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Mead Lovers Digest #0295
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #295, 24 April 1994
From: mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com
Mead Lover's Digest #295 24 April 1994
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Re: Too Little Too Late (Ralph Snel)
Quick Meads and nutrients (COYOTE)
Re: Oxygenation of Must (Colin McConnell)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #294,... (meadmstr@aol.com)
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Subject: Re: Too Little Too Late
From: Ralph Snel <ralph@astro.lu.se>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 11:45:36 METDST
Roger (grow@barbados.mcae.stortek.com) asked about a not too slow mead.
One of the first meads I ever tried was a combination of an apple-wine
3-week wine set and ordinary honey. This produced a very tasty mead
in only a few weeks, and aged out to something delicious that I still
have about 3 gallons left of, 3 years later.
Buy a set of your favourite white wine do-it-yourself-in-3-weeks kit,
and add honey instead of sugar. Use about 20-30% more honey than you
would have used sugar, as honey is not 100% sugar.
Make sure you cook the honey with an equal amount (or more) of water,
and cook it for half an hour, just a simmer, not a roaring boil. Skim
the scum.
Add the honey to the rest of the kit, follow instructions and see how
it ferments to dryness in about a week. The boiling of the honey
destroys all the enzymes that prevent honey from fermenting when it's
still on the comb, so you will probably get a quick fermentation. The
kits generally include the proper nutrients and acids, so you don't
have to worry about those.
When fermentation has slowed down and the SG is low enough, kill the
yeast with the included sulphite, add the preservatives, and add more
honey untill you have the desired sweetness. Then use the included
fining agents to get the mead clear. It will of course taste rough,
but the first 3 weeks or so of aging will make a huge difference.
If you have the possibility, age on oak (not oak extract or chips)
because the mead can breathe a bit then and will get rid of some
of the sharp taste quicker (done it myself, it's a *big* difference).
Make sure you make at least twice as much as you think the guests
will drink, and save it for their 1-year aniversary (or any other
good reason).
Cheers,
Ralph
ralph@astro.lu.se
------------------------------
From: Richard B. Webb <rbw1271@appenine.ca.boeing.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 08:53:32 -0700
Subject: Maple mead
Last year I made a 'concoction' which used nearly 15 lbs of
maple syrup, no honey. I used the syrup just like it had been
honey, i.e. no boil, nutirent, acid blend, long aging, etc...
Well, it tastes funny. Log cabin, brown sugar, smoke, all sort
of strange flavors. Definitely an acquired taste...
Just to screw them up, I recently entered some of this stuff in a
competition in New Mexico. They were so confused about what category
to put it in and what was in it, they called me and asked. We decided
on 'Other'. Seemed appropriate...
Rich Webb
********************************
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Subject: Quick Meads and nutrients
From: COYOTE <SLK6P@cc.usu.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 09:53:40 -0600 (MDT)
Ok, the question came up, my "name" was dragged into it, I haven't
"pitched" in for a while, so here goes.
I have the same concept to deal with. I've got two routes.
1. That rapidly drinkable mead was a Mulberry Mead (Morat).
Guess what? I saved several bottles specifically for the concept of
sharing with this woman I'm going to marry. She helped me make it,
had the mulberry tree, etc, etc. I don't think it'll be producing
soon enough for a new batch before the wedding (july 23rd).
2. Concept two...I've got an OLD batch of mead in bottles which I
hoped would age into something likable. It was my first still mead,
VERY clear, spiced and ....the bad news: Hopped. Bitter, tart.
Not what I consider pleasant.
My plan: Fill a keg with CO2, carefully pour all the bottles, w/o sediment
into the keg. Add a syrup of honey. Slightly carbonate, and serve on tap
at the reception. (I plan to have a few kegs of beer for quaffing).
I will never add hops to a mead again. I do not think they blend well with
the sweetness, and and alcohol strength. Perhaps dry hopping with a nice
aromatic would be ok (cascade) but NOT boiling for bitters!
I tried a glass after two years, still ptuey. I stirred in a spoonful of honey,
hmmm. sweetened, nice honey aroma...MUCH more pleasant. I think it can be
saved! So that's my plan. If the mulberries are ripe maybe I'll squeeze
some juice, and add that too. I don't want to do too much or I'll lose all
that clarity of age.
3. Quick Meads: a couple ideas which can help.
The mulberry was a light mead/wine ferment.
Rough recipe (It's in the book...)
6# fruit, 5# honey, 5# corn sugar. Makes for a lighter and quicker
ferment. Ages faster than a STRONG honey ferment.
SO: Go light, maybe even "undermine" it with sugar to speed things more.
The traditional old meads were not fermented out to completing. They tended
to be sickly sweet, slightly alcoholic concoctions. Just dilute honey, let it
sit a while, then when the boys come back from battle put it into lead based
pewter and quaff away.
Nutrients:
Yeast energizer (if I'm correct) is ammonium sulfate, or yeast salt
It adds Nitrogen (as ammonia) which is needed by the yeast. (1tsp/ gal)
Yeast nutrient: is generally pulverized yeast bodies, supplies a
variety of nutirents, vitamins, and general building blocks.
Vitamin B1 is one of the keys here: (marmite .25tsp/g)
Magnesium sulphate, or epsom salts can limit a fermentation if inadequate.
A pinch/gal = 1 gm per gal)
Potassium Phosphate is another that can be added: 2gms/gal
(see Acton, Duncan pg 27 Making Mead)
Over use of nutrients and salts has been touted at causing off flavors, or
chemical overtones. If used in minimal amounts they can speed a ferment w/o
problems.
Other things to remember: Pitch BIG, like WAY BIG. Have a real active
starter going, and pitch LOTS of yeast.
Aerate like CRAZY. Be sure you've got that thick must full of air at the
beginning of the ferment. I've had stalled ferments (never started) that I
poured from one bucket to another- splashing like crazy, and then they took
off.
Ferment semi-warm. Wine yeasts arent' happy if you drop them down to 60's.
I think it leads to a nice mead, but it'll take a year to complete!
I'd say 70's, 80's will move a lot faster. Don't push it TOO high though.
To clarify quickly: Use some finings. Bentoinite is good.
Finally: If you want a sweet sparkling mead, and aren't planning on storing
it, why not go ahead and bottle before the ferment is done completely
(I know I know. bottle bombs...etc etc.)
If you are planning on drinking the whole batch at one time, no problem.
Bottle two or three weeks before the wedding, bottle a couple small ones,
and check them. When they have adequate (slighlty low) carbonation -
get em all cold! Refridgerate the whole batch- COLD till the big event.
Or you could flash pasteurize by dipping bottles in hot water to kill the
yeast (I've never done this. So don't quote me!)
The best plan ( I think) would be to keg it, if you have the capability.
That way you can ferment as long as possible, then keg, force pressurize
and be ready to go.
Hope some of this helps. If you want more ideas- email me. I might
be trying the same thing myself. Good luck, and congrats to ya!
(PS: We are still waiting on the appriasal. My hops are anxious to move
to the new place! As are we! SO many plans, so much wait! Red tape is hell!)
|\
|\| \/| \-\-\- John (The Coyote) Wyllie SLK6P@cc.usu.edu -/-/-/
\ | Originally in Logan, soon to be Smithfield (utah. shhhhhh)
----
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Oxygenation of Must
From: Colin McConnell <mcconnel@pX1.stfx.ca>
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 14:29:29 -0300 (ADT)
Hello,
I assume that by oxygenation, you mean bubbling a continuous
stream of air through the fermenting must. Bubbling air through with,
say, a fish tank aerator before pitching the yeast would have the same
effect as aeration by other means.
I can think of two good reasons not to oxygenate a fermenting
must. First, I can think of no better way to introduce contamination to
the brew than pumping unfiltered air through it. Use of a HEPA standard
filter is probably beyond the means of most hobbiests.
Second, if I recall my microphysiology correctly, the lactic acid
pathway that yeast uses to make energy, and alcohol, is anaerobic. That
is, it must be carried out in an environment free of oxygen. Since alcohol
production is the whole point of the exercise, oxygenation would probably be
counterporductive.
Of course, if you intended to use the fish aerator - or something
like it - before pitching the yeast, let me know how it turns out. I get
tired of stirring and spashing, too.
Just my $0.02
Colin McConnell
mcconnel@phoenix.stfx.ca
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #294,...
From: meadmstr@aol.com
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 22:26:53 EDT
>realized it was very similar to Sherry, and proved it by giving me a
>sample (which I had never tasted). He seemed to think, and I >agreed
.....of the digest, that certain types of yeast also impart a
>sherry-likecharacter. This, also, may be a contributing factor to the
>flavorand aroma of your mead.
Sherry like characters are a result of the ethanol precursor, acetylaldehyde.
Yeast strains could be an influence, however, IMHO, acetylaldehyde is more
problably a result of poor fermentation or the use of bisulfites in the must
( prior to fermentation. )
Sulfite addition to the must is a serious no no (IMHO )
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #295
