CO
smithey@rmtc.Central.Sun.COM
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End of Mead Lover's Digest
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