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Mead Lovers Digest #0477
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #477, 9 May 1996
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #477 9 May 1996
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Mead variations? (Chickengrrl)
Re: Cyser (Bill Shirley)
Cyser - odd, waxy surface stuff ("Suzanne Berry")
Re:Chocolate Mint Mead (Tidmarsh Major)
Andy Ross! Elderflowers..... (Douglas Thomas)
Re: poor quality honey (Michael L. Hall)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #476, 4 May 1996 ("Mark E. Thompson")
Indiana State Fair/Strawberry wine (Douglas Thomas)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Mead variations?
From: Chickengrrl <smw1@axe.humboldt.edu>
Date: Sun, 05 May 1996 11:21 -0700 (PDT)
Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone out there has a good ale-mead recipe.
I tried the one in Action&Duncan's book, but it was a very vague recipe.
After much modification I came up with something that tasted pretty good,
but still I am not sure I'm selecting the best hop choice or amount. Any
recommendations? Also, has anyone made a light mead of say 6%alc that
came out well? I'm thinking of doing a apricot mead of that strength for
warm summer evenings. For this low alc% drink, I'm not sure how much (if
any) acid blend and nutrient to use. Any help would be appreciated as
there is very little info on low alc% brews.
BrewWard
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cyser
From: Bill Shirley <gaucws@fnma.com>
Date: Sun, 5 May 96 17:02:19 -0400
> Subject: Cyser
> From: "Patrick M. O'Hearn" <patrick@cyberport.com>
>
> Hello All,
> Question to the group mind. I made my first batch
> of cyser. Question is, will it clear like mead. I
> always consider my mead done when it falls clear
> enough to read a newspaper through the carboy.
> Will cyser clear this much?
> Thanks in advance for the info
I made my first Cyser several months ago, and it is currently
as clear as you mention. I don't know if this is common or
not. I wasn't expecting it, because the cider used was itself
unclear, but it either got munched or settled as particulate.
Can't wait to taste it.
-bill
- ---
Bill Shirley <gaucws@fnma.com>
------------------------------
Subject: Cyser - odd, waxy surface stuff
From: "Suzanne Berry" <sberry@primavera.com>
Date: Mon, 06 May 96 08:39:53 EST
Hi, folks...
I'm a beginner, and I've got a batch of cyser that should have been
ready for bottling soon... but it's got an alarming layer of waxy
stuff on the surface. Any idea what this might be, what I did wrong,
and how to prevent it from happening again?
Suzy
------------------------------
Subject: Re:Chocolate Mint Mead
From: Tidmarsh Major <tmajor@parallel.park.uga.edu>
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 10:25:21 -0400 (EDT)
FYI-
This weekend my wife and I found some chocolate mint at the local
nursery. It's a variety of mint that has a chocolate smell (and flavor,
so we're told). It might be another way to flvor a chocolate-mint mead
without resorting to extracts, if one were so inclined.
Tidmarsh Major
tmajor@parallel.park.uga.edu
------------------------------
Subject: Andy Ross! Elderflowers.....
From: Douglas Thomas <thomasd@uchastings.edu>
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 08:04:34 -0700 (PDT)
To Andy and to all,
For elderflowers, I have never heard of oz. being used to describe the
quantity, I have always heard it expressed as pints per gallon.
Generally, I have seen recipes using 1 - 2 pints per gallon (always loose
pack). I have never weighed out this amount, but it is convenient for
you the picker of flowers. Just take a half gallon milk carton and mark
off in pints. Have fun. other good flowers are lavender and violets.
Doug Thomas
------------------------------
Subject: Re: poor quality honey
From: hall@galt.c3.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall)
Date: Mon, 6 May 96 10:22:14 MDT
Micah Milspaw sez:
> We noted a considerable difference in those made with generic
> honey as opposed to those made with apiary direct unprocessed
> honey.
Last fall, our homebrew club had a "meading" with a local beekeeper. It
was a wonderful meeting, and we all sat enraptured as he talked for 45
minutes or more without notes on what was obviously the passion of his
life. He went into many details of the beekeeping profession, including
some discussion of practises which were, in his opinion, unethical. For
example, he thought that some beekeepers that trucked their bees around
to various crops were not treating their bees well, since a large fraction
of the hive would die in the process. The main incentive to do this was
monetary: farmers would pay well to get their crops pollinated.
He talked a lot about the generic honey that can be bought in the
supermarket (Sue Bee(Tm) and others). Apparently, much of this honey was
bought from oriental suppliers, who lived under different governmental
regulations on the definition of honey. The honey produced in China,
among other places, is gotten from bees that have been force fed sugar.
It can be called honey because it technically has gone through a bee,
but it lacks the special flavors derived from flower nectar that we are
all so fond of. Due to the tariff structures, this honey is cheaper than
American honey, so the packagers bought it and mixed it with a little
clover honey to give it some character. He also said that things are
changing in the tariff structures, so this situation may not persist.
I would be interested to hear corroboration or refutation of this
account of beekeeping in America. I didn't need much impetus, but this
news was enough to make me swear off store-bought honey for my meads
(except in small quantities and dire circumstances). After all, apiary
direct unprocessed honey has much more character.
Mike Hall
Los Alamos Atom Mashers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes,
but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.
James M. Barrie
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #476, 4 May 1996
From: "Mark E. Thompson" <markt@hptal04.cup.hp.com>
Date: Mon, 06 May 1996 10:29:41 PDT
> Subject: Cyser
> From: "Patrick M. O'Hearn" <patrick@cyberport.com>
> Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 09:24:47 -0600
>
> Hello All,
> Question to the group mind. I made my first batch
> of cyser. Question is, will it clear like mead. I
> always consider my mead done when it falls clear
> enough to read a newspaper through the carboy.
> Will cyser clear this much?
> Thanks in advance for the info
I made a batch of Cyser in early March which is in gallon secondaries
and a batch of spiced Mead about a month and a half ago. The Cyser is
still very cloudy with comparison to the Mead. Also the mead had no
irish moss added. I think that the Cyser will take much longer to clear
if it ever does. I'm not sure if it is customary to fine it, although
i'm sure that there is controversy over it, but that might be what
i need to do. I'll wait 3 or four more months to decide.
Mark Thompson
------------------------------
Subject: Indiana State Fair/Strawberry wine
From: Douglas Thomas <thomasd@uchastings.edu>
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 11:52:13 -0700 (PDT)
Does anyone out there know if the Indiana State Fair will mail score
sheets to you? I saw no indication on the entry form that these would be
sent to out of state entrants. I would like to find out soon, if
possible, since the entry date is coming up, and my only reason for
entering would be to get a critique.
Onto the strawberry wine, I just bottled it (came out to 15 bottles) and
even tasting it before aging, it was fantastic. Very potent, approx. 15%
alcohol, and yummy. If anyone is interested in the recipe, I'll dig up
my log, and pass it on.
Doug Thomas
thomasd@uchastings.edu
------------------------------
From: rq@mailhost@lysator.liu.se
Date: Tue, 07 May 96 21:53:08
Hi
Any brewers in Linkoeping, Sweden reading this?
Since I don't know any brewers here I would like to
get in touch with a couple.
Please drop me an e-mail if interested.
Erik Ronnqvist, rq@lysator.liu.se
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #477
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