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Mead Lovers Digest #0465
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #465, 5 March 1996
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #465 5 March 1996
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re:various comments (Tom Messenger)
Metheglins (Tom Nickel)
Lavender Mead (m.nidana@genie.com)
Chris Webster's problems (Paul Mozdziak)
Varietal mead / competition (MicahM1269@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #464, 3 March 1996 (MicahM1269@aol.com)
Mead Lover's Digest #464, (Charles Dewar)
Meads to Date, Advice Sought, and Questions... ("Charlie Moody")
re:Mead Lover's Digest #464, 3 March 1996 ("Matthew W. Bryson")
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re:various comments
From: Tom Messenger <kmesseng@slonet.org>
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 21:14:22 -0800 (PST)
Random and various comments on a recent mead digest....
>Subject: Metheglin recipes?
>From: murray@indigo2.scri.fsu.edu (John R. Murray)
..
> fennel (?)
..
>(the last few don't sound all that appealing, but just in case someone's
>tried them...)
I have no first hand experience here but I do have first tongue experience
with a fennel brew. It was a fennel-assisted beer rather than a mead but
was delightful tasting. The brewer went light on the fennel (something like
two or three tablespoonsful of wild fennel seeds) but it came through just
right in the brew. For the record, I cannot tolerate ouzo, so you can see
that it was not excessive. To each their own.
And now for a completely different topic: contests!
>Subject: Re: Downgrading for bottles
>From: jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu (Joyce Miller)
>Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 16:22:16 -0500
>
>> I entered the last Capitol District Open and was rather dismayed to have
>> been down rated by one of the judges for "not using a beer bottle like
>> everyone else". I used a perfectly legitimate green "wine bottle".
>
>There should be no points awarded or removed for the "Bottle inspection"
>portion of the scoresheet. If they used BJCP judges for this event, your
>scoresheet should have an address to write to on the bottom. (at The
>Celebrator). If the judge REALLY DID take off points because of your
>bottle, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE write to the BJCP program, and send them a
>copy of your scoresheet. That guy has to take remedial judging. If he just
>made a flippant comment, well, he's just a jerk, and maybe you shouldn't
>bother the BJCP about it. They're pretty busy right now getting their act
>in gear.
>
>In general, if you get a really bad scoresheet, that has insulting or
>incomprehensible comments on it, definitely write to the BJCP Program
>coordinators. Nothing will ever get fixed if they don't know what's going
>on.
Please ignore the following: rant mode on. I am not a contest enthusiast.
The above is part of the reason why. In their inability to judge properly,
judges fall back on bullshit like "was it bottled properly?". Just who the
heck are you making mead for? You or some clown who hasn't got a friggin
clue? It's fun to collect ribbons of course and better brewers probably
collect more ribbons than inferior brewers but when all is said and done,
you are the sole arbiter of your brews. If you like it, then it's good enough.
Judge yourself harshly, though; would you feel good about it if you had just
laid down ten bucks at the corner liquor store for a fifth of this or that
particular mead? I taste every mead I make with the goal in mind of "is this
really a quality beverage or does it have some problems?" and if so what
problems? Early on, every brew I made I thought was sent down from heaven.
But after a while, a discriminating palate was developed and now I strive
for perfection even if it can never be reached. The main thing is to get
above a threshold where the "bad parts" are not noticed in light of the
"good parts".
Rant mode off. Kudos to Joyce for encouraging people to write and complain
about the sort of crap described. They won't change it if you don't write.
If you do enjoy contests (more power to you), try to see that they are
conducted in a reasonable manner. Good luck to you and remember:
Brew Early and Brew Often!
- --------------------------------
Tom Messenger,
Los Osos, California, USA
kmesseng@slonet.org
- --------------------------------
------------------------------
Subject: Metheglins
From: tnickel@connectnet.com (Tom Nickel)
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 02:55:33 -0800 (PST)
>From John's questions on Methglin recipes, another interesting source is
the pamphlet on Mead by Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey. He writes:
"A great variety of herbs and spices is often recommended in different
recipes. One includes thyme, rosemary, sweet briar and other herbs; others
insist on such ingredients as bitter almonds, ginger, elder, hops and rum
(of all things): another, various spices, such as cloves, mace, nutmeg and
cinnamon. I believe most of these ingredients are much better omitted"
I myself have used fennel and anise in wheat beers with great success.
Wormwood works well in beer if you use NO bittering hops whatsoever and
soak it in a secondary fermentor--the bitterness is still strong. Cilantro
in my experience has just mellowed to end up tasting much like corriander.
The rest I have never used, but I hope that helps.
Brother Adam also mentions that he personally likes cloves and cinnamon
bark at the rate of 1/4 oz cloves and 1 1/2 oz cinnamon bark to 10 gallons
to be placed when aging the mead in a cask (or secondary). He believes too
that lemon peel works well in sack meads and I wholeheartedly agree having
done it before.
The Brother Adam pamphlet is readily available. It is short, and his
opinions are strong, but very interesting. It was written in 1953 and is a
nice slice of mead history. If anyone wants one, email me and I'll get you
the address.
On a totally different topic, is there any traditional Spring mead that
would be made on the first day of Spring? Or is it just up to us to start
our own traditional Spring mead?
Cheers
Tom
------------------------------
Subject: Lavender Mead
From: m.nidana@genie.com
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 96 11:45:00 UTC 0000
from The Bees Lees in the Cat's Meow...http://alpha.rollanet.org/cm3/recs
(where there are LOTS of recipes)
Source: Leigh Ann Hussey (leighann@sybase.com), Mead Digest #177, 7/21/93
Procedure:
Boil together honey and 1/2 gallon water for 5 minutes. Put flowers
with citric acid and tannin in a gallon jug and pour the hot liquid over.
Let cool in a sink of cold water to room temperature, then add yeast and
nutrient and further water to make a gallon plus a pint. Add the airlock.
Let ferment 1 week, then strain out the flowers. Set the lock on again and
ferment until all quiet. Bottle and age.
Second ferment: 112 days
Ageing (so far): 109 days and already great.
We (my partner and I) think this would make a great Beltaine mead, so are
planning to try it in late April (for 1997 use!). This was posted
apparently several years ago--Leigh Ann Hussey, how did it turn out? Would
you do anything different now? Did anyone else try this, and what were your
results? We'd love to have the benefit of some experience (we just made our
7th batch of mead, over a several year period, but production is increasing!)
A specific question: what does it mean to make a gallon plus a pint in a
gallon jug? How is this possible?
Oh, BTW, I'm new on the Digest, so forgive me if I've covered recently
covered ground here...I'm just so jazzed to have found this list.
Morgaine NiDana
San Francisco, CA
m.nidana@genie.com
------------------------------
Subject: Chris Webster's problems
From: Paul Mozdziak <pemozdzi@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 05:56:04 -0600
>I made a mead out of Papazian's "Joy of. . ." called Barkershack Mead
>(or something like that). Called for 7 lbs honey and I also used
>5lbs grapes. Used 1 package of dry champagne yeast. 48 hours later
>still no fermentation. Local beer store told me I need to use 4-5
>packages of this yeast (I made 5 gallons). Book only called for 1 or
>2 packages. This is my first mead and I am a bit concerned (I know,
The amount of yeast sounds fine--but #1 what was your starting specific gravity?
If you try starting over 1.120--you will have problems from my experience.
#2 You may need to add some yeast energizer and/or yeast nutrient. I always
add these to my pyments.
I use Lalvin EC-1118 yeasties (I think that's the number) 15 pounds of the
cheapest honey I can buy (generally from Sam's Wholesale clubs) and 1 can of
Alexanders wine concentrate, and dilute to 5 gallons. I've never had
problems with this recipe--although I did have a problem when I bumped it up
to 2 cans of concentrate with the 15 pounds of honey. I have had very good
luck with this base recipe and I've made 30 gallons=6 batches within the
last year.
Paul Mozdziak
NASA Space Biology Research Associate
Department of Anatomy
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Phone 608-262-5984
Paul Mozdziak
NASA Space Biology Research Associate
Department of Anatomy
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Phone 608-262-5984
------------------------------
Subject: Varietal mead / competition
From: MicahM1269@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 08:01:19 -0500
Since this thread about mead competitions has been going for a while I felt
compelled to input. There has been discussion about award winning meads that
where not made with the varietal honey that they were purported to have been.
I think that if this is true that it is quite unfortunate. I have however
observed a similar thing to happen when judging homebrews at contests. For
example, someones totally infected beer wins a best of show as a berlinner
weiss ( this really happened ). So I suppose that it should be expected that
someone with a certain floral nose to their mead might enter it as a varietal
to increase their odds of winning. In this case, as in mead judging as a
whole, we have to give some sence of ability to the judges. I have judged
many meads in various competitions and have seen a wide range of ability in
the judges themselves and in their recognition of specific honeys. Over ther
last few years this is something that has improved and hopefully will
continue to improve. IMHO
BTW, I have made a great many meads with orange blossom honey. And I would be
very suprised I ( as a mead judge ) could not tell it from some other honey.
Would some kind soul send me Dan McConnels email address
TIA
micah millspaw
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #464, 3 March 1996
From: MicahM1269@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 08:12:51 -0500
In a message dated 96-03-03 16:32:55 EST, you write:
>Subject: Re: Downgrading for bottles
>From: jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu (Joyce Miller)
>Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 16:22:16 -0500
>
>> I entered the last Capitol District Open and was rather dismayed to have
>> been down rated by one of the judges for "not using a beer bottle like
>> everyone else". I used a perfectly legitimate green "wine bottle".
>
>There should be no points awarded or removed for the "Bottle inspection"
>portion of the scoresheet. If they used BJCP judges for this event, your
>scoresheet should have an address to write to on the bottom. (at The
>Celebrator). If the judge REALLY DID take off points because of your
>bottle, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE write to the BJCP program, and send them a
>copy of your scoresheet. That guy has to take remedial judging. If he just
>made a flippant comment, well, he's just a jerk, and maybe you shouldn't
>bother the BJCP about it. They're pretty busy right now getting their act
>in gear.
>
>In general, if you get a really bad scoresheet, that has insulting or
>incomprehensible comments on it, definitely write to the BJCP Program
>coordinators. Nothing will ever get fixed if they don't know what's going
>on.
>
>- -- Joyce
I too have seen this bottle down grading place place in AHA sanctioned
competitions.
In fact as a judge I have been on panels where we were told to evaluate the
entry ( mead ) and score it but that it could not win as is was disqualified
for being in a clear bottle.
I have also see meads being disqualifed for being corked.
just adding to the stew.
micah millspaw
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #464,
From: charles.dewar@launch.net (Charles Dewar)
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 01:22:00 GMT
ME>Subject: no fermentation
ME>From: Chris Webster <chrisw@meridianvat.com>
ME>Date: Thu, 29 Feb 96 10:24:26 PST
ME>I made a mead out of Papazian's "Joy of. . ." called Barkershack Mead
ME>(or something like that). Called for 7 lbs honey and I also used
ME>5lbs grapes. Used 1 package of dry champagne yeast. 48 hours later
ME>still no fermentation. Local beer store told me I need to use 4-5
ME>packages of this yeast (I made 5 gallons). Book only called for 1 or
1 Package is enough... but a starter might've helped. Did you use any
yeast nutrients? Did you rehydrate the yeast first? Fill in exactly
how you made the mead.
Oh, 4 to 5 packages is ridiculous.
Charles
- ---
* OLX 2.2 TD * charles.dewar@launch.net
------------------------------
Subject: Meads to Date, Advice Sought, and Questions...
From: "Charlie Moody" <chmood@photobooks.atdc.gatech.edu>
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 11:28:55 -0500 (EST)
Hello, everyone:
In a month of mead-making, I've put three batches up to ferment, and I'd
like to share my log w/ the group for comments. I have to say I'm having
a *terrific* time reading the digest archives (again), and making mead,
and sitting with my bottles & listening to them burble and click. It
smells great over by the mead, and I like watching the bits swirl
around.
I guess I've got it bad; anyone else exhibit such strange behaviour w/
their meads?
MEAD the First: Tonic Metheglyn 02/04/96
'Shaolin Joy Juice'
I've been interested in medicine and herbology (particularly Chinese) for
a long time, and so when I read about metheglyns, my interest (already
high) definitely perked up. Naturally, I wanted to make a
medicine-metheglyn: one w/ tonic herbs, not just s pices, but it seems
that none of the recipes (save those, perhaps, of Sir Digbie) use, or even
discuss tonic herbs...just flavorings.
Undaunted, I burrowed my way into my health shelf for info on tonic herbs,
even while I was inhaling NCJoH and the MLD archives, and after a while,
pieced together a tonic herbal recipe.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICE: this recipe is EXPERIMENTAL - do NOT try this at home!!!
This recipe is a starting point for my own investigations, and is certain
to mutate considerably before it becomes a balanced and recommendable
tonic. Your health, safety and comfort are YOUR responsibility: mess
around w/ chinese herbs and you do so *e ntirely* at YOUR *OWN* RISK!
1 part each: tang kuei polygonum multiflorum
lychii fruit schizandra berries
asparagi rehmannia (processed)
licorice root morindae
atractylodis
2 parts each: ginseng, chinese astragalus
ginseng, american jujube dates
1/2 part: eucommia bark
trace/pinch: peony root
gum frankincense
gum myrrh
Creating an extraction from the herbs took pretty much all of 2/3/96
(9am-1am); double-container water bath method, three rounds.
Result: 3 quarts of fluid extract.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday morning, the mead-making began in earnest:
10 lbs honey, generic (Sam's Club)
1 gal water, spring
3 qts herb extract
flavorings:
ginger, 8 oz peeled, thin-sliced, and soaked in honey
cardamom seeds, green, 3 pods' worth
limes, 2, thin-sliced
raisins, 1 cup
mace, 1 tsp
cinnamon, crushed, 1 stick, in a tied muslin bag
cloves, crushed, 1 tsp, " " " " " " " "
nutmeg, crushed, 1 nut, " " " " " " " "
1 pint yeast starter:
raisins, mashed, .25 cup
honey, generic, .50 cup
water, boiling, 1.50 cup
yeast, RS Pasteur Champagne, 1 pkt
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
So: I boiled 1 gal. water, added 1 gal honey, and all the flavorings, and
brought the temperature up; I figured I'd let the scum rise & skim it
off, but not actually boil it. Didn't occur to me that a lot of the
flavorings would float....
I skimmed off the scum (and most of the raisins & mace & lime), and pulled
out about half the ginger (the more I thought about it, the more I began
to doubt using so much...). Eventually, the scum slowed down; I cut the
heat off, added the herb extract, and set it in the sink to cool (that was
the weekend it was 50 below in Minnesota, so no ice was necessary ;)).
Because of the herbs, I kept the pot covered. In future batches, I'll
just add the already-pasteurised extract to the pitching bucket & save
myself the extra grief.
When the must had cooled to 95F, I poured it into the bucket, along with a
half-gallon of ice water, snapped on the lid, and shook it hard for a
while. Pulling the lid off, I dipped a test sample, and pitched the
starter.
Original gravity is 1.1225 (!)
After repeating the shaking, I poured off into a 3-gal carboy. O gawd,
it's filling up too fast - do I have another jug? Found a half-gallon
jug, did a quickie sterilisation on it (difficult to do w/ crossed
fingers), and gave it the rest. (Turns out I have almost *exactly* 3
gallons, but hey....)
Eighteen hours later, it's bubbling once every 10 seconds!
03/04/96 - After a month, it had slowed to once in 40 seconds, so
yesterday afternoon, I poured the half-gallon into the carboy, added 3
yeast energiser tablets, and 2 teaspoons of yeast hulls. As of 19:52
today, it's bubbling every 7 seconds.
S.G. = 1.040, as of 15:00 yesterday.
============================================================================
MEAD the 2nd: 'Tropical Ambrosia' Melomel 03/02/96
'Fruit-Cocktail' Melomel
14.5 # orange blossom honey (unprocessed?)
4.5 G spring water
2 pineapples, from maui, peeled & chunked
4 mangoes, from mexico, peeled & chunked
1 tangerine, organic (kimmow?), sliced & seeded
cranberries, dried (no sulphites), 2 cups
ginger juice, hawaiian baby, 7 ounces
tea, strong, black, 1 cup
zest of 2 limes
love of 3 oranges (no, I mean zest! ;)
yeast hulls, 3.5 tsp
7 yeast energiser tablets (B-1 & lactose)
1 qt yeast starter:
bread yeast, 3 packets
water, boiling, 2.5 pints
honey, generic, 1 cup
yeast, RS Premier Couvee, 2 packets
What an incredible mess I've made!!!
Sevananda, the local co-op, had some real nice orange blossom honey, and
the idea here is to use fruits that will support and enhance the flavor of
the honey. I thought the cranberries would make a nice counterpoint to
all the sweet fruit, and that the t ea might add depth, or character, or
something.
I heated 2 gallons of water, then added 5 quarts of the honey, got it all
stirred in, then brought the temp. up to about 180F. Kept it there for 30
min. Everything went fine until I started adding the fruit to the must.
I quickly realised that the pot I was cooking in was running out of room,
and I still had plenty of fruit to go!
I grabbed my half-gallon pyrex cup & scooped out about 3 pints, and added
the rest of the fruit to it, stuck it in the microwave & zapped it several
times, stirring after each zap, while struggling to get a completely-full
4-gallon pot off the stove and i nto to sink to cool. *sigh* Not all the
must made it.
The stuff was thick as anything and *extremely* sweet (apparently even
more so than my first must (SG=1.1225)), so I figured I'd better dilute it
some...oops, then I had 6.5 G of must filling up my 6.5 G fermenting
bucket! *sigh* Now it's a two-carboy b atch...at least there was room for
the yeast!
Ever try to pick up a *full* 6.5 G bucket & pour it *all* into a funnel
perched on top of a carboy? *sigh* Of course you haven't, and neither
have I: I started bailing into the funnel, and making an incredible wreck
of the kitchen...which I managed to track all over the carpet....
By this time, I had fruit clogging the funnel, pools of fresh honey-glue
creeping across my kitchen counters and floor, sticky spots on the floor
throughout the house, and two open carboys, but I finally got the fruit
distributed between the bottles, got the fruit *rammed* through the funnel
and *into* the carboys (*grrr*), locks installed, and everything cleaned
up (or at least, wiped down).
No, I'm fine, really...*pant*pant*pant*....
The result? I now have +/- 7 gallons of fruit-punch melomel producing CO2
in industrial quantities: bubbling about every 1.5 seconds. The stuff
smells and tastes heavenly, but the must is really much too sweet for me
to drink, even though the starting gravity is 'only' 1.090.
This batch was much more work than my first one, even though the first
batch took me a full 2 days, what w/ the herbs and all. Partly, I was
thrown by my mis-calculation of the must's volume, and that had me playing
catch-up from then on.
03/04/96 - After 48 hours, it's bubbling once every second, and still
smelling incredible!
03/05/96 - I just noticed what seems to be a crack in the 5-gallon carboy,
and (very) minor seepage around it. Was this crack there before? Did I
somehow knock the bottle against another, and if so, is there *loose*
*glass* in my mead??? I suppose CARE FUL racking might take care of
it.... I would *hate* to have to throw this out!
============================================================================
MEAD the Third: (mostly) Traditional Tupelo Honey 03/03/96
After making such elaborate & exotic brews for my first 2 musts, I figured
I'd make this one simple and straightforward.
12.5 # tupelo honey (unprocessed?)
3.5 G spring water
1.0 pt "acid blend":
cranberries, dried, 1 cup
tea, strong, black, 1 cup
lemon juice, from 2 lemons
1.0 T yeast hulls
6 each yeast energiser tablets (B-1 & lactose (?))
.75 G yeast starter:
bread yeast, 3 packets
water, boiling, 2.5 pints
honey, generic, 1 cup
yeast, RS Premier Couvee, 2 packets
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's it. Nothing fancy about this one, but so what? My first two meads
were real production numbers!
Fixed up the starter this afternoon: emptied the bread yeast into a 1/2 G
pyrex measuring cup (thank the gods for pyrex!), whisked it into a cup of
boiling water; added a cup of honey & whisked that in, then added water
to 3 pints. When it had cooled t o about 80F, I added 2 packets of
premier couvee yeast, poured it off into a half-gallon jug, capped it &
shook. Within an hour, the lid was chattering away happily.
After sterilising everything, I brought 2 G of spring water to a boil,
added 4 quarts of tupelo honey from the local co-op, brought it up to 180F
& kept it there for 30 min. Turned off the stove & added the "acid
blend". I thought the lemon would be a n ice note w/ the tupelo, and the
cranberries' tartness a nice contrast. The tea was added for 'depth' (?).
Then the hulls & energiser got stirred well in, and the whole thing sat in
an ice bath in the sink for an hour or so.
Poured the must into 1.5 gallons of cold water, & quickly scooped some up
for the gravity test: 1.100, on the nose! The flavor is much milder than
I'd expected, and there's less of a sense of sweetness than my other musts
(generic/1.1225, orange/1.090).
I still have a quart of that same honey, and I'll probably be feeding this
one as it goes along, if the premier couvee is as attenuative as everyone
says.
I'd like this one to end up as a sippin' mead, with just enough sweetness
to balance the tupelo signature & the "acid blend" ('course, who knows if
there's enough of any of that to make a difference?).
This was my second batch of mead in two days, and it was a marked contrast
to last night's performance. Very businesslike: I was well set-up, knew
what I wanted to do, ran thru it dry, then just did it. I had no desire
to repeat last night's mess (and its laborious cleanup)!
I really wonder about that starting gravity: it just doesn't seem like
it's as sweet as it 'should' be. I'd just dumped the must in, so it
"must" have been pretty well mixed, mustn't it? Last night's melomel
seemed dramatically sweeter than this, with an SG of 1.090. Am I missing
something obvious?
03/04/96 - bubbling once every 2 seconds. Smells remarkably like tupelo
honey....
============================================================================
The Fourth Mead: A Chocolate Malted Mead 03/04/96
I bought a "kit" beer from Harry a week or so ago, and he sent a 2-lb tub
of amber malt extract with me. The stuff *smells* yummy, and I got to
thinking (yes, a dangerous thing!) that this is the same stuff they put
into malted milk...I'm a big fan of ma lted milk, especially with
chocolate....
So, of course, a Chocolate Malted Mead:
PROPOSED: 1/3 honey, mild!
1/3 malt, light
1/3 honey/malt mix, carmelised carefully
2/3 milk
1/3 cream
chocolate / cocoa
2-3 vanilla beans
1-2 nutmegs?
1-2 cinnamons?
SO, here are my questions:
Suppose one wanted to carefully and deliberately caramelise either honey or
malt: how might one go about doing it?
What's the current state of the art regarding chocolate in meading / brewing?
With honey season coming up (I think), are there folks in the realm who
would be interested in trading their local honeys for what's more common
elsewhere? For example, here in the south, we get a lot of wildflower
honey, also sourwood & basswood; orange and tupelo are available, but
more expensive, and stuff like fireweed, mesquite, and buckwheat are only
available rarely, at $1/oz, in tiny jars in pricey stores. It would be
great if I could trade a gallon of Southern Wildflower for a gallon of
mesquite. Anyone interested?
What would be some good ways of preserving the characteristic malt flavor
when brewing?
To the Boulder contingent: I'll be in Boulder during the middle of the
month. I'm planning to visit the AHA / ZYMURGY office; are there other
points of interest for the meakmaker / brewer? Any pubs I shouldn't miss
or brews I should try?
Thanks as always for the Digest, and to everyone here, and to Dick, for
keeping track of it all!
- --
Charlie Moody
PGP Public Key: finger -l chmood@photobooks.atdc.gatech.edu
PGP Fingerprint: 7F 0D 9E 8C 7E DF 33 11 2C 2B B8 19 6C 0F 2C 02
------------------------------
Subject: re:Mead Lover's Digest #464, 3 March 1996
From: "Matthew W. Bryson" <MWBryson@LANMAIL.RMC.COM>
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 96 16:39:05 EST
>I made a mead out of Papazian's "Joy of. . ." called Barkershack Mead
>(or something like that). Called for 7 lbs honey and I also used
>5lbs grapes. Used 1 package of dry champagne yeast. 48 hours later
>still no fermentation. Local beer store told me I need to use 4-5
>packages of this yeast (I made 5 gallons). Book only called for 1 or
>2 packages. This is my first mead and I am a bit concerned (I know,
>"don't worry..."). Anyone ever made this or have any advice about
>the amount of yeast?
>Chris
Chris,
I don't know who would tell you to use 5 packages of champagne yeast for 5
gallons of mead. 1-2 packages should work great; my meads foam vigorously
with only 1 package of champagne yeast. My personal opinion is that after
48 hours of no activity I'd give up the yeast as dead and pitch another.
Of course, as soon as I say this, your yeast will start visible
fermentation.
Good luck in this matter,
Matthew Bryson
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #465
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