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Mead Lovers Digest #0535
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #535, 4 February 1997
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #535 4 February 1997
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Hives, Aging and acid blend (LYNDALAND@aol.com)
Re: Dry Hopping for flavor? (Dave Polaschek)
Enter the Seventh Annual March MashFest (Scott Mills)
sparkling sweet mead? (JOSEPH GREENE)
Mazer cup (JUKNALIS)
Source request for mail order honey (Mark Koopman)
acid (MicahM1269@aol.com)
Re: Dry Hopping Mead ("John R. Bowen")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #534, 1 February 1997 (John R. Murray)
Re: Yeast Nutrien, Prices, Sanitation (Peter Miller)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Hives, Aging and acid blend
From: LYNDALAND@aol.com
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 21:39:23 -0500 (EST)
In response to hive healthiness,
Locally I have noticed the Park Services (East Bay municipal parks) have been
hauling around hives. I would guess this is an indication of the general
poor health of wild bees. The hives that have been placed around even seem
to die out frequently.
Aging meads and wines.
Recently I bulk aged 2 batches of wine, and found them more stable, clearer
and had already aquired what I would say was at least a few months of bottle
time. I would recommend it to anyone who has the patience.
Finally, acid blends in mead.
Honey ranges in pH levels, but all make a pretty acidic mixture. I usually
add about half the recommended dosage in recipes, and the must gets off to a
really good start. If you don't want to use acid blend. The juice of 3 or 4
oranges per 5 gallons helps a lot as well.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Dry Hopping for flavor?
From: Dave Polaschek <davep@best.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 97 23:43:08 -0600
Richard Gardner <rgardner@monarch.papillion.ne.us> asks about dry-hopping
a show mead.
Yep. I hop meads/melomels/cysers/etc. The main thing to remember is that
hops are a pretty strong flavoring compared to many of the ingredients
that
are typically put into meads. For a show mead where the main flavor is
from
the honey, you want to be very careful not to overwhelm it with hops. I'd
bracket the amount of hops (in a five gallon batch, split it into one-
gallon sub-batches, perhaps) (oh, and no pun intended) around 1-2 oz of
hops per 5 gallon batch. Per gallon, I'd probably use 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20
grams of hops in the five containers. (28 grams per ounce, for the metric
impaired).
You'll find one you like best. Make notes. Repeat the recipe, tweaking
until you've got it nailed.
Wassail!
- -DaveP
Dave Polaschek - home:davep@best.com or davep@mn.uswest.net
http://www.best.com/~davep/
------------------------------
Subject: Enter the Seventh Annual March MashFest
From: Scott Mills <smills@fortnet.org>
Date: Sun, 02 Feb 1997 02:23:57 -0700
Seventh Annual March MashFest
March 22, 1997
The Mash Tongues of Fort Collins, Colorado invite you to enter our Seventh
Annual March Mashfest. We will accept all homebrewed beer and mead. This
competition is sanctioned by the AHA. The number of Categories will be
determined after all of the entries are received. Historically we have had
around a dozen Categories. Medals will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place
entries in each Category, as well as for Best of Show in Beer and Mead.
Cool prizes will also be obtained from local microbreweries, brew stores,
and micro-oriented taverns to accompany the medals. One first place winner
will be selected to work with the Brewers at Dimmer's Brewpub in Fort
Collins to scale up their recipe and brew it at Dimmers!
You can get complete information about the MashFest and download an entry
packet from the Mash Tongues club Web Page at;
http://www.fortnet.org/~smills/masht.html
Or, if you prefer you can contact us via US Mail, E-Mail, or Phone and we
will mail you a packet.
Hurry!! The deadline for entries is March 8, 1997.
For more information check the Web Page or contact;
Scott Mills
7512 Leslie Drive
Loveland, CO 80537
970-669-6088
------------------------------
Subject: sparkling sweet mead?
From: jgreene@theonramp.net (JOSEPH GREENE)
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 16:21:26 -0500
I have a traditional mead with Wyeast Sweet Mead fermenting right now. I
planned on bottling half of it still and half sparkling. Then I realized
that sweet mead yeast probably has a relatively low tolerance for alcohol,
which causes the resutling mead to be sweet. Therefore, adding priming
sugar at bottling will do no good because the yeast will be dead, right?
Adding wine or champgne yeast will probably result in exploding bottles,
right? So, is it possible to make a sweet sparkling mead or should I
bottle some of it still and add more yeast to the fermenter to finish the
rest dry before bottling?
Joe Greene
Mansfield, OH
jgreene@theonramp.net
------------------------------
Subject: Mazer cup
From: JUKNALIS <juknalis@ARSERRC.Gov>
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 1997 08:48:56 -0500 (EST)
Can someone please post when/where is the Mazer cup for 1997?
Entry info etc?
thanks
Joe Uknalis
------------------------------
Subject: Source request for mail order honey
From: Mark Koopman <mkoopman@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 1997 07:46:00 -0600
Does anyone out there have a good source for quality mail order honey?
I'm looking for gallons of orange blossom, starthistle, or blackberry.
The local honey won't be available for several months yet.
A related question: Does anyone know of a direct source for American
Meadmaker Brewing Honey? My best batch, so far, has been from their
Blastoff Blackberry, but it's $3/lb pus shipping, from the source I
have,... when it's available. I prefer direct e-mail on this one, but
MLD postings are O.K., too. Thanks, in advance.
Mark Koopman
------------------------------
Subject: acid
From: MicahM1269@aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 08:56:26 -0500 (EST)
Since the hot topic is acid in the must I feel compelled to say
something.
A few years back I did some experiments with ph, fermentations and a range of
honey varieties. ( In fact there was a paper written, the AHA paid for and
then it went into obivion ) What I found was that different honeys can cover
the range of very acidic ( 2.2 ph ) to mild base ( 8 ). Since the ph can vary
from variety to variety and even with same type honey from area to area, it
is important to assess the honey before making any type of adjustment.
This is my method for adjustment ( or non-adjustment ). Hydrate the
honey to get the must at the gravity you want, then check the ph. I would
like to point out that
a ph meter is a very worthwhile purchase for the serious mead maker. ph
strips will work fine though. If you heated the must while hydrating it don't
forget to allow for it in your ph reading. The ph range that I would leave
well enough alone is 4.2 - 5.4, if the must ( unfermented ) is in this range,
I would do nothing but ferment it. If however the must is higher or lower
then it should be adjusted bach into the above range.
This ph range is good for most of the fermenting yeast used in mead
making.
I would also add that the high ph honeys are rare.
micah millspaw - brewer at large
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Dry Hopping Mead
From: "John R. Bowen" <jbowen@primary.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 1997 11:07:11 +0000
Richard Gardner asks (#534) about dry hopping mead.
I made a fairly light (10.5 lbs dark honey/5 gal) sparkling dry
metheglin last year. Hops were the only herb. I think it is
excellent, and it won Best of Meads in a recent regional homebrew
competition. I treated it like a beer, boiling the must for 45
minutes while adding 1 oz Hallertaur each at 45 min, 30 min, 15 minand
2 minutes. Fermented with Wyest 1056 American Ale until it pooped out
then added dry Pasteur champaigng yeast to dry it out and carbonate.
I dry-hopped in the secondary with 1 oz of Cascade.
Its not too hoppy, and not too bitter. If I were to do it again, I
would probably boil a small amount of honey with the hops and add it
to the pastuerized bulk of the the remaining honey to keep from
driving off so many aromatics.
I'm not sure about dry hopping with Northern Brewer. Its not noted
for its aroma, which is mostly what you get in dry hopping. I think a
more aromatic like Hallertaur, Cascade, or ever Saaz might be better.
Sweet or dry? I would guess dry.
But I would sure try it. Maybe a couple of small batches with
different hop regeimes? Good luck, and let us know. --John
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #534, 1 February 1997
From: murray@indigo2.scri.fsu.edu (John R. Murray)
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 15:25:21 -0500
>Subject: AMA
>From: jac@access.usa.net (John A. Carlson, Jr.)
>Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 14:45:54 -0700 (MST)
>
>My sources tell me that Julian staff member of the AMA has left town. Andy
>Lamorte in Denver
>is trying to get things together. The Ambrosia Adventure is not going to
>occur this year, maybe Andy can salvage it sometime in the future. Inside
>Mead is probably dead for awhile as well.
>Since Susan Price passed away the AMA has had some problems staying
>together. I guess only time will tell if the organization will pull
>through, but from what I hear things do not look bright.
Coincidentally, I've been in the same position as the original poster
(subscribed to AMA 8 or 10 months or so ago, only received two issues), and
again coincidentally, I *just* (as in I went home for lunch today and it was
in my mailbox) received their latest issue of Inside Mead, Winter '97, vol
11 no. 1.
This doesn't refute the rumors, of course, but hopefully it bodes well for
AMA's continued existence.
- --
John R. Murray murray@indigo2.scri.fsu.edu http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~murray/
FSU Aikido Club/North Florida Aikikai home of Miko's Aikido MPEGs and the
Tallahassee, FL WWW Aikido online calendar of events
- - Software is growing slower faster than hardware is getting faster - Alex Woo
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Yeast Nutrien, Prices, Sanitation
From: Peter Miller <ocean@mpx.com.au>
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 97 10:13:51 -0000
>From: Nathan Moore <moorent@bechtel.Colorado.EDU>
>Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 12:31:31 -0700 (MST)
>
> In Digest #532 Marc Replied to my question about adding causing off
>flavors from yeast nutrient (as well as some other adatives) by saying I
>have nothing to worry about as long as I use them correctly. The reason I
>asked this question was I have been warned that the nutrient does cause
>off flavors, I believe they were discribed as medicine and metalic. So
>here is my question, how do I use the nutrient properly to avoid this? Or
>was the guy that warned me about it a extremist/purist (It was a local
>brewshop owner)?
I have never heard of or even read about "medicinal" or "metallic"
flavours being caused by nutrients. Medicinal flavours sometimes result
from attempting to make meads oversweet or from contamination. Metallic
flavours usually come about by contact with metals (oddly enough). It is
conceivable that very large amounts of nutrient would give the mead odd
flavours, but I've never had any problems. I generally use a little less
than a teaspoon per gallon if I'm not using fruit in the must (and then I
don't use anything except a little to prime the yeast starter).
Peter.
------ < ocean@mpx.com.au > -----
Perpetual Ocean Music & Sound Design
http://www.mpx.com.au/~ocean/
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #535
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