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Mead Lovers Digest #0602
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #602, 12 October 1997
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #602 12 October 1997
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: First Time Mead Disaster (ilixi@tezcat.net)
Re: Tomato Mead (Michael L. Hall)
first time mead (Sir Warren Place)
mead and mead (Daniel S McConnell)
almond mead...is it possible? ("Kurt Hoesly")
Mead Disaster (not) ("John R. Bowen")
Re: More on use of oak (Dan McFeeley)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: First Time Mead Disaster
From: ilixi@tezcat.net
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 20:20:00 -0700
>> Subject: First Time Mead Disaster
>> From: j&a <mrpookey@mindspring.com>
>> Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 14:07:35 -0500
>>
>> hey now,
>>
>> well, i brewed my first batch of mead this weekend. due to some unfortunate
>> turns of events, i don't know whether it will come out alright or if i
>> should dump it. :-(
>>
>> everything was going okay...i had the 12 gallons of sage honey in the pot
>> and holding at 190F for 30 minutes. finally got the temp to 160F and added 4
>> pounds of blueberries and 2 pounds of raspberries. then realized i forgot to
>> put the fruit in the grain bag. duh. i shrugged that off and figured it
>> wouldn't hurt anything.
>>
You have quite probably cooked the fruit - depending on how long
it was at that tempature. I am not sure at what tempature pectin
really sets (I have seen people say 170), but I know that raspberry
mash turns into a gluey substance right about 150F.
Pasteurization doesn't require any more than 145F. Whatever one's
feelings about it at as a means of sterilization, that is as high
a tempature as you need to kill wild yeast and most nearly anything
else that has pretensions to living in your must.
>> i was in the process of cooling down the must when my work pager went off!
....
>> this was at 6pm on saturday. by 7am sunday (when i got home!!!) it was
>> bubbling away very nicely. today it's still bubbling at 1 every 4 seconds.
>> my questions are:
>>
>> 1) the raspberries have come apart letting the seeds out. how bad will the
>> tanin acid from the seeds be?
I have a batch (6# of raspberries) which sat on the seeds and fruit for
about a week in primary. Though there are many things it has too much
of (my friend says I should cut the batch across two carboys of some
very plain mead) I wouldn't number tannins among the problems.
>> 2) what detrimental effects will i have from pitching the yeast at 90F? it
>> was in a healty, 20oz starter before pitching.
None - as long as the proper yeast are the ones that got the head
start.
>> 3) i'm going to siphon the mead off of the fruit in a week. how can i go
>> about this when the spiggot is clogged? i guess through the top with a siphon
?
You will probably want to take a clean spoon and scoop off all of the
seeds. I would recommend a racking cane too, or else you will have
pieces of skin decaying in your must for the duration. After the seeds
have all blown up, some components of the skin tend to fall to the
bottom. Maybe it's actually the seed casings - in any case it is not
something which looks appealing.
>> 4) does this mead have a chance of being any good? should i stick to brewing
>> beer? :-)
My first botched up melomel came out fine. If nothing else, I would
bottle it anyway and let it sit a few years.
- --
C. Ewen MacMillan,
Usenet Administrator, Tezcatlipoca, Inc.
Vox: (415)256-8328
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Tomato Mead
From: hall@galt.c3.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall)
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 08:57:17 -0600
Nathan in Frankenmuth writes:
> Someone who knows I brew gave me a recipe yesterday and insists I have to
> try it.
> 12 lbs tomatoes
> 12 lbs sugar
> 5 boxes golden raisins
> 2 oranges cut in half
> 2 packets dry yeast
> 2 gallons warm water
That ain't a mead -- there's no honey. The recipe you've
got is for a Tomato Wine. Strangely enough, I've heard
"tomato wine" used as a description of ketchup.
Sounds like it might be ... interesting. I would try to
use some home-grown tomatoes, not the insipid store-
bought variety.
If you really wanted to make a mead, you could substitute
honey for the sugar.
Another thought: to me the idea of a tomato mead seems to
go well with Italian food. Maybe you could add some basil
to the mead for a nice accompaniment.
- -Mike
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Michael L. Hall, Ph.D. <hall@lanl.gov> |
| President, Los Alamos Atom Mashers <http://hbd.org/users/atommash> |
| Member, AHA Board of Advisors <http://www.beertown.org/aha.html> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
------------------------------
Subject: first time mead
From: Sir Warren Place <wrp2@axe.humboldt.edu>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 09:34:38 -0700 (PDT)
That's a lot of honey! I think you meant 12 lbs, which is still too much
for the Wyeast sweat mead yeast. I just racked my mead with that yeast
today. It's clear, but still has a few bubbles rising in it. The s.g.
is 1.046. That's down 2 pts from last week. Man this is slow! It's been
fermenting since June. Is this normal? I think you might want to add
another gallon of water, but other than that, I wouldnb't worry.
Warren Place
wrp2@axe.humboldt.edu
>
> Subject: First Time Mead Disaster
> From: j&a <mrpookey@mindspring.com>
> everything was going okay...i had the 12 gallons of sage honey in the pot
I pitched mine at this temp and went strong for about a month then see
the above complaints>
> 2) what detrimental effects will i have from pitching the yeast at 90F? it
> was in a healty, 20oz starter before pitching.
>
------------------------------
Subject: mead and mead
From: danmcc@umich.edu (Daniel S McConnell)
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 17:14:03 -0400
>From: j&a <mrpookey@mindspring.com>
I have deleted the clear example of mixed-up priorities....How could you
possibly let your job interfere with making a batch of mead?
>this was at 6pm on saturday. by 7am sunday (when i got home!!!) it was
>bubbling away very nicely. today it's still bubbling at 1 every 4 seconds.
>my questions are:
>
>1) the raspberries have come apart letting the seeds out. how bad will the
>tanin acid from the seeds be?
>
>2) what detrimental effects will i have from pitching the yeast at 90F? it
>was in a healty, 20oz starter before pitching.
>
>3) i'm going to siphon the mead off of the fruit in a week. how can i go
>about this when the spiggot is clogged? i guess through the top with a siphon?
Your mead should be fine, really. I think (opinion mode on) that rasbberry
seeds are important in adding that earthyness and complexity that I find
very attractive in a melomel. I don't much care for simple tastes, give me
layers and waves. A certain amount of seeds, leaves and stems adds much of
this complexity. Raspberry seeds will add little in the week that you plan
to let it ferment on the fruit.
At 90F your starter was a bit on the warm side, but alive and abviously
working, so you will be ok.
Try a copper Chore-Boy tied to the end of the siphon tube. I just wait
until the fruit drops and then siphon, but this takes more than a few weeks
and I never try to get a "fresh fruit" flavor so I have never felt the need
to rush the process.
>4) does this mead have a chance of being any good? should i stick to brewing
>beer? :-)
Better than most I think!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>From: b-man@aliens.com (Kirk Jones)
>Some background: I'm a beekeeper in Northern Mich. (and Florida too) and
>have been making mead for about 10 years. Most of our mead making has been
>in tandem with enjoying our last mead and we have got a little too loose.
>Some of them were great and some were duds.
Occupational hazard, dude.
>I have one tank that has fallen clear and is very dry. I used about 2.75#
>of honey per gallon and Lalvin d-47 with some yeast energizer(I repitched a
>couple weeks later with a champagne yeast because I thought there was no
>activity; actually everything was just fine, the gasket on the barrel had a
>little leak and the gas trap showed no action)
>
>It has a great nose; very floral. It's pretty dry, I think it was .994. I
>thought it could use a little more *acidity* and just a hint of sweetness.
>I wondered what would be the best way to handle the task. I have followed
>the thread on using acid before vs. after fermenting, and decided to adjust
>after.
>
>A problem I've encountered in the past is accidental secondary fermentation
>in the bottle(meads with residual sugar). I visited some wineries in the
>area and they told me they:
>1)sulfited
>2)sorbated
>3)filtered to remove yeast
I have sorbated on rare occasions and thus far have not had a failure using
this technique. Sulfite is the wrong tool.
I assume that you have an acid test kit and can measure the titrable
acidity. If so, you can add acids (malic, citric and/or tartaric) to bring
the TA up to a point that is in balance to your taste. For an
off-dry/sweetish white wine or mead, I like TA of 0.6% which seems to
balance 1% residual sugar. Talk to Larry Mawby, he will have an opinion.
You might spend an evening with friends, a bottle of mead, an acid test
kit, some sugar and experiment with acid/sweetness balance. Then scale up
to 55 gal in the honeyhouse. Sounds like fun to me.
DanMcC
------------------------------
Subject: almond mead...is it possible?
From: "Kurt Hoesly" <hoesly@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 16:15:22 PDT
Hello, all...
I'm just getting started with mead-making , and have a couple of
questions that I haven't been able to find any answers for. I thought
someone here might be able to provide a suggestion or two.
I'd like to try to make an almond mead, but none of the brewing books at
the local library have had recipes using any type of nuts (except for
liqueurs). Other than the liqueurs, there was only a recipe for an
almond orgeat - and it didn't sound terribly appealing. Anyway...what I
was wondering is how to go about getting the almond flavor into the
mead. Should I simmer the almonds and use that water in the brewing?
Or would it work out better to chop the almonds and add them to the
primary fermenter?
Another question that came to mind recently was whether it work to of
use dehydrated fruit rather than fresh or frozen. Granted, there would
be no juice added from the dried fruit, but they do still have the
majority of the flavor. Does anyone have any experience with this, or
am I out to lunch with this idea?
Ad(thanks)vance!
- -kurt
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Disaster (not)
From: "John R. Bowen" <jbowen@primary.net>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 1956 13:12:00 +0000
Jonathan, sounds all OK to me. I don't know about the tannins in
raspberry seeds, but I know those who use whole fruit with no
problems, so just rack it and don't worry. Usually a few tannins are
good, anyhow, IMHO.
While 90F is a little warm for yeast, they are really very tough
little buggers and if you had good activity quickly, as you did, I
wouldn't worry about that either.
The racking off the fruit can be a real challenge. I'll bet you have
two layers of junk in there, one sunken and plugging your spigot and
the other floating. What you want is the less-junky stuff in the
middle. You are probably going to have to siphon, and the siphon will
probably get plugged, and you will probably kick the dog a time or two
before you are through. You might have better luck with a coarse
filter on the racking cane. Try a "chore boy" copper pot scrubber,
perhaps, or a "filter washer" for a garden hose. I use the latter
with two small peices of tubing on the end of my racking cane. One
fits over the end of the cane, and one fits inside the center of the
filter washer and over the first peice, kind of like bushings to make
the effective diameter of the cane larger. Easier said than
described. With a filter of sorts you might only kick the dog once.
Don't worry about how much junk you transfer over with the mead. You
can expect to rack this more than once to get it all, and if you get
it into glass, it will be a lot easier to see what you are doing.
It will probably turn out as good as mead ever does, however good that
is. And don't give up, but get 8 more carboys and make mead AND beer.
Good luck.
John
------------------------------
Subject: Re: More on use of oak
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 20:19:41 -0500
Glenn Mountain <wally@labyrinth.net.au> wrote:
>I hope to age in a used (up to 225L, or whatever is available) cask
>for 1-2 years, depending on all the variables. Although experienced
>in sanitation from brewing beer, my adventures into mead and wine
>are only begining. Could anyone provide information on how to handle
>a used cask?
>
>I understand that one that has dried out completely may not seal again
>when wetted, so that is obviously one point. I am more concerned about
>the initial cleaning and sanitation and the care and feeding of the
>beast for the subsequent aging period. Last thing I want to have is
>200+ litres of mead vinegar a year down the track. My other concern is
>oxidation....but one step at a time.
A certain amount of oxygen absorbed in minute and regular amounts through
the wood is considered a part of the aging process by winemakers, but the
rate of O2 seepage is dependent (among other things) on the size of the
barrel. The surface area in liters increases two fold as the volume of the
barrel decreases by a factor of 10, indicating that small barrels can
over-oxidize a wine while large barrels may need longer aging periods.
I think 200L is a standard size used for wine storage and aging, with a
surface area of approx. 90 cm^2 giving a good balance of exposure to wood
and air seepage to the specified volume. One source suggests that a wine
needing 3 years in a 200L barrel will need 30 years in a 200,000L cask.
Looking for a used barrel is a bit like buying a used car -- you can't
always be sure what you're getting. White oak barrels of 200L should have
a barrel stave size of 25 mm; anything thinner in a used barrel can make
it structurally weak. Casks smelling of vinegar should be strictly avoided
and poorly cleaned barrels treated with suspicion. Sometimes used barrels
have had their insides routed or shaved to rejuvenate them, but the process
isn't totally effective. The barrel should have a frame constructed for it
in order to keep its weight off the central barrel stave.
Barrel stored wine is best kept under cellar conditions of about 10C or
50F in temperature, damp, and protected from circulating air to reduce
loss from evaporation. Under ideal conditions evaporation loss can run
from 4 to 10L per year in a standard barrel. It should be bunged tightly
and topped off at regular intervals to reduce risk of contamination from
too much exposure of the mead to head space. The act of topping off will
introduce new oxygen to the barrel so it should be done only as necessary.
The following is a procedure taken from Acton & Duncan's _Comprehensive
Winemaking_:
The first step in readying a barrel for aging is to fill it with cold
water and keep topping it off until the wood has swelled to the point
of water tightness again. If the leaks don't stop after 48 hours it is
probably best to return the barrel to the supplier. Once the barrel
seems ready, it should be left undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours to allow
the wood to become fully saturated with water. After this period of
soaking, empty the barrel and fill it again with a hot solution of water
and washing soda, using about 900 g. baking soda to 22.5 litres in English
measures (Jeff Cox _From Vines to Wines_ suggests 1 cup of soda ash to 50
gallons water). Let it sit overnight and then pour it off. Use boiling
hot water and repeat if the cask is in poor condition. Rinse once or twice
to get the residual soda off the inside of the barrel, then fill with hot
or boiling water again and stand overnight to extract the last of the soda
from the wood. After this, the barrel should look and smell clean. Next
sanitize the barrel by adding a dilute sulphite solution using a stock
solution of 10% diluted by nine volumes of water. Fill the barrel to 10%
or 20% of its capacity and roll the barrel about vigorously for 1/2 an hour.
Pour out the solution and rinse several times with cold water.
Hope this is helpful.
__________
________
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #602
*******************************
