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Mead Lovers Digest #0234
Mead Lover's Digest #234 22 November 1993
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Re: Failed Yeast (Skyclad) ("Robert C. Santore")
Bog Myrtle (Spencer.W.Thomas@med.umich.edu)
Brewing Programs (halfdan@aol.com)
Old Swedish pors mead (halfdan@aol.com)
Dolomite (Michael L. Hall)
Articles for the digest ONLY to mead-lovers@eklektix.com.
Subscribe/unsubscribe/admin requests to mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com.
There is an FTP archive of the digest on sierra.stanford.edu in pub/mead.
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Subject: Re: Failed Yeast (Skyclad)
From: "Robert C. Santore" <rsantore@mailbox.syr.edu>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 07:50:46 -0500 (EST)
Skyclad writes about yeast floating on top of fermenting mead:
I've heard of having to beat the foam from top-fermenting yeasts back into
the works, but I've never heard of a situation as severe as yours. I
wonder if you have a density gradient in your fermenter that is preventing
the yeasts from settling or mixing throughout the must. If you take a
sample from the area active in yeast do you get a much lower gravity
reading then from a sample taken deeper? If so, then you'll need to mix
these layers top to bottom to even out the distribution of honey.
Bob Santore Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
rsantore@mailbox.syr.edu Syracuse University
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Subject: Bog Myrtle
From: Spencer.W.Thomas@med.umich.edu
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 11:22:01 EST
Re: the posting from James Spence about a source.
1. This seems to be seeds (which is what was specified in Rajotte's
book), while other sources seem to use the leaves and/or twigs.
2. Other posters claim that this source refuses to ship to the US
(presumably customs problems or some such).
=S
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Subject: Brewing Programs
From: halfdan@aol.com
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 23:13:35 EST
I previously asked if users knew of any IBM compatible brewing programs to
help keep track of your ingredients, recipes, SG, etc, and I have found a few
programs that I thought I'd pass on to the rest of you. Many of you may be
familiar with the SUDS programs (some DOS and some Windows). The SUDS
Windows version 2.0 I found was very well done, allows you to log your own
recipes, included a calculator and label maker, and an additional
CATS_MEO.TXT contained about 415 beer recipes, including about a dozen or so
Mead recipes, all of which run in SUDSW. It appears that you can get a
discount if you send in one of your own recipes to the author Michael Taylor
on CompuServe (I hope to add the Pors Mead recipe after I fine tune it). I
also found a DOS program called EZ Brew which contained a lot of well-written
technical info on brewing beer. Thought some of you might be interested in
these programs. Dan Meyer
------------------------------
Subject: Old Swedish pors mead
From: halfdan@aol.com
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 23:13:20 EST
Hej Fellow Brewers!
Thanks again for all your informative notes regarding "pors" (Bog Myrtle
or Sweet Gale). For those of you who made suggestions about the scientific
name "Myrtus Branbantica", this was the name as it appears in the old book.
Many of you have suggested other scientific names such as Myrica gale, which
it may be, but I was simply passing on the latin information as it appeared
in the old book.
Several people have said that pors/myrtle did/does have a reputation for
adding to the "kick" of alcoholic drinks, but that it appears to be nothing
more than that - a reputation - and there isn't much beyond that (I'll let
you know if I can detect any more potency when I sample this batch!) Maybe
it's just been psychosomatic wishful thinking by "pors" mead drinkers of the
past, or maybe there is a little something else drug-like in the myrtle that
adds to the alcohol (although Swedes claim that if that were the case, the
Swedish government wouldn't have allowed a commercial pors beer several years
ago). Although several people (my friends in Sweden and myself included) do
claim that there is SOMETHING else in the myrtle that DOES give you a
headache and hangover...
I'll keep it short for now and keep you all posted as I learn more! Keep
the research and suggestions coming! Skal!
Dan Meyer
Halfdan (AOL)
halfdan@aol.com
half.dan@nashville.com
72064.2142@compuserve.com
------------------------------
Subject: Dolomite
From: mlh@cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall)
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 93 14:50:43 MST
> > ..."Viking Age" brewing used dolomite as a yeast nutrient...
> Anybody have any insights on "dolomite"??
I don't have much info, but here's a clue: In the marine (salt-water)
aquaria business you usually need to use one of three types of substrate
(gravel), either silica sand, crushed coral or dolomite. Dolomite is, I
think, a low-density (off-)white mineral with a chunk size similar to a
grain of barley.
Hope that helps...
Mike Hall
Los Alamos Atom Mashers
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #234
