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Mead Lovers Digest #0659
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #659, 24 March 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #659 24 March 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Freezing Mead (Charles Hudak)
Re: Pitching onto the yeast cake (Scott Murman)
Questions Below ("Michael O. Hanson")
Ultrafiltration -- followup (Louis Bonham)
Bottle Sediment (Phill Welling)
juciers ("Linda or Darin")
Vegemite (Phill Welling)
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
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in pub/clubs/homebrew/mead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Freezing Mead
From: Charles Hudak <cwhudak@mail.adnc.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:38:37
Jeff wrote:
> Believe it or not, the BATF has no problems with *homebrewers* using
>the freezing technique to increase the alcohol content of beer or hard cider
>(or I assume mead and wine). However, it is illegal for *commercial*
>brewers to do this.
Glad to hear this. Now I won't have to be clandestine with my Mead Liqueur
that I made this winter. I took a gallon and froze it then filtered out the
ice crystals from the slush. I figure that I concentrated it by about 50%
meaning it is about 60 proof. Tastes more like a liqueur than a spirit
since all the sugar was concentrated too. Sadly, I *would* love to try
making a Mead Brandy but that would clearly be illegal. I took about 1Q of
this and stuck it in a jar with a generous helping of french oak chips.
It'll be interesting to see how it ages.
C_
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Pitching onto the yeast cake
From: Scott Murman <smurman@best.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 16:08:07 -0800
Tidmarsh Major (cool name) wrote:
> I've never had a mead pick up any hop bitterness when pitched onto the
> yeast cake left after the primary beer fermentation.
The bitterness compounds in hops must be boiled to become isomerized
(get in the beer). The only way you'd get some hop bitterness in a
mead racked onto a beer yeast cake is if you left a significant amount
of beer on top of the yeast.
The majority of the stuff down there is not yeast however, but various
proteins and other precipitates that may or may not be beneficial to
your fermentation. You can separate out the yeast from the trub,
however it requires some care. One benefit of doing so is that the
yeast can be stored for a week or two, if you're must isn't ready.
The Brewery web site has the details,
http://hbd.org/brewery/library/yeast-faq.html#part_three
SM
------------------------------
Subject: Questions Below
From: "Michael O. Hanson" <mhanson@winternet.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 08:46:25 -0800
I've read some discussion in the MLD about mead that can be ready to drink
in a relatively short time. I am aware that one reason for long
fermentation was the presence of bacteria in mead, beer, and wine. Does
anyone have any thoughts on types of mead that can be fermented and aged
rapidly?
Keep up the good work. I have learned a lot from the Mead Lover's Digest.
Mike Hanson
------------------------------
Subject: Ultrafiltration -- followup
From: Louis Bonham <lkbonham@phoenix.net>
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 21:28:48 -0600
Hi folks:
A followup on last week's stuff on ultrafiltration . . .
I've spoken at some length with Dr. Robert Kime, who's the originator of the
technique, and he has graciously sent me a copy of a very recent (Feb 98)
article he has in the American Bee Journal on mead and UF. In that piece, he
gives some very interesting data.
In tests running honey must through 10K, 50K, 100K and 500K MWCU (molecular
weight cut off) filters, Dr. Kime found that the 500K filter removed about half
the protein, whereas the 100K removed about 2/3rd, and the 50K and 10K removed
almost all. However, there was *no* significant taste difference between the
four (in fact, the 500K had a slightly better numeric response than the others,
but from the graphs I suspect that the differences may have been too small to be
statistically significant). (As a reference point, Dr. Kime's original article
/ research involved mead made from must processed through a 50K filter.) All
four musts tested gave the same quick, clean ferment with accellerated aging
(about 6 weeks to drinkability) that Dr. Kime's research has previously
documented.
This development has possible significance for us amateurs. While daltons /
MWCU ratings do not directly convert to microns, the literature I have read
(thanks to Jim Liddil for pointing me to one such source) indicates that 500K
MWCU is roughly equivalent to about 0.3 microns. Ergo, properly using a 0.22
micron microfiltration cartridge would, theoretically, do the same thing as a
500K UF filter -- at a fraction of the cost of a UF setup! Even better, there
are 0.1 micron microfiltration cartridges that also will fit the standard
housings that many of us may have -- which would give a filtration roughly
equivalent to 200-250K MWCU. (I've even seen mention of 0.05 micron filter
cartridges -- which would be equivalent to about 125-150K MWCU -- but I've yet
to locate a source of them.) I ran the 0.1 micron microfiltration idea past
Dr. Kime, and while he cautions against using ceramic filters (apparently, for
some reason they impart a negative taste to mead), he indicates that it should
work fine.
Ergo, possible cheap amateur alternative to UF: get a 0.1 micron filter
cartridge that fits your filter housing, mix up your honey must to whatever OG
you prefer, transfer it 5 gallons at a time to a cornelius keg, push it through
the filter with nitrogen, CO2, or even filtered compressed air at a nice slow
rate (there's no hurry, and higher pressure will just reduce the effectiveness
of the filter), and then aerate the resulting must, add nutrients, and pitch the
yeast. And, if Dr. Kime is correct, in less than six weeks you'll have crystal
clear mead that is comparable to mead aged for years -- and without boiling off
all the nice honey volatiles or sulfiting your must!
If anybody is interested and tries this, keep me posted -- I intend to give it
a shot myself, and if it works I'll see if my editor at BT will let me do a
column piece on it, and thus I'd like as much data as I can get. Additionally,
if anybody out there has access to the necessary lab equipment, it would be
great to be able to assay unfiltered vs. 0.22 micron filtered vs. 0.1 micron
filtered musts to see how much of the total protein is stripped out, and compare
this to Dr. Kime's UF results. Lemme know if you're interested . . . .
Louis K. Bonham
------------------------------
Subject: Bottle Sediment
From: Phill Welling <kern@pcisys.net>
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 12:20:16 -0700
I bottled my first batch of straight mead in mid January & I just noticed
that they had some sediment on the bottle & some as a little around the
watermark of the neck.
I shook a few up & the sediment on the bottom dissolved readily, but the
stuff on he neck wouldn't.
I assume this will not hurt the mead, but I wanted to touch bases with some
of you for what you think.
Phillip J. Welling
ICQ #: 2579862
Visit my home page at:
http://www.pcisys.net/~kern/
------------------------------
Subject: juciers
From: "Linda or Darin" <mtss@ptw.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:18:05 -0800
Linda's doctor has convinced us that we will live longer, healthier lives
if we get a juicer. These considerations are, of course, secondary to the
possibility of making a better melomel in my little universe, so I thought
I would ask the MLD if anybody has experience with this type of
contraption. We are looking specifically at the Juiceman and the Juiceman
Jr, though we are open to any suggestions. My questions are mostly:
Do they hold up to serious use?
and
How are they for making mead?
(I realize, Mr Dunn, that this is not Consummer Reports, and I hope you
bear with me. The above is at least *sort of* on-topic ;-)
Darin Trueblood
------------------------------
Subject: Vegemite
From: Phill Welling <kern@pcisys.net>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 01:43:06 -0700
I was just told by a friend that Vegemite could be used as a yeast nutrient
(it's main ingredient is yeast extract). Has anyone heard of this or used
it before? If so, how much do I use per gallon?
Phillip J. Welling
ICQ #: 2579862
Visit my home page at:
http://www.pcisys.net/~kern/
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #659
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