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Mead Lovers Digest #0476
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #476, 4 May 1996
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #476 4 May 1996
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mint Extract ("Robert A. Tisdale")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #475, 25 April 1996 (Chickengrrl)
Chris Webster's Goblet (Douglas Thomas)
Re: poor quality honey ("Patrick M. O'Hearn")
Phil's ChocoMintoMeth (Dan McConnell)
Honey sources (t.duchesneau@genie.com)
LaTeX Mead Score Sheet Available (Michael L. Hall)
Cyser ("Patrick M. O'Hearn")
Elderflower mead (ROSS@mscf.med.upenn.edu)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mint Extract
From: "Robert A. Tisdale" <rtisdale@entomology.msstate.edu>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 20:57:05 -0600
I have some mesquite mead made with Bordeaux yeast that is starting to
clear. I was thinking of flavoring it with mint extract. Does anyone
have any experience with such things?? If so, could you please lend
some advice?
Have fun,
Bob Tisdale
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #475, 25 April 1996
From: Chickengrrl <smw1@axe.humboldt.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 07:48 -0700 (PDT)
> I have just made my first batch of mead and I will have to rack it in a
> few weeks. I have never done "siphoning" before, what is the procedure?
> Where do I get the equipment?
> Ardell Foster
> (mordrid@netcom.com)
Get a length of tubing (1/4") that stretches from one arm to the
other, or about 4 feet. Also get a racking can if you are using a 5 gal
carbouy, but not necessary for one gallon. Fill tube(and cane connected
to it) with water, put the end(with the cane) in the elevated, full jug
while covering the other end with your thumb(so the water doesn't run
out). Then let it run into the sink until the mead starts to come out.
You can now quickly put the tube in the empty carbouy, but remeber to
keep the "out" end lower than the "in" end or suction will stop.
BrewWard
------------------------------
Subject: Chris Webster's Goblet
From: Douglas Thomas <thomasd@uchastings.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 08:29:20 -0700 (PDT)
Howdy collective brewers.
In April 25th's posting, Chris Webster asked about goblets. Here are
some ideas on great goblets.
1. If you have a brass store around or even sometimes a rattan store run
by South East Asians, you should be able to find some very nice goblets
between 30 and 50 bucks. Check the inside of them. All the better ones
are plated with silver on the inside. Thus, you don't have to worry
about acid reactions.
2. Another good idea, is your local potter. There is one near me who I
get wonderful goblets from all the time. I'll give a goblet and a bottle
of perry, or some such homebrew. Once, I even had one made with Hebrew
written on it, for "Bless this wine"
3. Lastly, go to a second hand store, or a consignment store. I have
picked up decent quality silver for pretty damn cheap from people who had
no idea what it was. On silver quality, if looking at a tarnished piece,
those that have a tarnish that easily wipes away, and is as close to
black as possible, are better silver. Those with more brown or gray
tarnishess are either plate or not very pure.
Oh, another comment, this time on generic honey.
I have noticed the same, that generic honey oxidizes more and gives a bad
taste. To keep honey costs down I did some searching, and found a local
"Wildflower" honey, that is packaged locally in big glass jars, by the
gallon. Even though they are generic, these local brands tend to be more
stable, and the price is usually much lower than those straight from the
keeper. Also health food stores sell bulk straight from the 50 gallon
shipping barrels. This stuff is the best for the price. Recently I got
bulk clover honey for 1.10# and orange blossom for 1.30#. Great prices,
and really decent quality. Almost keeper quality.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: poor quality honey
From: "Patrick M. O'Hearn" <patrick@cyberport.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 10:02:37 -0600
micah milspaw wrote
<snip>
> We noted a considerable difference in those made
> with generic honey as opposed to those made with appiary direct unprocessed
> honey.
Hello All,
As a beekeeper I would respond "Of course it
better"<g>. Seriously, honey is a lot like beer. Just like
the MegaSwill crew has to create a bland brew acceptable to
the widest possible range of taste buds, that travels well,
and has a good shelf life...the large honeypackers have to do
the same things. Storebought honey is heat treated to insure
it stays liquid for long periods of time (why we americans
insist on liquid honey when most of the rest of the world
understands creamed honey is more convienent and doesn't have
to be heat processed is another story), it is microfiltered
to remove pollen which also retards granulation, and finally,
is a bland blend of honey from any and all sources because
the "average" consumer may not like a particular flavor (say
mesquite or cotton or...). In short, like home grown
tomatoes, and home brewed beer or mead, home produced honey
retains more taste. That said, I have seen beekeepers
produce some miserable honey (overheated, poorly stored) but,
I've also had some god awful homebrew.
Good locally produced honey will have more flavors
and complexity than storebought and I think these will come
through in your mead every time. I can't comment about side
to side comparisons because I have always used my own
production for mead and beer (and fresh homemade biscuits,
he..he..he..). As for oxydation, I wonder if its really the
affect of oxydation you are tasting, or the absence of some
of the complex flavors. I cant think of anything that would
cause a difference in oxydation rates.
While we are talking honey, I would like to add a
small log to the boil/no boil bondfire. If you use store
bought honey which has mostlikely already been subjected to
heat pasturization I dont really think boiling the must will
further degrade your finished product.
take care
Patrick M. O'Hearn
Bears Choice Honey
Aztec, NM
email patrick@cyberport.com
------------------------------
Subject: Phil's ChocoMintoMeth
From: danmcc@umich.edu (Dan McConnell)
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 14:09:35 -0500
>From Gordon
>Two or three years ago, Phil Fleming won first place in the Mazer Cup (I
>think it was the Mazer Cup?) with his chocolate mint mead. If the recipe
>was published, I probably couldn't find it in my records. Maybe someone
>else on the digest can find it? One suggestion from me: make a sweet
>chocolate mead or else serve it cold. Room temperature dry chocolate is
>rather harsh.
That would be the 1993 Mazer Cup. I will dig out the recipe, but it may
not do much good. I recall and see that the details were somewhat scant.
My gut feeling is that this was made from a chocolate mint extract. (Maybe
from talking to Phil?) This would have been posted about July of 1993.
Methleglyn-Best of Show
Philip Fleming-Stan's Stuff
20 lb dark honey
Chocolate mint
Prisse de Mousse, Lalvin EC-1118-dry yeast
Primary ferment-4 mo. in glass at 63F
Secondary ferment-2 mo. in glass at 63F
3 wks in glass at 29F
OG:1.130
TG:1.035
DanMcC
------------------------------
Subject: Honey sources
From: t.duchesneau@genie.com
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 96 01:09:00 UTC 0000
Ok, where do those of you who don't keep your own bees get your honey?
What do you look for?
I ask because I've made mead from store bought clover honey (5# for $5.79)
and I've used honey given to me by a friend who got it from his brother's
hives. There's a great difference, and the store bought stuff sure isn't my
choice, but it's available all the time.
Any ideas on where to look for other sources would be appreciated.
TIA... ...Tom
------------------------------
Subject: LaTeX Mead Score Sheet Available
From: hall@galt.c3.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall)
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 96 11:04:15 MDT
Robert Paolino writes (on the JudgeNet Digest):
> Does anyone have (or know of a source) for a file with a good score sheet
> that I could modify for a competition (rather than doing a cut-and-paste
> job with the AHA sheet)?
After being asked by the AHA to help re-do their mead scoring sheet
(along with several esteemed colleagues in the mead world), I made up a
LaTeX version to illustrate my proposed changes. The old version of the
mead score sheet was primarily based on the beer score sheet and
included many inappropriate items, such as mentions of skunkiness and
DMS, which are rare in meads.
My mead score sheet is available on my homebrew club's web site at
http://alpha.rollanet.org/~tamhc/goodies.html
in LaTeX, PostScript, and PDF formats. The LaTeX version could be easily
modified to make a beer sheet (it's on my to-do list). This scoresheet
was recently used in the Albuquerque Dukes of Ale "Spring Thing"
competition.
Bob, you mention not having web access. If any of the formats above would
be useful to you, please email me and I will mail them to you.
Mike Hall
Los Alamos Atom Mashers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Overheard at a homebrewing meeting:
Q: So, how's your twelve-step program coming?
A: Not so good. I'm still on the first step --- denial.
------------------------------
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
Patrick M. O'Hearn
Bears Choice Honey
Aztec, NM
email patrick@cyberport.com
------------------------------
Subject: Elderflower mead
From: ROSS@mscf.med.upenn.edu
Date: Thu, 02 May 1996 09:46:28 -0400 (EDT)
Date sent: 2-MAY-1996 09:46:08
I'm getting ready to make an Elderflower mead. I've consulted a number
of mead and wine books to determine the amount of flowers to use. The amounts
vary, but I see a number of references to one once per gallon of mead. They
also mention adding the flowers approximately three days after fermentation
begins. How long should the flowers be left in the mead before being removed.
If anybody has any practical experience with this type recipe, could
you please let me know what specifics you used and what the results were like.
Thanks.
--- Andy Ross ---
University of Pennsylvania
Medical School Computer Facility
ross@mscf.med.upenn.edu
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #476
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