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Mead Lovers Digest #0105
Mead Lover's Digest #105 Sun 28 March 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Must Aeration ("Tom Childers")
What container to use for small batches? (Daniel A Jatnieks)
HIgh Gravity redux (Jay Hersh)
HIgh Gravity redux (Jay Hersh)
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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 93 09:34:43 PST
From: "Tom Childers" <TCHILDER@us.oracle.com>
Subject: Must Aeration
For beer, it is very important that you aerate the wort after it has cooled
down to yeast pitching temperature, and I assume that the same rule applies
to honey musts. There are two reasons for aerating the COOLED liquid:
- undesirable reactions occur between oxygen and some compounds in the
wort/must when hot, and
- gas does not dissolve very well in hot fluid.
Typically, you can get oxygen into the must by splashing it when you siphon
into your primary fermenter. A really great way to do this is get a tube of
some rigid material about a foot or two long that will fit into the end of
your siphon tube, and drill 3-4 small holes into the tube at the end where
it joins to the siphon. The suction from the siphon will pull air into the
fluid and aerate it thoroughly.
Of course, the reason why you aerate is that yeast requires oxygen during
it's initial reproductive stage. Once the yeast has populated the must
and the main fermentation phase has initiated, then you DO NOT want to add
any oxygen, because you can cause some undesired reactions that will give
you off flavors. That is why you must siphon very quietly when transferring
the must from primary to secondary, or from secondary into bottles.
-tdc
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Date: Thu, 25 Mar 93 11:01:55 PST
From: daj20@da.amdahl.com (Daniel A Jatnieks)
Subject: What container to use for small batches?
I'm a homebrewer who is interested in making a mead, and I've been
reading this digest for a few weeks now.
It seems very common to make mead in smaller than five gallon batches,
which is just what I'd be interested in, say, one, two, or three gallon
batches to experiment with. My question is what can I use, other than
a carboy, to ferment a smaller size batch? Can I use one of those glass
juice bottles (the big ones, say 1 gallon plus)? Does anyone use the
smaller size plastic buckets some homebrew stores sell?
I remember a recent post that mentioned it is okay to ferment in a
five gallon carboy while the fermentation is strong (i.e. the primary
I assume), but what about when it's time to rack into the secondary? It
doesn't seem like it would be such a good idea to rack into another five
gallon container, since if the fermentation has slowed the air inside
could stay around for quite a while.
Thanks,
danj.
p.s. Are there any examples of commercially available mead? like microbrewed
beer?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 13:54:37 EST
From: Jay Hersh <hersh@expo.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: HIgh Gravity redux
Yes I did aerate, pretty thoroughly. I've been a brewer 7 years
now, so that was a gimmee...
It is fermenting, just far more slowly than I would have expected.
The gypsum is something I've always used, because many recipes
I've seen call for it. I used acid blend in amounts specified in
Acton & BDuncans book. This is also my first try at a mead w/out fruit,
ie one in which I needed acid blend since there was no acidity from the
fruit.
Any ideas on how to go about adding the acid blend to the now slowly
fermenting mead...
JaH
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 13:54:37 EST
From: Jay Hersh <hersh@expo.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: HIgh Gravity redux
Yes I did aerate, pretty thoroughly. I've been a brewer 7 years
now, so that was a gimmee...
It is fermenting, just far more slowly than I would have expected.
The gypsum is something I've always used, because many recipes
I've seen call for it. I used acid blend in amounts specified in
Acton & BDuncans book. This is also my first try at a mead w/out fruit,
ie one in which I needed acid blend since there was no acidity from the
fruit.
Any ideas on how to go about adding the acid blend to the now slowly
fermenting mead...
JaH
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End of Mead Lover's Digest
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