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Mead Lovers Digest #0138
Mead Lover's Digest #138 Tue 25 May 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
mead experiment ("Daniel F McConnell")
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Date: 24 May 1993 08:57:15 -0500
From: "Daniel F McConnell" <Daniel.F.McConnell@med.umich.edu>
Subject: mead experiment
Subject: Time:8:35 AM
OFFICE MEMO mead experiment Date:5/24/93
John Wylie asked (LONG TIME AGO) about our mead experiment. I never saw it
posted and yesterday saw an undeliverable message that could be mine....so
please forgive if this article is redundant.
12 Kegs to Colorado
by Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm
Sunday May 2nd was a huge day for mead. We made 65 gallons of
mead in a single, LONG afternoon.
As some of you know, we are presenting a talk on mead at the
1994 AHA National Conference (honey and fermentation components
as they apply to mead flavors-or something like that). In this talk
we plan to discuss the effects of yeast and honey variety on flavors
in finished mead. Not content to simply talk, we will be putting
words into action by serving examples of the same batch made with
different yeast and different honeys made with the same yeast.
Thus, the twelve kegs. All yeast was obtained through Yeast Lab,
and all were pure cultures from slants or normal production runs
in the case of M61 and M62. All honey was obtained locally or by
mail order and in each case we attempted to purchase the least
processed form. In many cases this was unfiltered and unprocessed
therefore we were handling crystallized bricks rather than liquids.
All meads except batch 13 were made to the same recipe: 2.5 lb/gal
honey, 0.4 t/gal malic acid, 0.4 t/gal tartaric acid, 0.4 t/gal yeast
nutrient and 0.2 t/gal yeast energizer. OG fell in the range of 1.092
to 1.094, pH 3.55-4.0, TA 0.2-.25. For the blended batch (13) we
added all the remaining honey leftovers and then diluted with water
to obtain an OG of 1.130. The procedure was the same for all batches:
we brought the proper amount of acid treated water to a boil, added
the honey and allowed it to pasteurize for 15 min at 160-170F, cooled
to 70F and ran it out into a carboy.
Here is an outline of the project:
# gal Honey Yeast
1 5 Clover Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
2 5 Clover Yeast Lab M62-sweet mead
3 5 Clover Riesling
4 5 Clover Epernay
5 5 Clover Prisse de Mousse
6 5 Clover Tokay
7 5 Wildflower Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
8 7.5 Fireweed Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
9 5 Orange bl. Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
10 5 Snowberry Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
11 5 Wild Rasp. Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
12 5 Starthistle Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
13 7.5 Blended Yeast Lab M61-dry mead
We used four 15.5 gal stainless steel kettles equipped with either
propane or natural gas burners. Starting at noon with food, we ran
into the first problem at about 1:30 when a propane burner failed.
Dismantling the burner and cleaning up the residue of historical beer
boil-overs got us back on line. A brand new boiler gave off an oily
aroma so 15 gal of boiling water was discarded. Crystallized honey
proved to be difficult to work with on the 60 lb scale. The only other
minor problem aside from slight confusion during visitation by
neighbors (what ARE you doing?), friends (so what is the OG, TG, TOH,
style of beer, of this batch?), daughters (Daddy PLAY with me), wives
(explicative deleted-when they set up a picnic in the wort chiller
drain field) and occasional hungry hornets (Yikes), was a live ant that
was fished out of the cooled honey must. After a short dinner break at
8PM (we barbecued chicken at the same time), we had everything
washed by 9PM. All carboys were carried down into the basement and
the yeast cultures pitched at 9:30. Arranging and re-arranging the
carboys on the floor so they sat on an insulation of Styrofoam, produced
a pleasing array of hues that ranged from almost water-white
(starthistle) to amber (wild flower). After pausing to ponder and
admire the magnitude of our work, we parted, very tired but very
satisfied.
I am able to report that they are all happily fermenting away at 65F
on the floor. This is where they will sit until next fall when we will
rack to a clean secondary and keg them next winter.
For those who are counting..13 batches is not 12 kegs. I think we will keep
batch 13 for ourselves!
To be continued.....
DanMcc
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End of Mead Lover's Digest
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