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Mead Lovers Digest #0251
Mead Lover's Digest #251 23 December 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Name Entry for Mead Recipies (Aaron Morris)
Re: Creamed Honey. (Malcolm Roe)
Mango melomels (Jonathan Corbet)
A new winery! ("MICHAEL KLETT, 508-841-2790...")
Mead recipe book title (Lynn Gold)
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Subject: Name Entry for Mead Recipies
From: Aaron Morris <SYSAM@albany.albany.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 09:55:11 EST
I think a wonderful name for the proposed book could be:
"Fruit of the Blooms"
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Creamed Honey.
From: roe@crosfield.co.uk (Malcolm Roe)
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 13:38:00 +0000 (GMT)
John Eustace asks:
> What do they mean by creamed [honey]? Can someone describe the
> process for me and tell me whether one form is better for use in
> meads than the other.
Honey is mainly a supersaturated solution of glucose and fructose.
The bees raise the concentration to this level to ensure that wild
yeasts will not cause the honey to ferment. Because it is
supersaturated it will almost always crystallize if given enough time.
The tendency to crystallize differs from one type of honey to another.
This is a very complicated subject. Usually the most important factor
is the glucose to fructose ratio but the presence of traces of certain
proteins can inhibit crystallization. The other important thing is the
presence of seeds on which crystallization can start. Often particles
of pollen act as seeds. As a consequence, natural honey is more prone
to crystallize than processed honey which has been well filtered (as
well as pasteurized, blended, etc., etc.)
Some types of honey will crystallise within days of bottling. Others
will remain liquid for months or even years. Naturally crystallised
honey is quite hard (like ice cream straight out of the freezer).
Many people don't like this so it is often creamed. The process
involves warming and stirring the crystallised honey before bottling.
The result is to break up all the large crystals, leaving a smoother
and softer product.
As regards mead making, the consistancy is not important (although you
may be concerned about other factors such as flavour). You will be
adding more than enough water to ensure that all the sugars will enter
solution.
--
Malcolm Roe Phone : +44 442 230000 ext 4104
Crosfield Electronics Ltd Fax : +44 442 232301
Hemel Hempstead, Herts. HP2 7RH, UK E-mail : roe@crosfield.co.uk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Subject: Mango melomels
From: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@stout.atd.ucar.EDU>
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 10:34:14 -0700
Well, Dick's message of the other day (combined with a day of disagreeable
differences of opinion with the Solaris beast) inspired me to put an end to
my waiting and try the other batch of mead that came from that rare
load of mangoes that found its way into Colorado. "Encrypted Mead," a
product of the Microburst Brewery, is made of a mixture of peaches and
mangoes, with the peaches having, perhaps, the upper hand.
I'm pleased. The mead shows quite a bit of both flavors; the mango gives
it a sort of "tropical punch" taste that I like a lot. Every peach made
that we have ever made has had a sharp sort of taste to it (not *quite*
sour) that eventually goes away, yielding an amazing mead, if I do say so
myself. I had sort of despaired of our first peach mead, but now I know to
be patient. Thus I conclude that it's not quite time to really tear into
this batch, but it's getting closer.
What I would really like to try now is a guava mead. If only I could
figure out how to find enough guava fruit without having to smuggle a
suitcase full from Hawaii....
Ah yes, the recipe for those who are interested:
Encrypted Mead
Microburst Brewery (Jonathan Corbet and Forrest Cook)
Sep 4, 1993 (6.5 gallon batch)
12 lbs local honey
~5 lbs mashed mango fruit
~10 lbs Colorado western slope peaches
We wrote down the yeast variety, but it appears to be encrypted and I don't
remember what it was.
About the recipe book: how about "The Meadhound's howl"?
Jonathan Corbet
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Technology Division
corbet@stout.atd.ucar.edu
------------------------------
Subject: A new winery!
From: "MICHAEL KLETT, 508-841-2790 (DTN: 237-2790), MS: SHR2-2/B12 22-Dec-1993
1243" <klett@ghill.enet.dec.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 09:47:35 PST
Hello all,
I've been lurking on the mailing list for a few months now and decided to
drop a note. First, thanks to all for the wonderful articles. The reading
has been interesting. I started my first mead (a 1 gallon batch) back in
October (and I'm getting anxious to bottle!) thanks to reading your stories.
Anyway, people ask on a somewhat regular basis about commercial meads. I'm
feeling really lucky, a mead winery just opened one town away from me! The
Winery is called "As You Like It". They are located downtown Fitchburg, MA
at 362-370 Main Street. Their phone number is 508-345-6407. I was in there
on Saturday for a tasting. I found that most of their Meads were drier than
I would like, but I like sweat Meads. They had Blueberry (my favorite), Thyme,
Wildflower, Orange Blossom, and Rasberry Meads. (Not Melomels, these are
the flowers that the bees made the honey from). They just got their license
to sell yesterday! They winery has many many rows of shelves with 7 gallon
carboys busily blurping away. As a homebrewer, I felt right at home.
After stopping there yesterday to pick up many bottles of Mead I wandered
over to a local Homebrew supply store that had sold some equipment to the
winery. I talked to the shop keeper about "As You Like It" and found out that
they just started brewing Mead this summer and probably made quick finishing
Meads (dry) so that they could have product to sell before Christmas.
Hopefully, they will start some sweat meads now.
Thanks for your ear,
Mike
PS: No, I have no affilation with "As You Like It", though I admit that I
have a vested interest in keeping them in business so that I have local
place to buy Mead.
------------------------------
Subject: Mead recipe book title
From: figmo@netcom.com (Lynn Gold)
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 11:44:34 -0800
Since it IS a Mead cookbook, and since we're perhaps keeping in the
tradition of the "Cat's Meow," I second the nomination of the "Bees Knees,"
especially since we wouldn't have honey without the bees. :-)
--Lynn
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #251
