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Mead Lovers Digest #0376
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #376, 26 December 1994
From: mead-lovers-request@eklektix.com
Mead Lover's Digest #376 26 December 1994
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #375,... (MEADMSTR@aol.com)
Re: Mead Yeast Advice (Steve E. Mercer)
Yeast varieties (Steve E. Mercer)
new digest addresses (Mead Lover's Digest)
converted freezers and the refrigerator smell (Dieter Dworkin Muller)
re: Bubblegum flavors from Montrachet yeast (Dick Dunn)
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------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #375,...
From: MEADMSTR@aol.com
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 10:15:00 -0500
>>Subject: Lactic acid in mead, anyone?
>>From: "Steven W. Smith" <SYSSWS@gc.maricopa.edu>
>>Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 10:11:04 -0700 (MST)
>> I've been wanting to make a sparking mead but don't want
>>to create grenades as the yeast goes slowly about it's task. >>"What if"
the mead was bottled while still fermenting, sampled >>occasionally (I hate
that part), then set in hot water (maybe >>175F-ish?) to kill the yeast when
the right level of carbonation was >>achieved?
I really would discourage this idea. If you are fermenting in the bottle,
with ordinary sugar levels, this can and WILL develop pressures greater than
300psi, or until the rupture pressure of the bottle and or cork system you
would use is exceeded. 1 5/8 % sugar develops 55psi ( standard sparkling wine
sugar percentage prior to bottling ).
I once made a great mistake and thought I had 1 3/8% when actually it was 3
3/8 %...... When the bottles exploded, it had enough force to send the glass
through the dry wall.
Besides that, I would think you would lose an awfull lot of mead when you
were sampling ( due to pressure equalization ).
Sparkling mead is typically made by first producing a mead..... that
has up 1 5/8% residual sugar. Then champagne yeast is added and allowed to
ferment in the bottle ( totally sealed ). Over time the carbonation is
adsorbed into solution, giving good sparkles..... Fermentation time in the
bottle is about 1 year or so....
Wassail and happing brewing
Mjodalfr aka meadmstr@aol.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Yeast Advice
From: mercese@anubis.network.com (Steve E. Mercer)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 94 15:06:03 CST
> I am about to make a 5 gallon batch of plain, still mead. The two yeasts I
> have available are Wyeast Champagne and Wyeast Dry Mead. I want to make a
> mead that is dry, but still has a residual sweetness. I'm afraid that if I
> use my usual 15 pounds-per-gallon with either of these yeasts it will end up
> a little on the eye-squinting dry side. I would welcome suggestions on
> which yeast to use and on whether or not to use more honey.
Hmmm, 15 pounds of honey per gallon? That would be a neat trick.
(honey weighs about 12 pounds per gallon)
Assuming that you meant 15 pounds for a 5-gallon batch, this would be
only three pounds per gallon. A mead fermented with a dry-mead or
champaigne yeast would almost certainly end up dry.
If you want a sweet mead I would suggest using a less-attenuative yeast.
Below is a table comparing several yeasts used to make mead. I normally
use the Yeastlab-Sweet for sweet meads.
>From: "Daniel F McConnell" <Daniel.F.McConnell@med.umich.edu>
>Date: 19 Jul 1994 14:15:20 -0400
> [2.5 lbs of honey/gal yielding OG of 1.094]
>HONEY YEAST OG TG
>----------------------------------------------------
>Clover Prisse de Mousse 1.094 0.992
>Clover YeastLab-dry 1.094 1.000
>Clover Riesling 1.094 1.007
>Clover YeastLab-sweet 1.094 1.009
>Clover Epernay 1.094 1.011
>Clover Tokay 1.094 1.015
---
Steve Mercer
steve.mercer@network.com
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast varieties
From: mercese@anubis.network.com (Steve E. Mercer)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 94 15:11:59 CST
Can anybody fill in or verify
The information below?
Product Name Yeast Strain
----------------------------
Yeastlab-Dry Champaigne(?)
Yeastlab-Sweet Steinberg Riesling
Wyeast-Dry Prisse de Mousse(?)
Wyeast-Sweet (?)
---
Steve Mercer
steve.mercer@network.com
------------------------------
Subject: new digest addresses
From: mead@raven.eklektix.com (Mead Lover's Digest)
Date: 23 Dec 94 07:56:35 MST (Fri)
In comments so far, folks have a strong preference for shorter email
addresses for the digest...so the new addresses will be
mead@talisman.com
mead-request@talisman.com
These are active now, and I'll be slowly moving various pointers to the
new addresses.
There's no clear preference for short _vs_ long digest name so far, so
I'll just leave it as-is, "Mead Lover's Digest"
-Dick
------------------------------
Subject: converted freezers and the refrigerator smell
From: Dieter Dworkin Muller <dworkin@village.org>
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 22:24:13 -0700
I've gotten some good meads recently, and decided to take the next
quality control step of controlling fermentation temperature. This
has taken the form of a large chest freezer and an add-on thermostat.
The problem I'm noticing is that, since the thing is sitting at 60 to
65 degrees, it's not cold enough to suppress that smell that always
shows up in turned-off refrigerators that have been left closed.
Anyone have any suggestions? I've thought of a regular bleach bath,
but I'm not that fond of things that burn my lungs....
Dworkin
p.s. As to the proposed list name change, I like it the way it is.
Makes the group seem more friendly ;-)
------------------------------
Subject: re: Bubblegum flavors from Montrachet yeast
From: rcd@raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 25 Dec 94 09:12:54 MST (Sun)
Jacob Galley <gal2@midway.uchicago.edu> writes about a young mead...
> ...fermented with Montrachet yeast. It had been sitting in the
> secondary fermentor for about 4 months, so it's already tasty. But my
> friend (hi Russ!) says he detects an unpleasant "bubblegum" flavor. I
> can't taste it myself, but I was wondering, is this typical of the
> flavor profile of Montrachet yeast?...
I've had off-flavors with Montrachet, and I suppose "bubble-gum" would be a
way to describe them. Whatever ester it actually is, I've gotten it more
than once with Montrachet and not--to any noticeable level anyway--with the
other yeasts I use, so I just quit using Montrachet. (That doesn't resolve
the issue, of course...but it solves the problem for me.)
What brand of yeast was it?
---
Dick Dunn rcd@eklektix.com -or- raven!rcd Boulder, Colorado USA
...Simpler is better.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #376
