Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Mead Lovers Digest #0604
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #604, 17 October 1997
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #604 17 October 1997
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Where to get oak chips ("Hy Ginsberg")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #603, 15 October 1997 ("Dione Wolfe, Dragonweyr, NM dk
ey@medusa.unm.edu")
Acid Blend ("Dione Wolfe, Dragonweyr, NM dkey@medusa.unm.edu")
Mead and acid blend ("John R. Bowen")
First Pear Melomel (DenBrouwer@aol.com)
Nuts / International mead (MicahM1269@aol.com)
Thank You All and BTW (Samuel Williams)
funny flavor (Michael Fay)
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests. When
subscribing, please include name and email address in body of message.
Digest archives and FAQ are available for anonymous ftp at ftp.stanford.edu
in pub/clubs/homebrew/mead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Where to get oak chips
From: "Hy Ginsberg" <hy@sover.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 12:41:53 -0400
Thanks to all of you who responded to my question regarding where to get
oak chips. For anyone else who's interested, the consensus is that most
good homebrew shops either carry them or can get them for you. And the
lumber yard stuff may be treated with things you'd rather not consume, so
steer clear.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #603, 15 October 1997
From: "Dione Wolfe, Dragonweyr, NM dkey@medusa.unm.edu" <DKEY@MEDUSA.UNM.EDU>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 16:24:23 -0700 (MST)
Concerning acid blend: Sometime last year, I believe, there were a series of
posts concerning pH and fermentation time. Honey tends to be acidic and
slightly unfriendly to fermentation. It was suggested that the pH of the must
be maintained as close to 4.0 as possible--I'll finish nthis later
------------------------------
Subject: Acid Blend
From: "Dione Wolfe, Dragonweyr, NM dkey@medusa.unm.edu" <DKEY@MEDUSA.UNM.EDU>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 17:55:26 -0700 (MST)
Sorry I had to cut short my post on adding acid blend. I was discussing the
previous posts concerning pH. Honey, being acidic, is not very friendly to
fermentation. That is why fermentation can take upwards of a year to complete.
I had one batch that went 8 months to completion.
The upshot is that fermentation is happiest at about a 4.0 pH. Adding calcium
carbonate (available at your brewshop) will bring it up to that range. I have
had fermentations run to completion--semisweet, 18-20% alcohol--in two months.
I use litmus strips I bought at my brewstore, but more accurate devices are
available at garden supply stores. These are normally used to check soil pH,
but work well for our purposes.
When everything is completed, you can add acid blend to taste.
Never Thirst,
Dione
------------------------------
Subject: Mead and acid blend
From: "John R. Bowen" <jbowen@primary.net>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 1956 15:48:39 +0000
If the mead is nearly finished, then the addition of acid blend could
be approached as a matter of taste. For the show mead, you might
reasonably have added as much as 1 Tablespoon/gal of acid blend
(equivalent to about 0.45% tartaric). So you might want to take a
small sample of the mead and add small amounts of acid in proportion,
seeing if the acid addition improves the flavor. Try perhaps 1/16,
1/8 and 1/4 teaspoon/cup and let your tastebuds decide.
Ideally, I suspose, you should measure your acid first and add at
least some of it at the start of fermentation.
Try some variations, and good luck.
John
------------------------------
Subject: First Pear Melomel
From: DenBrouwer@aol.com
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 21:52:11 -0400 (EDT)
This weekend my wife and I made our first melomel, a Bosq pear mead.
Here is a short description of the procedure we followed.
Mixed 13 lbs mesquite honey, 3.5 gallons water, heated to temperature close
to boiling, held for 15 min, cooled to 150 F, added pears (peeled, sliced),
held for 15 min, cooled, transferred to car boy, added yeast (after aerating)
(Wyeast Dry Mead).
Within 10 hours, a very healthy fermentation is going on, needed a blow off
tube.
My question is: how long can I leave the pears in the primary? Is there any
chance of the fruit disintegrating or falling apart in small pieces? Or is
it appropriate to transfer to a secondary taking the pears into the
secondary?
Private e-mail is fine. If this is an often asked question, my apologies for
the bandwidth.
Bart Lipkens
Maidens, VA
------------------------------
Subject: Nuts / International mead
From: MicahM1269@aol.com
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 07:16:23 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 97-10-15 13:58:45 EDT, you write:
<< Subject: Formation of international mead association
From: "Lear Eddy (AE) (AED-R)" <LearE@ae.aeci.co.za>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 12:44:00 +0200
Hi,
At the last Apimondia Congress a number of mead producers throughout the
world thought it would be a good idea to form an international association.
The name of the new organization is Mead Masters International.
If you have any input, we'd be glad to hear from you.
It was also agreed that there would be symposium at the next Congress in
Vancouver in 1999. We would like feedback as to good speakers and
topics.
id be glad to hear from you.
Regards
Eddy
>>
This is an interesting idea in light of the apparently dufunct /
dysfunctional AMA. More details would be nice in addition to polling the
group.
On the subject of nuts in mead. I must ( no pun ) agree with the comments
about the nut oils effecting the finished mead. I went on a quest to produce
a macadamea mead at my wifes request. After several experiments I found that
the real nuts will made a real mess and the oil slick in the must impeded
fermentation. Possibly effecting the yeasts ability to remain in suspension ?
More success was found with using extracts of the sort used in coffee shops
for flavouring cappicinos. I added the extract into a keg after the bulk of
the fermentation was completed. The main draw back continues to be the oils.
They effect the head retention. Still meads only are possible.
------------------------------
Subject: Thank You All and BTW
From: Samuel Williams <samw@swbell.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 22:00:37 -0500
First I'd like to thank the many people who sent me E-mail on how to
stop a fermentation at a given point. It would seem that this is almost
impossible. I just waited it out, ready to add extra honey if the need
arose, which it didn't. I used CP's version of Antipodal Mead in The
Complete Joy of Home brewing, except I left out the gypsum. (Texas water
is so hard ya can't even shoot through it). The recipe worked out just
like he said it would. So patience is the way to go. Gawd how I hate
those first time blues. I've been brewing for over 3 years now and write
our clubs Brewsletter. So I'm not ignorant of brewing techniques, just
new at making mead. Some one suggested "cold crashing" the stuff and
adding sorbate before warming and bottling, but I didn't need to check
it out. I WOULD NOT, as someone suggested, use "FemStat" Yeah I know it
kills yeast but I also know where it's supposed to be used. I leave the
rest to your imagination.
Now for my latest question:
How should I prepare my corks for that glorious bottling day? Boil?
Camden? Iodaphor? Just soak?
I'll gladly accept private E-mail messages. And I will consolidate and
post, if I don't have a major hard drive crash like for the stop
fermentation post.
thanx to all who post, read and compile this digest.
TIA
Sam Williams
samw@swbell.net
------------------------------
Subject: funny flavor
From: Michael Fay <faymi@earlham.edu>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 16:42:31 -0500
Hi, I don't think I've ever posted to this list, but I've been reading it
for a while. I'm worrrying about my first mead. It was just a plain mead
honey water and some sort of yeast-no nutrient. So it fermented VERY
slowly. I started it last Feb or March and it probably quit some time over
the summer while I was away. I racked it last month when I came
back-tasted pretty good already. Then I racked it last nite (more sediment
on the bottom) and an odd flavor had developed that I can only assume is
autolysis. It's a kind of toasty grainy aroma that reminded me of, well,
corn chips. If it is autolysis it's pretty strong. So my question is will
it age out or am I stuck with corn chip mead? (or is that metheglin)
Michael Fay
Richmond, IN
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #604
*******************************
