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Mead Lovers Digest #0115
Mead Lover's Digest #115 Thu 15 April 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Mead Yeasts (/O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/)
Blackberry Mead Recipes (/O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/)
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NOTE: There is now an MLD FTP archive on sierra.stanford.edu in pub/mead
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Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 08:05 PDT
From: /O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/@NASAmail.nasa.gov
Subject: Mead Yeasts
***************************** PROFS Note *****************************
From: DBLEWIS --VMSPFHOU Date and time 04/14/93 10:06:39
To: POSTMAN --NASAMAIL
FROM: Dennis B. Lewis <InterNet:dblewis@jscprofs.nasa.gov>
SUBJECT: Mead Yeasts
I had never tried mead until I made my own. On my first two
batches I used Red Star Pastuer Champagne yeast and the finished
product, while good, has a distinct champagne taste to it. I was
more pronounced in the first one because (I believe) I used quite
a bit of acid blend in it. I can't complain, it's better than a
bacterial infection, but it isn't what I'm looking for. I
pitched Pris de Mousse in my third batch which is currently
nearing completion. The tastings during the one racking (the SG
was still a bit high for a good taste) show none of that
champagne character.
This stirred my curiousity, so I bought a commercial mead
Merrydown. This had a tremendous sherry flavor to it that I
found extremely distracting. I still like my own better.
I'm still very novice at this, but from my beer brewing
experience, the yeast will make or break your product. As such, I
have the following questions:
Are there mead yeasts out there? (I'm sure)
What company cultures them?
Where can I get some?
What are their flavor characteristics? (Avoiding strong
sherry-like;-))
Anybody willing to send me a slant in exchange for some
mead/homebrew?
Dennis B. Lewis (713) 483-9145 ** NASA/JSC/DH65 Payload Ops
Homebrew, The Final Frontier.
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Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 08:06 PDT
From: /O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/@NASAmail.nasa.gov
Subject: Blackberry Mead Recipes
***************************** PROFS Note *****************************
From: DBLEWIS --VMSPFHOU Date and time 04/14/93 10:07:28
To: POSTMAN --NASAMAIL
FROM: Dennis B. Lewis <InterNet:dblewis@jscprofs.nasa.gov>
SUBJECT: Blackberry Mead Recipes
I have a friend who has a ton of blackberry bushes in his yard.
He says they are going to ripen soon (We live in Texas, land of
goofy politicians with big hats and belt buckles). How about
posting a good tried and true recipe for blackberry mead? I
should have approximately 10 to 15 pounds of blackberries--that
should be enough for a 5 gallon batch or two.
I tried making raspberry ale recently and was a huge
disappointment. It was very acetic tasting and had no raspberry
flavor. And to top it all off, it didn't clear at all. I didn't
boil the raspberries (which were frozen from the store), I
pasteurized them in 170 deg water for 30 minutes, cooled, then
added them to the primary fermenter. In reading more about this,
many homebrewers recommend adding the fruit to a secondary
fermenter after the primary, violent fermentation has subsided.
They claim that the fruit aroma and taste are carried out with
the exiting CO2 which would be less of a problem in a secondary.
This is also the way that the fruit is added to lambics, from
what I've read. My point in all this is that I'd hate to blow
all these good blackberries on some techniques errors.
Dennis B. Lewis (713) 483-9145 ** NASA/JSC/DH65 Payload Ops
Homebrew, The Final Frontier.
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End of Mead Lover's Digest
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