Mead Lovers Digest #0497

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Mead Lovers Digest

 · 7 months ago

Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #497, 4 September 1996 
From: mead-request@talisman.com 

 
Mead Lover's Digest #497                                  4 September 1996 

            Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming 
                      Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor 

Contents: 
  re:boiling yeast ("Matthew W. Bryson") 
  Approaching Final Gravity... (MKoop1@aol.com) 
  Strange taste in first batch (Sheryl Nance-Durst) 

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Subject: re:boiling yeast 
From: "Matthew W. Bryson" <MWBryson@LANMAIL.RMC.COM> 
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 96 17:06:09 EDT 

   Jon Grim asked: 

The second carboy got Red Star Champagne, rehydrated according to the 
package.  I didn't have a thermometer and wasn't thinking, so I boiled the 
water, waited 10 minutes or so, then added the yeast to rehydrate it.   
Now, 
72 hours out, there is still no activity. 

Question #3: Did I kill my yeast by adding it to the boiled water too  
soon? 

========================================================================== 
== 

   Jon, I probably won't be the only one that replies to this, but an  
educated guess would be yes, you nuked that yeast pretty good. Toss some  
more yeast in there and you should be okay.. 

        Matthew Bryson 

------------------------------ 

Subject: Approaching Final Gravity... 
From: MKoop1@aol.com 
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 15:07:37 -0400 

 
Fellow bottle washers, 

This summer I have started my first meads/melomels using WYeast dry and sweet 
mead liquid yeasts.  During the second racking of my blueberry melomel, at 
six weeks, fermentatin seems to have significantly decreased.  No bubbles are 
seen on the surface, although the airlock shows some very slow movement.  The 
s.g. has dropped to 1.026 from an o.g. of 1.085.  After worrying a bit, (I 
know Papazian's reccomendations) I added a half tsp. of yeast extract in one 
cup preboiled water with no obvious change, (a mistake?).  Can anyone tell me 
if the activity I've observed is normal and possibly what the expected final 
gravity of a melomel using liquid sweet mead yeast might be? 

I have read and been told by friends that meads typically finish very close 
to 1.000.  While I am inclined to believe such testimony, I have noticed an 
inclination to rack and taste the mead before the yeast are done with it.  I 
am now forced to speculate whether the "end game" of this process is due more 
to fermentation, or to the addition of preboiled water, in order to reduce 
the head space in the carboy, after tasting.  Any honest or other valauble 
commentary would be appreciated, or feel free to e-mail me directly at 
mkoop1@aol.com. 

Mark Koopman 

P.S.- Does anyone know how to get back issues of the Mead Lover's Digest 
without  egaging in computer battle, in the attempt to decompress the 
Stanford Archives? 

------------------------------ 

Subject: Strange taste in first batch 
From: Sheryl Nance-Durst <P_SHERYL@KCPL.LIB.MO.US> 
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:03:26 -0500 (CDT) 

A question from a newbie to all those mead-gurus out there: 

I just racked my first batch of mead (strawberry melomel) into my 
secondary after 2 weeks of pretty vigorous fermentation.  The problem 
is that I noticed a very definite taste that can only be described  
as "plastic".  I've heard about all sorts of nasty smells & tastes 
from young meads that end up aging out.  Will this taste go away with 
aging?  And what exactly is it?  Did it pick up this taste from the 
plastic primary?  

I used a weak chlorine solution to sanitize my fermenters, but I thought 
that I rinsed it very well afterward.  I also boiled all of my water 
that I used in the batch.  I did use 1 Camden tablet per gallon to kill 
any nasties from the strawberries. 

Any help would be appreciated. 

Sheryl Nance-Durst 
p_sheryl@kcpl.lib.mo.us 

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #497 
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