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Mead Lovers Digest #0495
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #495, 22 August 1996
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #495 22 August 1996
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
re: Pineapple? (Dick Dunn)
heather honey (JUKNALIS)
Re: Hawaiian Meaderies and Such (CLSAXER@aol.com)
Pineapple (Douglas Thomas)
Pineapple Wine - and more PH related questions ("Suzanne Berry")
Re: Pineapple? ("Chuck Graves")
Failed mead (Kurt Schilling)
2 week fermentation (mattm@ipacrx.com)
Moldy Mead (D1FKV0W@BATLAN.BELL-ATL.COM)
Nutrient mixes ("Olin J. Schultz")
Metheglin recipe request (Jonathan Miran)
Re: plastic buckets vs glass (Rebecca Sobol)
Re: show vs. traditional (Steve Dempsey)
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: re: Pineapple?
From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 19 Aug 96 23:53:08 MDT (Mon)
duff@tam2000.tamu.edu (Duff Hickman) writes:
> ...Has anyone tried using pineapple as a fruit (as opposed to an
> extract) in melomels? I really like pineapple but, since the taste isn't
> that strong, I didn't know if it would take barrels of the stuff to get a
> good aroma and taste in the finished product...
I've had a pineapple melomel. The idea definitely works. Of course, it's
subject to the usual meadmaking surprise...in effect, "Oh, so that's what a
<pineapple> would taste like with absolutely no sugar and 10% alcohol!"
But other than the usual caveat, yes, it produces a very nice mead. The
one I had was made by a friend, so I don't know the details (I'll try to
find them), but I don't believe it had any astonishing amount of pineapple
in it.
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: heather honey
From: JUKNALIS <juknalis@ARSERRC.Gov>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 08:53:29 -0500 (EST)
Anyone know of a source of heather honey in the general Philly area? (or mail
order outside of the area?).
thanks
Joe
juknalis@arserrc.gov
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Hawaiian Meaderies and Such
From: CLSAXER@aol.com
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 10:53:34 -0400
I too will be visiting Hawaii with a friend next summer, and we are
interested in any info. on local meaderies or other establishments of
fermentation. We will be bringing a supply of our own mead, but as we will be
doing the full cycle of the moon ritual, local suppliers of Hawaiian meads
would be a good thing to know about.
The American Mead Association's Meadmaker's Journal 95 lists:
Volcano Winery
PO Box 843
Volcano, Hawaii 96785
(808) 967-7479
"Produces a mead from lehua blossom honey. Also makes wines from passion
fruit, star fruit, and symphony grapes."
The American Homebrewers Association's Zymurgy Magazine lists the following
homebrew clubs in Hawaii:
Deja Brews Homebrewing Club of Kaua'i
4915 Nonou Rd.
Kapaa, Hawaii 96746
(808) 823-8929
Hawaiian Homebrewers Association
PO Box 852
Hauula, Hawaii 96717
(808) 293-2229
These good folks should be able to help you find locally fermented beverages.
Does anyone else out there have any other leads?
Thanks, Fred, for the tip on braggot yeast types. The Scottish ale yeast
sounds like just the ticket; good alcohol tolerance, hints of diacetyl, nice
residual sweetness...
I'll let you know how they turn out.
Las Abejas Son Mis Amigas
Carl L. Saxer
CLSAXER@aol.com
------------------------------
Subject: Pineapple
From: Douglas Thomas <thomasd@uchastings.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 08:10:54 -0700 (PDT)
I have experience with using pineapple in wine and beer. Last year I
made a pineapple wine. I used 2 1/2 gallons of juice for a 5 gallon
batch. This gave a good flavor and nice light gold color, but was a
little acidic. You will have to check your pH carefully. In beer, a
friend of mine and I made a batch of pineapple wheat. We used 15 pounds
of extremely ripe (low acid, high sugar) pineapple. It turned out
great. A little high on the alcohol, but a stupendous flavor. It had a
slightly high acid, but actually made it a good crisp summer drink.
Perfect chilled, for a hot day.
Now I have a question. I am making a batch of blueberry wine using
Lalvin Champagne. It works great, has a clean flavor, but....
it ferments too well. I have tried stopping it in all the usual
manners. Poly sorbate/campden combination, and it goes merrily along
fermenting. Any suggestions? I have used this yeast before, but never
with such vigor. I know that sounds wierd, too vigorous, but in 2 weeks
it has converted almost everything, and I want to keep a hint of sugar in
it. ARGH!
Thanks all, hope the pineapple info helps
Doug Thomas
------------------------------
Subject: Pineapple Wine - and more PH related questions
From: "Suzanne Berry" <sberry@primavera.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 96 11:38:00 EST
Duff, I have a recipe here for Pineapple Wine, but not for a mead...
I've a book Guide to Better Wine and Beer making for Beginners by SM
Tritton and originally published in 1965... it's got well over 100
recipies in it, if anyone's looking for anything odd... anyhow, for a
pineapple wine, it calls for 2 1/4 - 3 pounds of finely chopped pineapple
to make a one gallon batch.
As far as Ph - I've been experimenting with brewing for about a year now,
and am very interested in the discussion of how the Ph can affect the
speed of fermentation. In the last posting, it mentioned that you wanted
to use the smallest possible amounts of calcium carbonate or other salts
since they can make the finished product salty or bitter. Could someone
who's tried this elaborate on approximate amounts for me, please??
Suzy
SBerry@Primavera.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Pineapple?
From: "Chuck Graves" <chuck_graves@mail.hq.faa.gov>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 96 12:33:50 EST
Greetings, Duff...hope your boys do a number on TU this year.
>Has anyone tried using pineapple as a fruit (as opposed to an extract) in
>melomels? I really like pineapple but, since the taste isn't that strong,
>I didn't know if it would take barrels of the stuff to get a good aroma
>and taste in the finished product. Has anyone tried it?
Can't say that I've tried pineapple but the flavor is more distinct than
you might think. I imagine you could use about 10 lbs for a five-gallon
batch to get what you want. Use that to create a melomel (so remember to
use about 15 lbs of honey.) Also, I'd recommend clover honey so you get the
pineapple flavor. If I can get strawberry in an English Mild, you can get a
nice pineapple melomel.
>I've seen wine made from practically every kind of fruit or herb but I've
>never heard of "pineapple wine". There might be a good reason for this, I
>don't know.
You should spend more time in Hawaii. A friend of mine brought back four
types of pineapple wines (some blends included passionfruit). Some were
straight wines, some blends, some were flavored pymeths (grape based with
pineapple added.)
At any rate, go for it. I think you'll be surprised with what you get.
Regards,
Chuck Graves
------------------------------
Subject: Failed mead
From: Kurt Schilling <kurt@pop.iquest.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 96 13:27 EST
In MLD494, Johan asked for advise and help with his mead making endevours. So:
>What is the gravity of a mead, and how does it affect the mead? What kind
of instrument do ou use to check it, and how do you dosomething about it?
Johan, the "gravity" you ask about is a measure of the dissolved sugars
present in the must. This is expressed in one of three ways: 1) as the
specfic gravity, 2) degrees balling or Plato, or 3) as degrees brix. Pure
water has a specific gravity of 1.000, that is it has no dissoved materials
in it. Honey or sugar will add to the specific gravity by being dissolved in
the water. A vintners or brewers hydrometer or saccharometer is the most
common instrument used to determine the gravity of the mead. The gravity of
the mead can be adjusted upward by adding honey to the must or downwards by
adding water to the must to dilute it.
Whether ot not you need to worry about all this is up to you. However, if
you are serious about improving your meads, I'd at least laern ot use a
hydrometer to "gauge' the strenght of your mead. The hydrometer is aslo
quite useful in determing when a mead is finished fermenting, and can be
useful in calculating the alcohol content.
>How does pH affect the mead's fermenting.... what do you do if the mead is
too acidic?
Rather than go into a lenghty discussion of pH, let me refer you to MLD 494.
As to what to do if the mead is too acidic, well that depends on the why of
the excess acidity. One method of dealign with excess acid is to dilute the
mead with water. Another method is to titrate out some of the acidity by
adding small amount of precipitated chalk.
If one has added too much acid blend (citric/malic and tartaric acid) to the
must before fermenting, and the resulting mead is SOUR (not just tartly
acidic), then you have a real problem. From Johan's description of needing
to add "a LOT" of sugar to make the mead drinkable, this may be the case.
I'd try diluting the mead and adding sugar.
What I'd strongly suggest is getting an acid test kit and good ph papers.
Check the acidity of the must before adding any acid blend. I've found that
in wine making and cider making, if you don't check the volatile acidity of
the must befoer adding acid blend, you frequently will end up with something
that is so SOUR (sorry for the shout) that it won't be drinkable. The
volatile acidty should be between 0.6-0.8% tartaric. See a kit for details.
> what can have gone wrong (sic with the recipe)?
excess acid blend and perhaps too little honey. I'd suggest checking the
volatile acididty, if it is higher than 0.8% tartaric, then you added too
much acid blend. If this is the case, then I don't think that there is much
that can be done beyond adding sugar and pretending that you like it. The
staleness is probably oxidation. A 6 liter batch in a 20 liter fermenter is
too small (IMHO). Try a smaller fermenter next time. You might increase the
amount of honey to 2 kg or 2.5 kg for a 6 l batch. To get more of a
strawberry "nose" consider adding the berries to the must in the secondary
fermenter rather than in the primary.
Hope that some of this helps.
Kurt
------------------------------
Subject: 2 week fermentation
From: mattm@ipacrx.com
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 11:02:07 +0000
First of all it is great to be back! After trouble with my
ISP and then a DOUBLE hard drive crash I am finally back
on this list. Ok down to business....
I routinely ferment 1.100 to 1.000 in two weeks. After
talking to a member of our brew club (and this guy is
a pro with his own brewery) he said that the biggest single
component to a fast full ferment (we were on the topic of
high gravity brews) was yeast volume. I asked him "what about
oxygen levels?" He said that you can give the yeast all of the
O2 it needs but without a high enough pitch rate you are going
to end up with a long ferment. People also have to know the
alcohol tolerance of there yeast. I found that if you push
your yeast to it highest alcohol levels it has to struggle
to keep from dieing from alcohol poisoning. I think 12% is
a very respectable level for mead. (maybe alcohol levels
could be a good topic for discussion so throw in you 2 cents)
Here is my basic proccess for making melomels. Just so you
know I use sulfites instead of pasturizing.
First off and most important the yeast starter.
For my melomels I like to use red stars "Cot de Blanch". It
as a low flavor profile (unlike champagne) It has a good
tolerance to sulfites (unlike wyeast) and has can ferment to
14%+.
2 cups orange juice
5 tsp yeast nutrient (stienbarts)
5 tsp yeast enegizer (stienbatrs)
1 cup corn sugar.
Boil for 15 min
Rehydrate yeast as on package let stand 15 min
cool starter to 75-80f then pitch
shake starter for 15 min to oxygenate
24 hr later
2 cups organe juice
2 cups corn sugar
boil 15 min
cool to room temp
add to starter
shake 15 min
24 hr later add to must
If you can not pitch to your must after the 24 hr decant some of the
liquid in the starter and do the 2 cups oj and 2 cup corn sugar
again.
I like to decant some of the liquid befor I pitch so not as much O.J.
ends up in the must.
For my must I use .25 tsp yeast nutrient and .25 tsp yeast enegizer
per gallon of must. I find that the enegizer adds some of the trace
stuff that mead needs and the nutrient leaves out. I tried to get
the poeple at the brew shop to
tell me what exactlly is in it but they wouldn't say. As far as the
sulfite 1 tab per gallon unless your fruit is of questionable
charater then 1.5 MAX no more and you have to qait at least 24 hr
before pitching or you will stunn your yeast. And be aware that some
yeasts to not put up with sulfite well at all.
I hope this helps some of you:-) And I would like to start a
discussion on what people think is the the right alcohol level for
mead.
matt maples
mattm@ipacrx.com
An honest brew makes its own friends!
Matt Maples
IS Department
IPAC Pharmacy
mattm@ipacrx.com
------------------------------
Subject: Moldy Mead
From: D1FKV0W@BATLAN.BELL-ATL.COM
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 15:27:10 -0400
Dear MLD:
In honor of the last autumnal equinox, I brewed my first mead. (For
reasons largely beyond my control, it is also, so far, my only mead.)
It clarified about Thanksgiving OG=1.10; FG=0.998.
I bottled most of it in 375ml wine bottles, which, after initial
drying, have been stored on their sides. The rest I bottled in
hand-blown bottles to give as presents. Unfortunately, some of the
hand-blown bottles would not cork properly, and after breaking a
couple (at $6.00 apiece!) , I left the remaining ones with tapered
corks and attempted to use beeswax as an additional seal, with mixed
results. The last few ounces were placed in crowned beer bottles.
The incompletely sealed bottles are still sitting in my utility room,
since I never figured a way to transport them. One of the cats
knocked one over, half the contents seeped out through the incomplete
seal and what remained in the bottle got a disgusting green slime all
over it -- mold I presume. I would have thought that 14% ethanol
would have discouraged any mold. I am now finding it difficult to
RDWHAH.
Is this an indication that my OG was wrong and my ethanol content is
much less? Has the imperfect seal likely allowed taste-destroying
microorganisms access to the product? What would be the prognosis
for sealing them with resealing caps for transport and giving them
away as originally intended?
The mead in crowned bottles tastes good to me (although one of my
scadian friends had unkind words to say about its being "rough") so I
assume my initial sanitation was good. I have yet to open one of the
other bottles and taste, which I suppose is the acid test. Any
thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.
Robert A. West
rwest@freemark.com
------------------------------
Subject: Nutrient mixes
From: "Olin J. Schultz" <beerx3@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 14:49:57 -0700
There was a question about sources for nutrient mixes. I know that the
Beverage People sell a nutrient mix but I'm not sure what is in it. We,
Beer, Beer & More Beer, also sell a mix that we have used with good
success. The list is as follows:
Diammonium Phosphate
Potassium Phospate
Magnesium Sulphate
Thiamin
Vitamin B
Biotin
This is a list of the main constiuents there are some other trace
elements. This formula is a practical hybrid of a few different
recipes. If you would like additional information you can private e-mail
us.
Thanks,
Olin Schultz
------------------------------
Subject: Metheglin recipe request
From: jonmiran@bod.net (Jonathan Miran)
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 06:35:10 -0600
Hi folks,
In my Meadmaking efforts in the past I have flirted with the idea of
producing a Metheglin that had some psychoactive properties, as well as
the obvious effect on humans caused by Alcohol. I am interested in
information on any psychoactive herbs that can safely be added to a
Metheglin. PLEASE NOTE: I wish to do this completely within the bounds
of what is legal--no Marijuana, no magic mushrooms, etc. I have already
thought of Ginseng, and Damiana. Any other ideas, folks?? In replying if
you would state amounts that might be appropriate, and methods of
preparation, that would be appreciated. Thank you,
Jonathan Miran
jonmiran@bod.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: plastic buckets vs glass
From: sobol@ofps.ucar.EDU (Rebecca Sobol)
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 15:32:08 -0600 (MDT)
"Olin J. Schultz" <beerx3@ix.netcom.com> writes:
A note on the addition of fruit. My brother added 10+ lbs of apricot
puree and 4+ gallons of mead to a 6.8 gallon carboy with a stopper and
airlock attached. After coming home after work the next day he noticed a
very sticky solution seeping out from under the door. He opened up the
room and confirmed a meadmaker's worst nightmare, the carboy had busted
and the melomel was saturating the carpet. Apparently the fementation
had been so violent that it plugged the airlock and instead of blowing
it out, as I always thought would happen, it cracked the glass.
Needless to say that he always does his melomels in plastic buckets now.
We almost always do melomels in glass carboys and have never had a problem.
Instead of using a standard bubble lock, though, we use a blow-off tube.
This is just a piece of plastic tubing that fits tightly inside the neck
of the carboy. Sanitize the tube as you would anything else, stick one
end into the carboy (not all the way into the mead) and the other end into
a jug with water. We cut the tops off of plastic milk jugs and use those
for the water jugs. The large tube allows more gunk to blow off and tends
to be large enough to not get completely clogged no matter how vigourous
the fermentation. Once it's settled down a bit we rack and start using
a regular bubble lock.
Rebecca Sobol * sobol@ofps.ucar.edu * Boulder, Colorado
http://www.ofps.ucar.edu/~sobol
http://www.ofps.ucar.edu/~sobol/ris_mead.html <-- Unicorn Unchained Meadery
------------------------------
Subject: Re: show vs. traditional
From: Steve Dempsey <steved@ptdcs2.intel.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 18:09:26 -0700
>From: chuckmw@mcs.com (Chuck Wettergreen )
>
>I am puzzled about the difference between SHOW and TRADITIONAL mead.
>Re-reading the Mazer Cup entry requirements, SHOW mead says "Honey, Water
>and Yeast ONLY", but the instructions later say "Addition of water
>treatments and acidification permitted." Does this mean no additions of yeast
>nutrients? How about calcium carbonate for Ph control? The TRADITIONAL mead
>category says, "Other flavoring additives may be added for complexity..."
>What kind of additives would this include, that would add complexity but not
>flavor/aroma?
I think of yeast nutrient and chemical pH control as "water treatment",
and the show category to me means not adding flavored ingredients.
Suitable ingredients for traditional mead (but not show) might include
floral blossoms for aroma, lactose for sweetness, and citrus juices
for acidity. Also common is the practice of using small amounts of
other herbs, spices, whatever for interesting complexity, but not
enough so you can really identify the added ingredient -- or even
that something subtle has been added for this effect. Fun things
happen when you add just a pinch of this and a dash of that. The
show category tries to separate the truly unflavored mead from those
that intentionally have been altered.
======================================================
Steve T. Dempsey Intel Corporation
<steved@ptdcs2.intel.com> 5200 Elam Young Pkwy
+1 503 613 8070 Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497
PTD CAD Pole: RA1-3-C16 MS: RA1-303
======================================================
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #495
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