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Mead Lovers Digest #0333
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #333, 29 July 1994
From: mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com
Mead Lover's Digest #333 29 July 1994
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #332,... (MEADMSTR@aol.com)
Bentonite illness? (Joyce Miller)
Advice sought from experience mead maker/taster (Michael Klett)
re: yeasts for mead (Dick Dunn)
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------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #332,...
From: MEADMSTR@aol.com
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 94 09:41:18 EDT
Subject: White spots in melomel bottles
From: jking@loca.eece.unm.edu
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 94 14:08:50 MDT
>>has now been in the bottles for about 3 weeks and I have noticed
>>white"spots" appearing on the bottoms of most (but not all) of the
>>bottles.
If you were using a Champagne yeast, this is probably yeast that has
remultiplied and started a secondary fermentation in your bottle. Remember
that only a stastical majority of the yeast dies / goes inactive at the sugar
concentration.....
You said you had 14% alcohol..... what was your starting S.G and ending
S.G...... Full utilitization of all the sugar will have left the SG at much
below 1.000... for that kind of alcohol... I'm assuming a starting SG of
about 1.11 which would yield a finish of about .98... if the SG isn't that
low, then you have some sugar... and it is probably yeast.... mold and fungus
will not live in that kind of alcohol range....
Another important factor for biological stability is pH.. What was your
pH ??? For max stability, it should lie around 3.0 -4.0 max.
>>Subject: Fining with gelatine/Cork flavor
>>From: BUKOFSKY <sjb8052@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
>>Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 10:19:38 -0400 (EDT)
>> ....to fine with gelatine, but the mead is still cloudy three weeks
>>>...after the gelatine addition.
Gelatins isoelectric point is pH 4.7...Thus it occurs in mead as a
positively charged entity capable of reactive with negative species such as
tannins via hydrogen bond formation.
Your haze is probably indicative of a protein haze, which is positively
charged ( typically ). In order to eliminate this, you must use a different
fining agent, such as bentonite, or try slightly altering the pH by
temperature adjustment, and a SLIGHT addition of citric acid. MIND you
SLIGHT... Sometimes this will affect the pH enough to stop the haze, and/ or
induce sedimentation.
------------------------------
Subject: Bentonite illness?
From: jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu (Joyce Miller)
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 94 10:08:06 -0400
With apologies to John Gorman, a True Believer in bentonite.
Has anyone else had problems (i.e., illness) using Bentonite to clear their
meads? I tried it for the first time recently on a batch of my "house"
mead. The mead came out *great*, but everytime I sit down and have a
glass, I get very ill -- I feel overheated, I pant, and get severe pains in
my upper stomach, right below the breastbone.
I don't understand this at all. This is my most-used recipe. The yeast is
also not new. I'm using a new batch of honey, which I also eat at
breakfast every morning. I used fresh lemon peel and ginger in the mead,
but unless I've developed a food allergy to one of these, I don't see how
they could be it. The only really new thing is the bentonite.
I'm going to dig out a bottle from my last batch of this recipe and slug it
down tonight, in the interests of science, to eliminate/confirm the food
allergy theory. Since I have a prior history of illness with cheap red
wines and Anheuser-Busch products (Bud and Busch, in particular), I kind of
suspect the bentonite.
Bentonite is a clay, which exists as a fine white powder in my pottery
studio, and as big grey granules at the homebrew store. Does anyone know
how they formulate vintner's bentonite? Is there some binder or additive
in there? Does anyone have any ideas/speculations? Hopefully, it's just
me -- then I'll at least be able to give it away. I'm very sad. :(
-- Joyce
P.S. I think I'm going back to gelatin as a fining. Scott: if you just
tossed warm gelatin into the carboy of (cool) mead, it might have
solidified -- I usually drizzle it in real slow as I'm racking, so it gets
well mixed. Also, gelatin does nothing for haze caused by pectins.
------------------------------
Subject: Advice sought from experience mead maker/taster
From: Michael Klett <klett@schunix.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 21:17:21 -0400 (EDT)
Hello all!
I've been lurking long enough. I made a batch of Mead. I'm not sure where
I put my notes (probably the SAME place that I put all that other stuff that
I didn't want to lose and can't find either) but it was 2 to 3 lbs. of honey
with a gallon of water and a liquid Sweat Mead yeast. It sat from last
October with one racking and tasted this weekend. Not real bad but not
too good either. It might make a good something mixed with a soft drink
(a mead cooler?). Is there a mead/maker taster available to taste and offer
advice from the greater Fitchminster, MA (USA) area?
Thanks,
Michael Klett
------------------------------
Subject: re: yeasts for mead
From: rcd@raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 29 Jul 94 21:37:08 MDT (Fri)
In Digest 331, MEADMSTR@aol.com writes (in response to my notes):
> > Lalvin 1118 is consistently fast and highly attenuative, but I've gotten
> > some of the "Listerine" character (I don't know what other folks call
> > it).The off-taste is not that bad, and does age out, but...
...
> This listerine character is indicative of high phenol / fusel oil /
> volatile acid content in the mead. This is totally dependant upon your
> fermentation !!! PERIOD.
Really? I thought it was dependent on the phase of the moon. No, actually
I DON'T intend to be snide, but there are two problems with this analysis.
* First, saying it's dependent on the fermentation doesn't tell me any-
thing useful. What ABOUT the fermentation induces this character (for
which "phenol" is the closest useful description)? temperature?
something in the character of the must? nutrient? If you can be more
specific about what you think causes the off-taste, it would sure help,
because other than this problem, EC-1118 is a nice yeast to work with.
* Second, it's *not* just the fermentation, because I've consistently
gotten this slightly-off character from 1118 when I've not gotten it
from other yeasts under closely matched fermentation conditions. I'm
not blaming it entirely on the yeast, but if I get the odd character
consistently from one yeast, and not from other yeasts under the same
conditions, then the yeast does have something to do with it.
> > I've heard claims that Lalvin's K1V-1116 is a Prise de Mousse, and
> > other claims that it's a Montrachet. Whom to believe? I dunno!
>
> typo there.... it is K1 and V-116. It is from killer strains. It is not a
> Prisse De Mousse...
No, no typo on the number. I may not be an oenologist, nor be able to
parse what the label means, but I am capable of transcribing a few letters
and digits. The Lalvin label says, precisely, K1V-1116. Lalvin alludes to
"killer strains"--your identification there is more useful than their
slightly market-ese phrase "powerful competitive factor".
> It depends upon your style and how you want the mead to taste.
>
> a list of yeasts and effects....
Unfortunately, it is difficult or impossible for most amateur mead-makers
to find more than a few yeasts which are even remotely suitable for mead-
making.
> 71B - Beaujolais isolate, high ester production... i.e produces "young" style
> mead.... WILL metabolize 1/3 of malic acid present to produce that
> "chardonnay style.... i.e buttery flavor...
Lalvin lists "71B-1122" - is this the same? I'm guessing that the way to
decode the Lalvin numbering is something like a generic identifier before
the "-" and a Lalvin number after.
The suggestion of "high ester production" would make me cautious, unless
you're saying that the esters actually complement the taste of mead.
> Steinberg - a good mead yeast... but a slow fermenter. Cold tolerant ( slow
> fermentation ) enhance fruity aromas.
Is there a source of the Steinberg strain (perhaps under another name) for
home mead-makers?
---
Dick Dunn rcd@eklektix.com -or- raven!rcd Boulder, Colorado USA
...Simpler is better.
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #333
