Mead Lovers Digest #0157

Published in

· 7 months ago

 

Mead Lover's Digest #157                            Wed 23 June 1993 

 
        Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming 
               John Dilley, Digest Coordinator 

 
Contents: 
  Scott Murphy's mead... (Wynn Martin) 

 
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Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 09:21:58 CDT 
From: wynn@odin.mda.uth.tmc.edu (Wynn Martin) 
Subject: Scott Murphy's mead... 

>Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 10:33:47 MST 
>From: scott@gordian.com (Scott Murphy) 
>Subject: first mead 
> 
>I started my first mead two weeks ago.  It fermented well, about 
>It is just honey and water with an OG of 1.042.  I would appreciate 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

I started my first mead almost two weeks ago, too; I used honey, water, 
ginger, lemon and an orange.  I learned later, though, that honey alone 
doesn't provide all the nutrients yeasts need to ferment very actively; I'd 
also added too little honey.  So, after the first week, I racked it and 
added more honey and yeast nutrients.  Wow, did that make a difference!  I 
went from one bubble ever five seconds to 2 bubbles per second!  It's been 
fermenting at that rate for several days now, with no signs of slowing.  
You might look into the addition of some nutrients, if you skipped them the 
first time; perhaps not, though, since it's getting a little late in the 
brew.  The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, though, says meads with 
nutrients may finish fermentation in three weeks, while those without can 
ferment for three months to a YEAR!  Something to think about. 

 
*BONUS* : 

My first mead smelled (from the airlock exhaust) for over a week like what 
I'd put in it: ginger, a lemon, and an orange.  It was quite pungent with 
those scents. 

Two days ago, the smell abruptly changed, over an 8 hour period or so.  The 
fermentation has produced banana and apple esters, and it has lost the bite 
of the pungent ginger smell.  It's very mellow now, but smells strongly and 
distinctly like apples and bananas.  I was quite shocked and pleased; 
hooray! 

 
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