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Mead Lovers Digest #0363
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #363, 13 November 1994
From: mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com
Mead Lover's Digest #363 13 November 1994
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Wine bottles/final gravity question (Sean C. Cox)
Mead Lover's Digest #362, 10 November 1994 (lconrad@apollo.hp.com)
Plastic fermentors ("I'd like to lick the coil someday.")
Re: historic mead (Ralph Snel)
priming rate for sparkling mead (FLATTER%MHS@mhs.rose-hulman.edu)
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------------------------------
Subject: Wine bottles/final gravity question
From: scox@factset.com (Sean C. Cox)
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 94 10:09:25 EST
Greetings all,
I just bottled a sack mead (5lbs honey, 1 gal water, champagne yeast)
into wine bottles and I have a couple questions:
(1) When I was bottling, I noticed a lot of CO2 coming out of the mead
as I siphoned it, I had to stir the mead a bit (with my bottling tube) to get
much of the carbonation out of it so I wouldn't get any glass grenades. Is this
something to worry about or could I have left the stuff alone and not think
that my bottles (ordinary wine bottles) would become explosive?
(2) After I finished bottling (always after...) I actually sampled
some of the mead (yum!) and it was very sweet. I know that with 5lbs/gal it's
going to be sweet, but I thought it was a bit too sweet and dug up the old
hydrometer (which I almost never use) and found the FG was 1.073! I don't
know the OG, but this looks really high (I'd guess it should go to around 1.030
or so) so I'm also worried about a continued ferment in those poor wine bottles
(I'm becoming quite the worrier here, aren't I?). If I poured things back into
my fermenter and repitched some yeast, would I be able to get the lower
gravity that I expected?
Some more details:
The mead was pitched about 4 months ago, and has been racked twice,
with no airlock activity for about two weeks now. This is my 4th batch of mead
so far (I have a couple others in the works also) and the first one to try wine
bottles, all my others have gone into beer bottles, but that seems to encourage
me to sample frequently whereas the wine bottles should keep me from trying
"just a little" every couple weeks.
Thanks in advance.
--Sean
=-=-= Sean Cox =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= FactSet Data Systems =-=-=
=-=-= scox@factset.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1 Greenwich Plaza =-=-=
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Greenwich, CT 06830 =-=-=
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #362, 10 November 1994
From: lconrad@apollo.hp.com
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 11:49:04 -0500
Bill Vaughan writes:
I read the post from Kevin Shultz last friday (Nov. 4) asking about the use
of lavender for mead. I have no information on the lavender question but I
would like to know more about the reference to the spice- Woodruff. Kevin
made mention with respect to a holiday beer. Does anyone have a further
description of this spice with regard to its taste and usage. Please....I
"Must" know!
Woodruff is actually a good plant to know about from an urban gardener's
standpoint -- it is a groundcover in shade (or at least semi-shade). It
doesn't seem to need any care to come back and spread every year. The only
thing I have that it doesn't seem to compete well with is peppermint, but
nothing else can compete with peppermint, either. It has a pleasant, although
not particularly strong fragrance.
It is used in germany both as the flavor in Mai-Wein and in a syrup that is
used to flavor Berliner-Weiss. I've thought about making the syrup and trying
it in a weiss beer, but I decided the raspberry syrup I was playing with made
it too sweet for my taste, so I have been experimenting with sugarless fruit
flavors. I haven't tried it in a mead, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't
be good that way.
Laura
Snail Mail: ------- Laura Conrad
Hewlett-Packard Co. | / Phone: (508) 436-4243
300 Apollo Drive | / Internet: lconrad@apollo.hp.com
Chelmsford, Ma 01824 | /___ Mail stop: chd-01-fo
|_______ Fax: (508) 436-5117
--------
------------------------------
Subject: Plastic fermentors
From: "I'd like to lick the coil someday." <STU_GJCARRIE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU>
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 14:51:46 -0500 (EST)
Is it safe to ferment mead in plastic? Will it produce off flavors?
Has anyone tried liquid mead yeast? I'm not sure if it's wyeast or not. I
think I'm going to try the Sweet Mead variety next batch. (They also have Dry
Mead). Is champagne yeast the reason for my present mead's long ferment?
Nutrient? The OG was 1.100 and now two months later it's clear. Of course I
added Sparkalloid so that's probably why...it may never have cleared otherwise.
Any opinions on how to get a faster ferment/clearing?
Thanks in advance...
*********************** We gotta get on the road *****************************
* Gregg Carrier (aka Uncle Zany, the guy in the floppy green hat) *
* 332 Old S. High St. stu_gjcarrie@vax1.acs.jmu.edu *
* Harrisonburg, VA 22801 (703) 434-8214 *
*************************** Destiny Unbound **********************************
------------------------------
Subject: Re: historic mead
From: Ralph Snel <ralph@astro.lu.se>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 94 10:56:53 MET
> Subject: mead history
> From: tmajor@parallel.park.uga.edu (Ted Major)
> Date: Tue, 8 Nov 94 10:59:16 EST
>
> Dear Mead-Lovers:
> I am a graduate student in English and am beginning to do some research on
> historical mead recipes. Can some kind netter out there suggest references
> for 14th Century or earlier English mead recipes? I am working on a
> transcription of an unpublished 14th C. manuscript which contains a recipe
> for mead, and I would like to have some knowledge of other contemporary or
> earlier mead recipes. Please respond via private email as I have not yet
> subscribed to this list.
>
> For those of you who are interested, here is a rough translation of the
> manuscript I am working on:
>
> 1 gallon honey
> 4 gallons water
>
> Heat the water and dissolve the honey. Set over a fire and let boil and skim
> as long as filth riseth thereon. Remove from heat and let stand until it is
> as cool as milk. Put in a fair place and cast in berm or drasts from the fines
t
> ale for that is the best, and stir well together. Lay straw or else cloths
> about the vessel and abouve if the weather is cold. Let stand 3 days and
> 3 nights if the weather is cold, or if it is hot weather, 1 day and night is e
> is enough. If you will have it sweet take it the sooner from the drasts and
> if you will have it sharp let it stand longer therewith. Then draw it as
> clear as you may from the drasts into a clean vessel and let it stand one
> night or 2 and then draw it into another clean vessel and serve it forth.
I have some later books, in Danish and Dutch with mead recipes.
Are you sure about the translation of the "night"? It seems awfully
short....
Happy brewing,
Ralph
ralph@astro.lu.se
------------------------------
Subject: priming rate for sparkling mead
From: FLATTER%MHS@mhs.rose-hulman.edu
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 22:27:14 -0500 (EST)
Can anyone tell me how to prime a sparkling mead or melomel? I have an
idea for a sparkling mead, but have no idea how much it will take to
naturally carbonate it.
--------------
Neil Flatter Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Chemistry - Math (CMA) Department of Chemistry Stockroom Manager
Novell Supervisor 5500 Wabash Avenue 73
(812) 877 - 8316 Terre Haute, IN 47803-3999
FAX: 877 - 3198 Flatter@MHS.Rose-Hulman.Edu
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #363
