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Mead Lovers Digest #0442
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #442, 2 November 1995
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #442 2 November 1995
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Ted Major's sourwood honey (BrewNews@aol.com)
Re: Ted Major/Sourwood Mead (Leonard Meuse)
Basic Small Mead question.. (Thomas Charron)
Re: Hazlenut Mead and Bee's Lees (Joyce Miller)
Sweet Mead... (John Crosswhite)
sulfites in mead (Richard Webb)
RE: Ale Yeasts in Mead (Douglas Kerfoot)
There was no Digest 439 (Mead Lover's Digest)
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests. When
subscribing, please include name and email address in body of message.
Digest archives and FAQ are available for anonymous ftp at ftp.stanford.edu
in pub/clubs/homebrew/mead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Ted Major's sourwood honey
From: BrewNews@aol.com
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 09:05:51 -0500
I too recently used sourwood honey to make mead. Mine has been fermenting for
about 12 weeks and when I racked it for the second time yesterday it tasted
very nice. I believe the flavor is stronger than wild flower or tupelo honey.
It's not as good for eating but better for mead making. I got my honey (both
wild flower and sourwood) in Boone, N.C. from a bee keeper for $2/lb. I have
found wild flower, orange blossom, tupelo, and gall berry (no sourwood) in
Florida for 77 cents/lb. if bought in 5 gal. containers or $1/lb. if bought
in one gal. containers. Best price I've ever seen.
Sara Doersam
BrewNews@aol.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Ted Major/Sourwood Mead
From: Leonard Meuse <meuse@u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 08:07:51 -0800 (PST)
I hav found a mere 3 pounds of Sourwood honey locally (Seattle).
2 1/2 of which was turned into a DELICIOUS dry traditional mead, only 1
gallon so it was gone WAY too quickly. I just pasteurized it, and added
some nutrients for the wee beasties, hit it with a pris do mousse
champagne yeast and let it go...YUMMY.
Oh, and if you happen to have any spare Sourwood honey...you could always
send it here :)
Len Meuse
>
> The best bulk honey prices I've found here (Athens, GA) range from $1.39/lb
> for Wildflower honey to $1.65/lb for Tupelo and $1.69/lb for Sourwood.
> Has anyone made a sourwood honey mead? It seems to have a very good aroma
> and flavor (stronger than the Tupelo I have in secondary right now).
> Seems like a good candidate for a tasty mead.
> Ted Major
> tmajor@parallel.park.uga.edu
>
> ------------------------------
------------------------------
Subject: Basic Small Mead question..
From: Thomas Charron <twolf@Empire.Net>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 11:12:54 -0500 (EST)
I'm curiouse about some information concerning this "basic small
mead" recipe that I've seen in several places.. This recipe I call a
"cheaters recipe", and requires you add Vodka or other such hard
liqiur.. Has anyone tried this? If so, how did it actually taste?
Seems to me it'd be kinda sweet, with all of that unchanged sugar in there..
Thomas Charon
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Hazlenut Mead and Bee's Lees
From: jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu (Joyce Miller)
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 15:36:06 -0500
>Should I boil the nuts with the water, add honey, cool and ferment, or boil
>the water, add honey and nuts then ferment ?
>
>Also should I grind or crush my nuts (the hazelnuts that is) prior to
>fermenting them with the mead or leave them whole?
>
>My main concern is about the fats/oils present in the hazelnuts and how they
>will affect the mead. Should I be concerned about this or just forget about
>it. I think that the oil would fload on the mead, then I could siphon the
>mead out from under the oil. Since I do not plan on boiling the nuts, would
>oil extraction even be a problem?
Yup, the oil will float on the mead. Trust me, I tried an almond mead a
few years back. I didn't boil it either, but it extracted out quite nicely
during fermentation. There was no discernable nut flavor, but there were a
lot of big oily drops on top of the mead, even at bottling. And it's
nearly impossible to get rid of, because it sticks to the inside of the
siphon tubing.
I recommend some good extract. Perhaps the stuff they use for the hazlenut
coffee.
- -- Joyce
P.S. Lee, I'm the one who edits the Bee's Lees.
=======================================================
Joyce Miller, Ph.D. jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu
Whitehead Institute / M.I.T. Center for Genome Research
617-252-1914 (phone) 617-252-1902 (FAX)
=======================================================
------------------------------
Subject: Sweet Mead...
From: John Crosswhite <crosswjo@hpcvusd.cv.hp.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 95 16:51:55 -0800
Well, I bottled my first batch of mead approximately 1 month ago.
The original gravity was right around 1.103. The final gravity fell to only
~.560.
The mead is still fairly sweet and, to tell you the truth, pretty tasty.
I popped a bottle about 1 week ago and could see that fermentation was
resuming in the bottle. Just a little carbonation. It added a very nice
effect to an already beautiful glass of nectar.
My question. The mead cleared and fermentation almost ceased after three
months. I wanted to make sure that the mead was sparkling without adding
any more sugar. I assumed that since the mead was clear and the fermentation
was almost complete that bottling at that point was fairly safe. Am I right
in this assumption?
Will I have to fear exploding bottles many months down the road?
My second question is: How is mead suppose to smell?
The mead looks and tastes wonderful. However, it does not smell like
anything I have smelled before. It is kind of a musty, fermented wine type
smell. I tried to analyze what, exactly, it smelled like but, I could come
to no conclusion. In other words, it doesn't smell that good. It doesn't
smell BAD...it just smells a little wierd.
Ughhh...this is hard to explain.
Any answers are appreciated. And I think I am going to do another batch very
soon. What are the BEST recipes you can recommend? I have already tried
traditional sparkling so I am looking for something different yet very, very
good.
Thanks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Crosswhite : E-Mail: crosswjo@cv.hp.com
System Administrator : Office: 503-715-4170
Hewlett Packard - Corvallis Site :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Subject: sulfites in mead
From: Richard Webb <rbw1271@husky.ca.boeing.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 07:19:41 -0800
A friend and I are going to make a BUNCH of mead soon, in quantity so
large that it rather overwhelms my small batch sensibilities. My friend
is also hot to use sulfites in the batch, in order to insure no continued
fermentation and also as a preservative. I'm not looking for a thread on
to sulfite or not. Rather, I'm looking for advice on how to and how
much to sulfite, and at what stage in the process. Is there anyone out
there with experience at such a thing? Inquiring minds want to know...
Rich Webb
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Ale Yeasts in Mead
From: dkerfoot@freenet.macatawa.org (Douglas Kerfoot)
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 20:10:00 -0500
I make a wonderful summer spritzer based on Papazian's Barkshack Gingermead.
Although I usually propigate my yeast from slants for my beer, I've had
great luck with Edme dry yeast for VERY quick results. Edme is famous for
overnight fermentations with beer ("I'm a new brewer and my first batch
hasn't started yet, what could be wrong?") and will finish off a light mead
in less than a week. I understand that it has three strains of yeast in it:
One for fast starts, One with high alcohol tolerance, and one that is a
strong floculater that pulls the other yeasts down with it.
Basic Recipe:
Boil 2 Oz of fresh ground ginger root and the grated peel of one orange in
about 1 1/2 gallons of water for 30 minutes. Scoop most of the chunks out.
Turn off heat and pour in 8 - 9 Lbs of honey. Pour into carboy 1/2 full
with cold water(I like to run my water through my $8.00 faucet filter to
remove the chlorine). Add remainder of orange and 1 - 2 tablespoons of
lemon juice or the juice from a grapefruit. (Because this ferments out very
dry, a little sourness goes a long way, don't overdo it)
Add some yeast nutrient, and top off with cold water. Temp should be below
90 degrees F. Add rehydrated Edme Yeast. Stand back.
In two to three weeks it should be pretty clear. I like to carbonate it in
a keg. I brought a keg of it to my homebrew club meeting when it was only
three weeks from brew day. They were amazed! ("I thought mead took a long
time to ferment?") Would it be better after aging? Probably, but I haven't
personally been able to keep a batch around for more than 2 months!
Doug Kerfoot (I like beer)
------------------------------
Subject: There was no Digest 439
From: mead@raven.eklektix.com (Mead Lover's Digest)
Date: 1 Nov 95 19:49:56 MST (Wed)
Thanks to John DeCarlo for pointing out that Digest 439 didn't show up.
Don't worry...nobody got one--not the archives, not even me. It was just a
skip in the numbering. (It's the result of a silly screwup in the diges-
ting script...the problem has been there for over two years and finally
showed up for the first time last week.)
- ---
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder, Colorado USA
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #442
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