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Mead Lovers Digest #0528
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #528, 16 January 1997
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #528 16 January 1997
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
recent large digests (Mead Lover's Digest)
Two questions... (Steve.Busey@mailport.delta-air.com)
Vegemite? ("Brander Roullett (Volt Computer)")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #527, 13 January 1997 (Susan Ruud)
cloudy mead/better flavor (Chuck Wettergreen)
melomels with juice instead of fruit (Belinda Messenger Routh)
obtaining unusual honey (Paul Kretschmer)
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: recent large digests
From: mead@raven.talisman.com (Mead Lover's Digest)
Date: 13 Jan 97 22:41:04 MST (Mon)
No doubt everyone's noticed the recent batch of large, frequent digests.
Don't worry--esp. if you're new here and/or being overwhelmed by the
current traffic--this is not the usual behavior over the long term. We
see a spike in submissions and replies a couple times a year (as well as
lulls, as just recently over the holidays, a few times a year).
A more usual rate (e.g., the 1996 average) is a digest every five days.
- ---
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Two questions...
From: Steve.Busey@mailport.delta-air.com
Date: 14 Jan 97 08:36:00 -0500
Question 1) I have a gallon jug of Wild Clover honey that's starting
to crystalize. I understand I can get it back to non crystal state by
warming it for several hours. My beekeeper bro-in-law says the
crystalization is normal for the clover honey. My question is, has
anyone had experience with making a mead out of honey that has been
crystalized, then reheated? Any problems/concerns?
Question B) I'm eyeing that gallon of clover to use with the frozen
strawberries I have tucked back in the freezer. What I'd like to know
is _when_ in the process to add the fruit ('tis my first melomel
attempt)? In the must? After cooling? After pitching? After
fermentation starts? Enquiring minds want to know. (does
anal-retentive have a hyphen?)
Bottled my dry sourwood methelin a couple weeks ago. I'll let you know
how it turned out in about...18 months. <sigh>
Best,
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Vegemite?
From: "Brander Roullett (Volt Computer)" <a-branro@MICROSOFT.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 08:48:58 -0800
From: DuG <dbeattie@postoffice.newnham.utas.edu.au>
- - ------------------------------------------
Vegemite (concentrated yeast extract)
Ingredients: Yeast Extract, Salt, Mineral
Salt (508, 509), Malt Extract, Natural C-
olour (150), Vegetable Extract, Ribofla-
vin, Niacin.
I love my Vegemite
and just how do you use Vegemite? in brewing meads?
Brander Roullett badger@nwlink.com www.nwlink.com/~badger/
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #527, 13 January 1997
From: Susan Ruud <sruud@badlands.nodak.edu>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 10:48:20 -0600
>Subject: How much fruit?
>From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
>Date: 13 Jan 97 22:21:20 MST (Mon)
>
>Recent topic - how much fruit for a melomel? Depends on the fruit
>I've done several strawberry melomels at around 2.5-3 lb fruit per
>gallon (one also had a few lb of rhubarb) and those suggest you're not
>even *beginning* to push it until you hit 3 lb/gal. Use ripe berries!
I have a mead fermenting now which I was planning on adding Strawberry and
rhubarb to shortly. How much rhubarb did you add to yours or how much would
you suggest?
>In all these cases the fruit was in the fermentation from the start. In
>many cases, the fruit was frozen first to improve extraction, and in most
>cases I skimmed the fruit after a few days to a week and pressed it lightly
>(in a small fruit press, using a nylon press bag), returning the pressed
>juice to the fermenter.
If fruit is added later on in the fermentation would you use as much fruit?
I would greatly appreciate hearing comments on this.
Never Thirst
Susan
------------------------------
Subject: cloudy mead/better flavor
From: Chuck Wettergreen <chuckmw@Mcs.Net>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 15:44:16 -0600 (CST)
To: mead@talisman.com
OK, my show mead was finished and had fallen clear. It tasted OK,
not great, just good, but not much honey flavor or aroma.
Then it got cloudy a la Carl Saxer.
It stayed cloudy for a good four months, maybe more.
Then, one day, it cleared again, dropping dark brown sediment to the
bottom. But it didn't just clear, it cleared to brilliant! And the
flavor! Not it's not just OK, it's full, rich, rounded honey flavor
and aroma. This mead is radically different from the show mead I
started out with.
Who knows what happened? (I sure don't.) Could it be, as I speculated
earlier, a malo-lactic fermentation? A beneficial house yeast? Is the malo-
lactic converion accomplished with a yeast or a bacteria? I know Wyeast
sells a pouch of something that will start the process. C'mon somone must
have, if not some answers, at least some speculation...
Cheers
Chuck
chuckmw@mcs.net
Geneva, IL
* RM 1.3 00946 *
------------------------------
Subject: melomels with juice instead of fruit
From: Belinda Messenger Routh <bjmrouth@ucdavis.edu>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 15:53:28 -0800
There's been a lot of discussion about the amount of fruit to use for a
melomel but what about juice? It seems simpler to use juice rather than
all that mucky fruit pulp. I've only brewed traditional mead (with the
exception of 2 batches of cyser that I _hated_). How much juice per gallon
have people tried?
Always learning,
bEL
------------------------------
Subject: obtaining unusual honey
From: pkretschmer@lts.com (Paul Kretschmer)
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 18:14:46 -0800
I would like to know where I can buy unusual honey in the Bay Area. I
am interested in honeys from a single flower source that taste like that
flower: lemon, sage, avocado, etc.
Since I need about 12 pounds for a 5 gallon batch of mead, I would be
buying in bulk and I would like to get the honey cheaply.
Does anybody have any ideas?
Thank you.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #528
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