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Mead Lovers Digest #0395
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #395, 7 April 1995
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #395 7 April 1995
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Banana Melomel (Trisha Friend)
First batch of mead. Questions & Concerns of a neophyte. (Willie Peloquin)
Dadelion Mead (Matt Maples)
Honey in Vancouver WA (Matt Maples)
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Subject: Banana Melomel
From: tfriend@bga.com (Trisha Friend)
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 1995 09:00:12 -0500
I've been toying with the idea of making a banana melomel. It strikes me
that banana might not act like other fruits in the fermenter (getting gray
and icky, instead of the flavor of the banana meat steeping out). Has
anyone tried this? Is there a way to "extract" banana essence? Do I need
to worry about this? (I know, I know, relax, etc...) Does banana melomel
sound good to anyone but me?
- -=<Trisha>=-
tfriend@bga.com
------------------------------
Subject: First batch of mead. Questions & Concerns of a neophyte.
From: Willie Peloquin <wpeloqui@medar.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 11:25:34 -0400 (EDT)
Hello,
I am currently brewing my first batch of mead. I used 7 lb of
honey, 2 1/2 gallons of water grape tannin, yeast nutrient and
champagne yeast. I am using 2 one gallon glass wine jugs and the
2 1/2 gallon spring water jug for fermentation. The mead has been
fermenting for 16 days. There was good activity in the airlock after
the first 24 hours, but there was not the boil over type foaming that
I was lead to expect. There is still a little activity evident
in the air locks, about 1 bubble per minute. The SG is about 1.002.
It seems to me that the fermentation is complete.
I have a few concerns / questions:
The mead in the plastic jug is quite clear with about 1/2 inch of
sediment in the bottom. The mead in the glass jugs still cloudy,
with a thicker sediment on the bottom. I am not sure why this is?
The glass jugs are 90% full, while the plastic jug is about 50%
full. Could this be a cause?
During the fermentation process I would give the containers a
gentle shake to stir things up a little. This produces a flurry
of activity. Even though the airlock activity is minimal now, I
can get it rolling with a nudge. Is the fermentation truly com-
plete? Is it a bad thing to do this? Should I add a wine stabil-
izer or kill the yeast with some other product?
After taking a SG reading this morning I sampled the mead. It
tastes quite a bit like other mead I have tried in the past, it
is rather dry. However it is quite bitter. Is this because of
the grape tannin I added to the must? Bottling and aging the
mead should mellow it out? Can someone give me some idea of how
long should this take? My lady does not like dry wines. I am
planning on adding more honey to the mixture before I finally
bottle it. I guess I will certainly need to kill off the yeast.
Any advice.
Well I guess I am taking up enough bandwidth. I appreciate all
the knowledge I have gained from this list and I hope my questions
will help others. Thanks in advance.
Willie
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Willie Peloquin PP-ASEL | I'm not a kid anymore, but this ain't no
wpeloqui@medar.com | midlife crisis, because whiskey and women
| have always been my vices! Bocephus
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Subject: Dadelion Mead
From: mattm@teleport.com (Matt Maples)
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 10:13:29 -0700
Has anyone out there done a dandelion mead? I have a recipe but is says not
to get and of the green petals, just the yellow ones. My question is if
anyone knows a good way to avoid getting the green petals without going mad.
At two quarts of yellow petals per gallon it takes a lot of dandelions. How
bad will it be if there are green petals in it? Eagerly waiting a reply.
Matt Maples
mattm@teleport.com
------------------------------
Subject: Honey in Vancouver WA
From: mattm@teleport.com (Matt Maples)
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 10:04:15 -0700
For all of you out there in the Portland/Vancouver area, I have found a
great place to buy honey. Mr. Weimer is an elderly gentleman who runs the
whole thing out of the back of his house. He sells his honey in quarts and
gallons and the honey is of the finest quality. He has a good range of
honeys from a light clover to raspberry to fire weed (which I think is a
great darker honey). I have always been pleased with his products and he's
a professional bee keeper though and though. So if you live in the area he
is worth checking out. If you are skittish about bees you should keep your
eyes open because some of the hives are not ten feet from the door.
Weimer's Honey Farm
3403 N.E. Ave.
Vancouver, WA 98662
Open all day every day except Sun.
P.S. I'm not related to him in any way. Just a happy customer that thinks
Mr. Weimer deserves to do well.
Matt Maples
mattm@teleport.com
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #395
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