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Mead Lovers Digest #0285
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #285, 29 March 1994
From: mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com
Mead Lover's Digest #285 29 March 1994
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Yeast attenuation ("Peter Miller {84663}")
cranberries, dry meads?? (tyk@npac.syr.edu)
Heating & scum-skimming (Jacob Galley)
yeast nutrients (nathaniel christop lorenz)
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------------------------------
Subject: Yeast attenuation
From: "Peter Miller {84663}" <pdm@swlvx2.msd.ray.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 08:13:04 EST
Is there anyone who can and would like to explain (in semi-scientific terms)
why yeast has a characteristic called "attenuation factor"? First, tell
me if my understanding is correct, that attenuation is different from
alcohol tolerance; the latter being the point at which yeast effectively
poisons itself in its own waste product, and the former describing
the proportion of fermentables that the yeast actally converts to alcohol.
Second, tell me if the following hypothetical situation is true. If a
particular variety of yeast has, say, a 66% attenuation factor, then
a one gallon batch of mead using one pound of honey will settle out
with 0.34 pounds of unfermented sugars still in solution. Two pounds
of initial honey will result in 0.68 pounds unfermented, and so on, until
the initial honey crosses the point at which the yeast will produce
enough alcohol to kill itself. Beyond this point, any additional honey
added to the must serves the same purpose as putting honey in my tea:
namely to add pure honey as an extra ingredient (sweet stuff !).
If this line of reasoning is true (all other factors ignored, including
temperature, yeast nutrients, etc.) then I should be able to draw a chart
that shows the expected amount of leftover sugar still in solution as
a function of initial honey (lb/gal.). Using the numbers I invented
above, and assuming that 2 lb/gal of honey is exactly the point at which
additional sugar will not be fermented at all, due to alcohol content,
then such a chart would look like this:
| *
residual | *
sugar | *
(lb) | *
| *
| *
0.68 -| **
| *** \
0.34 -| *** (yeast reaches alcohol tolerance here)
|
-----------------------------
1 2 3 4
Initial
honey
(lb/gal)
Obviously, such a chart would difficult to create accurately, but I
think it expresses my understanding of the concept. Is it correct?
Pete Miller
Stoneham MA
------------------------------
Subject: cranberries, dry meads??
From: tyk@npac.syr.edu
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 08:31:15 EST
Has anyone made a mead with cranberries that they really like? If
so, please send recipes. Also my meads are consistantly drier than
I would like. Any advice?
Thanks! Bob Tyksinski tyk@npac.syr.edu
------------------------------
Subject: Heating & scum-skimming
From: Jacob Galley <gal2@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 11:31:14 CST
> Subject: RE:Subject: Why homebrewers boil and fart.
> From: Chris McDermott - NOS/PCI Engineering - DTN 266-5570 24-Mar-1994 0938 -
0500 <"5062::mcdermott"@skiit.enet.dec.com>
> Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 12:54:33 EST
Chris McDermott replies to John Gorman's exposition on why mead-musts
don't need to be boiled:
> . . . but keeping things a clean as possible will not hurt. I would
> agree that there is no need to boil the must or pasturize or sanatize your
> fruit. However I would argue that the reason is that undesirable
> micro-organisms have a much more difficult time growing in this must than
> they do in beer wort.
But there is another reason that mead-musts should be boiled (or just
heated) that has nothing to do with sanitation. Anyone who boils
knows that a rather nasty "scum" rises out of the must when it is
heated. Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight, advocated skimming until the scum
no longer riseth. At least back then it was thought that removing
this material improved the taste of the product.
But there are some questions:
Perhaps the scum is the product of a reaction that takes place only
when the must is heated. Is scum not a problem for musts that aren't
heated?
The heating process itself supposedly damages the flavor of the mead,
but so does the latent scum that Digby thought should be removed
(through heating). Is there a good temperature at which to compromise
in this dilemma?
Jake.
Whoever achieves understanding of the baboon will do more for metaphysics
than Locke did, which is to say he will do more for philosophy in general,
including the problem of knowlege.
<-- Charles Darwin
------------------------------
Subject: yeast nutrients
From: psycho@carina.unm.edu (nathaniel christop lorenz)
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 11:00 MST
I bought a package of "yeast nutrients" and added the directed ammount
to already fermenting mead (1 gallon recipies and there are about 4
different gallons going at different stages). My question is about
the time when one should add the nutrients. At the very start of
fermentation, add it with the yeast, or is it ok to add 1 month
into the whole process?
Nate
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #285
