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Mead Lovers Digest #0329
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #329, 15 July 1994
From: mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com
Mead Lover's Digest #329 15 July 1994
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Re: Skimming the must... (Gregory Owen)
Re: Yeast Nutrient (Eric C. Garrison)
Yeast hulls (brewing chemist Mitch)
Yeast Nutrient, skimming, pepper mead (Joyce Miller)
yeast nutrients (Dick Dunn)
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------------------------------
Subject: Re: Skimming the must...
From: gowen@allegro.cs.tufts.edu (Gregory Owen)
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 07:48:09 +0500
ehlert@msuces.canr.msu.edu writes:
>What do you use to skim your must as your are boiling/heating it?~
I went down to the local supermarket and got one of the small
metal strainers they sell. It has a short plastic handle and two
triangular ears on the loop so that it can hang over the pot. I've
also seen strainers like this used for gravy, you hang it over the pot
and pour on through.
In any case, I just sweep it through the must and then dip
it in a second pot with plain water in it to wash it off. You have
to change the water occassionally!
good luck...
Greg Owen { gowen@cs.tufts.edu,@xis.xerox.com } http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~gowen/
1.01 GCS/GO d++ p+ c++ l++ u++ e+ -m+ s++/- n- h !(f)? g+ -w+ t+ r-- y?
"Dayadhvam: I have heard the key/Turn in the door and turn once only/We think
of the key, each in his prison/Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison..."
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Yeast Nutrient
From: ericg@pun.bloomington.in.us (Eric C. Garrison)
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 08:14:34 -0500 (EST)
On the subject of dead yeast as nutrient, does anyone suppose that a
nutrient could be made by boiling the yeast that have fallen out of a
previous batch of mead without producing off flavors? I mean, sure,
yeast feeding on yeast produces autolysis, but if you boil the crap
out of the dead yeasties, won't it break them apart into their
components? Wouldn't these components be exactly what living yeast
needs to thrive?
I'd like to avoid using chemical yeast nutrients entirely, and was
hoping this would work. Any thoughts or experience to the contrary,
or happy stories of this working?
thanks,
Eric
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast hulls
From: gellym@aviion.persoft.com (brewing chemist Mitch)
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 08:49:00 -0500 (CDT)
A couple of people have asked about yeast hulls. I get mine from GW Kent. I
think it was a few bucks for a 2oz jar. The label only calls for 1/2 tsp per
5 gallons, so I have quite a bit of it. I've found that it works quite nicely,
with no bizarre flavors or aromas.
Yeast hulls (or ghosts) are kind of like the skeletonized remains of yeast. I
do not know how they are prepared, and I am not a biologist. All I know is
that there are stored compounds within that the live yeast utilize. None of
my brewing texts are here with me at work, so does any biologist or yeast-
head ;-> out there care to elaborate ?
Now if you want to know how to configure sendmail, I would be happy to
explain ;-o
Cheers,
Mitch
--
| - Mitch Gelly - | Zack Norman |
| software QA specialist, systems administrator, zymurgist, | is |
| AHA/HWBTA beer judge, & president of the Madison Homebrewers | Sammy in |
| - gellym@aviion.persoft.com - gelly@persoft.com - | Chief Zabu |
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast Nutrient, skimming, pepper mead
From: jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu (Joyce Miller)
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 10:35:43 -0400
On using dead yeast as nutrient, rather than ammonium-based yeast nutrients:
In the Middle Ages, people added the yeast by taking crumbled-up dry yeast
(from trub, or the last bread-making), spreading it on a piece of toast,
and floating the toast out onto the cooled wort/must. Maybe I'll boil my
next batch of trub, dry it, and save it. Then again, yeast extract is
readily available at health food stores. Has anyone tried this? I have
tried pasteurizing a few slices of whole-wheat bread in the must. That
worked just fine.
>I know this may sound like a strange question...~
>What do you use to skim your must as your are boiling/heating it?~
I use a big slotted spoon and a pot of water: stir the must in one
direction until it's moving by itself. Then hold the spoon stationary on
the surface, towards the outer edge of the pot. If you angle it right, you
can cause the scum to move to the middle. Scoop it out gently with the
slotted spoon, and dunk it in a pot of water to wash off the spoon. Repeat
as needed.
>Subject: Hot Stuff Pepper Mead
This sounds pretty good, if you like that sort of thing, so I guess I
should include it in the next Bee's Lees. But should it appear under
"Methyglyn" or "Melomel"?
-- Joyce
------------------------------
Subject: yeast nutrients
From: rcd@raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 15 Jul 94 00:01:15 MDT (Fri)
Earlier this week, Richard Fugate <richard_fugate@msgw.mayo.edu> wrote:
> I have made about 10 meads using the ammonium phosphate salt type nutrients.
> What I'm beginning to suspect is that this is imparting a strong bitter taste
> that takes months to mellow...
I used to wonder a lot about that connection, but more recent experience
says that's not it. I've used both the ammonium-type (intentionally being
nonspecific here since the formulation seems to vary) white granules or
powders, and yeast hulls. I've had good luck with both.
The consistent differentiator, in what I've done in the past few years,
has been the yeast: Some yeasts have consistently produced mead which is,
quite literally, drinkable at any time after it has finished fermenting and
settled. Other yeasts have consistently produced mead which requires long
aging...some yeasts being worse than others. (I'll *never* use a "Montra-
chet" type yeast in a mead again!)
This is not to say that the nutrient is irrelevant to the long-aging phe-
nomenon. One possibility that occurs to me: if you get too much of the
nutrient, it's not consumed by the yeast and the residual nutrient con-
tributes to the off-tastes. (Certainly you don't want to add more of this
stuff than is really needed.) Another: perhaps the nutrient interacts badly
with some yeast? I don't know; I don't have a factual basis for these but
I do know that the ammonium-based nutrients do not necessarily imply that
you're in for long aging.
---
Dick Dunn rcd@eklektix.com -or- raven!rcd Boulder, Colorado USA
...Simpler is better.
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #329
