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Mead Lovers Digest #0673
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #673, 26 May 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #673 26 May 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
My first mead - help! ("Mr. Michael Scott Meiners")
Re: Novice Mead Question (Mary Savage)
millenium mead (r l reid)
Re:...Back in time for the feature! (Peter Miller)
Blackberry Cherry Mel (DFusion)
Re: Stopping Fermentation (David Sherfey)
Ok, so it's obvious (Spencer W Thomas)
Re: Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast opinions? (Matthew Macdonald)
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #672, 23 May 1998 ("Mansfield, Scott")
pH balancing and taste (MLD 670) (Dan McFeeley)
RE: metheglin suggestions (Matt_Maples@ncshealth.com)
Re:sweet tooth (Phill Welling)
Hygiene (Dick Dunn)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: My first mead - help!
From: "Mr. Michael Scott Meiners" <lllfarm@mail.isoc.net>
Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 13:49:13 -0400
Hello all, I just made my first batch of mead last night and I don't know if
I did it right or if I am just being impatient. I can't see any signs of
fermentation so that's why I am in doubt. I have a one gallon must with 4.5
pounds of honey, 1 tsp of yeast nutrient, 1 tsp of acid blend, and I am
using Wyeast's sweet mead yeast. All the literature I read on mead making
lead me to believe that there should a vigorous first ferment, followed by a
steady second ferment. I got nothing going on that I can see. The only
thing that I can think that I might of done wrong was to put the air lock on
right away. All the mead making info on the web seem to say to put it on
right away, but the main book that I am using, First Steps in Wine Making,
says to wait until after this first vigorous ferment. Thanks,
- -Mike
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Novice Mead Question
From: menander@iac.net (Mary Savage)
Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 14:21:41 -0400 (EDT)
>Leo,
>
>I have two points to make. First, and some people out there will
>certainly disagree with me, I don't like to boil my honey. What you
>can do is boil the water and the pour the boiling water over you
>honey and mix it in. This will get the must hot enough for a long
>enough period of time to kill off any wild yeasts which are present.
>It also avoids any possibility of carmelizing your honey (I did that,
>ONCE) or boiling away volitile aroma and flavor elements of the
>honey.
>Marc Shapiro m_shapiro@bigfoot.com
An interesting alternative it seems. At the risk of getting something
started about your methods ;-) , shouldn't I take the water down
from a boil a little bit when adding to my honey or don't I then end
up overheating the honey too long? I'm thinking that when I do add
the water to the honey, I'm going to need to simmer the pot still to
keep it ~150 degrees for 20-30 minutes, yes?
Leo
------------------------------
Subject: millenium mead
From: r l reid <ro@panix.com>
Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 22:06:41 -0400 (EDT)
> Anyone else planning a special sip for the New Millennium?
Milennium? It's only 5758 by MY calendar...
ro, whose first mead turned out very dry, high alchohol, and smooth
and was well liked by all who tried it!
------------------------------
Subject: Re:...Back in time for the feature!
From: Peter Miller <ocean@wr.com.au>
Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 09:44:54 +1000
>From: Charlie Moody <chmood@mindspring.com>
>Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 10:44:06 -0600
>Congrats to Dick on his new(?) place in Hygiene (lovely area, but
>flat!).
Sorry if I'm being a stupid Australian, but Hygiene is a place? And we
have a meadmaker who lives there? PERFECT! (Pity the pour brewer who
lives in Filth.)
(Here in Oz, country towns run a "Tidy Town" competition every year -
seems to me that Hygiene would be a shoe-in!)
P.
<ocean@wr.com.au> http://www.wr.com.au/ocean/
------------------------------
Subject: Blackberry Cherry Mel
From: DFusion <DFusion@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 16:20:24 EDT
Hi Everyone, I recently bottled the mel that started the cherry pit/cyanide
discussion on the digest about a year ago. The mel is Fantastic, and I'm not
dead. If anyone is looking for a recipe for a tasty mel, here it is:
~3 1/2 gal.
9 lbs dark wildflower honey
4 lbs bing cherries
5 lbs fresh blackberries (I picked some red ones to add tartness)
1 package Montrachet dry wine yeast (rehydrated)
3 Gallons of springwater
I simmered the must at 140F for about 20 min, then poured the must over the
frozen fruit in a nylon grainbag, which was left in the primary for a week.
Racked to secondary. Bottled still. O.G. 1081, T.G. 1012. Enjoy,
Dave
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Stopping Fermentation
From: David Sherfey <sherf@warwick.net>
Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 19:32:12 -0400
Meadsters;
No one has mentioned temperature change in this recent thread. I have
not used this method before *intentionally*, but do have some experience
with it accidentally, and more than once! I have had beer accidents
where the ambient temperature dropped while I wasn't looking, and the
result was "stuck" fermentation. I would think that it would be
relatively easy using refrigeration, ice bath, or snow to cause the
fermentation to stick intentially. Following this, I would imagine dose
of sorbate would prevent the fermentation from starting again, resulting
in no fermentation.
I have read of professional brewers doing this. I don't know if I would
recommend doing this as a SOP with high gravity mead, because of other
associated grief with fining and filtering. Does anyone out there have
any experience doing this intentionally?
David Sherfey
Warwick, NY
------------------------------
Subject: Ok, so it's obvious
From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer@engin.umich.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 01:27:10 -0400
Today, my daughter picked a flower for me. A common, dull, clover
flower. Being a good daddy, I smiled, thanked her, and sniffed it.
Then I sniffed it again. By golly, it smelled like (clover) honey!
=Spencer Thomas in Ann Arbor, MI (spencer@umich.edu)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast opinions?
From: Matthew Macdonald <Matthew.Macdonald@mci.com>
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 09:03:29 -0700
>>I have been thinking about making a simple cyser (3 qts cider and ~3 lb.
>>dark wildflower honey) with a SG of probably not more than 1.120. I am
>>interested in this ending up somewhat sweet (maybe medium sweet). My local
>>brew supply has a packet of Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast (#3184?). Any
>>opinions on this? Anybody out there have any experience with this one?
>>Things I should look out for, or special precautions? Or am I better off
>>going with an ale yeast?
My latest brew was 4 gallons of cider to 1 gallon of generic honey,
I used EDME's special blend yeast which is a higher tolerance ale yeast.
The result after 6 weeks was a demi-sweet cyser with a nice amount of
alcohol. However, being a brewing anarchist (never paying much mind to
SG or PH) I did end up with quite a bit of suspended gunk... normally I
don't mind when brewing stouts but it does present an off-taste in the cyser.
I just racked it last night so we'll see how much more settling goes on.
Matthew.MacDonald @mci.com
Update - after racking the cyser cleared up within a day, very encouraging!
I wonder if racking ales would help a bit.
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #672, 23 May 1998
From: "Mansfield, Scott" <Scott_Mansfield@uscs.com>
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 08:38:56 -0700
Subject: Stuck Fermentation
>I was hoping to restart the fermentation. The guy at the homebrew store
>sold me another pack of the same yeast, but before I make matters worse,
>I would like to get a second opinion.
Although adding more yeast is a basic step to take, you might try some
other basics first. I just recently "unstuck" a fermentation by adding
some acid blend. I had originally used lemon juice and, after the
fermentation petered out, suspected that maybe the lemons weren't acidic
enough. One teaspoon was all it took.
Scott Mansfield
------------------------------
Subject: pH balancing and taste (MLD 670)
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 12:18:47 -0500
On Fri, 15 May 1998 Jim Sims <jim.sims@game.net> wrote:
>I tried a test-run over the last coupla months (started in Jan), adding
>CaCO3 to a basic mead recipe I've used before to see if it would hasten
>the fermentation. It seemed to dramtically reduce the primary
>fermentation time, but I still have a "off", "chalky",
>reminds-me-smell-wise-of-sunburn-lotion taste to the plain, raspberry,
>and sweet derivatives I made back in January.
>
>any ideas?
Presque Isle Wine Cellars sends out an instruction sheet with orders
they receive for calcium or potassium carbonate which I have used as a
guideline for the revised version below. Comments and critique by
meadmasters more knowledgeable in these areas than I am would be
very welcome.
REDUCTION OF ACIDITY WITH CALCUIM OR POTASSIUM CARBONATE
1) For grape musts with total acidity above 1.2% (where TA is expressed
as tartaric acid) an addition of either a 20% sugar solution to dilute
the acidity or use of calcium or potassium carbonate to chemically reduce
acidity is recommended. Dilution by sugar solution is recommended over
chemical reduction if the must has a high flavor intensity (such as found
with Concord, Catwaba, Niagra and Delaware grapes) and the winemaker is
not concerned with body. The amount of acid reduction here is approximately
the percent of volume increase, e.g., 1 gallon added to 9 gallons juice =
1/9 or .11% reduction.
A honey must with TA above 1.2% is probably not likely to happen, unless
through accident while adding acid or if a melomel is being made using a
high acid fruit. Meadmakers who want to take the route of dilution might
want to use an addition of a light flavored honey such as clover in a
similar ratio, after checking acid/pH levels to make sure that the problem
isn't compounded. The acid reduction will not work out the same as in the
example above since the honey will be contributing some of its own acid.
A sugar solution as recommended above for grape musts should have similar
effects, but purists will shudder. Dilution will also have an effect on
the fruit flavor of the melomel, reducing its intensity.
2) Potassium bicarbonate is added at amounts of 3.4 grams per gallon to
reduce acidity by 0.1%. The acid range recommended for use of potassium
bicarbonate is between 8 and 10 grams/liter (.8 to 1.0% acid expressed as
tartaric). Potassium bicarbonate is likely to impart a salty or bitter
taste at high levels, so it is to be used cautiously. Cold stabilization
of the finished wine is recommended to help precipate out the final products
of the reaction.
3) Chemical reduction of total acidity by 0.1% requires 2.5 grams per
gallon of calcium carbonate per gallon. Amounts above 100 ppm can give
distilled water a salty taste so it is to be used with caution. The acid
range for its recommended use is above 10 grams/liter, and it can also
affect flavor afterwards. Calcium carbonate is described as reacting
preferentially with tartaric acid rather than malic acid, and working
dramatic changes in pH. For these reasons, it is difficult to drop the
acidity by more than 0.4% in grape musts using calcium carbonate since
too high a rise in pH can effect wine stability. Gluconic acid is the
principle acid in honey, so the effects in honey musts may be somewhat
different, and a greater change in pH is more desirable for honey musts.
Two suggestions are given in the Presque Isle instruction sheet if acidity
must be reduced by more than 0.1%:
a) If the acidity reduction needed is greater than 0.1%, calcium
carbonate should be added to a small fraction of the grape must
so that malic and tartaric acids are removed. The adjusted
must is then added to the main batch after the reaction is finished.
b) If there is both high acidity and high pH, it may be necessary
to add tartaric acid to the grape must (to lower pH even though TA
is increased) in amounts of 4.5 grams per gallons before using calcium
carbonate. Afterwards, cold stabilization is recommended to reduce
acidity by precipitation of tartaric acid.
It seems that the use of bicarbonates gives limited results with the risk
of adding chemical flavors to the finished mead. Using small amounts
within specific parameters seems wise while not totally relying on them
to resolve all acid/pH. problems. Cold stabilization of the finished
mead might help reduce chemical and off-flavors by precipitating out
the by-products.
Another caveat is that most of the stuff that I've seen published on the
use of bicarbonates (in my limited resources) is tailored for wine making,
specifically, the reactions of bicarbonates with tartaric and malic acids.
These are less prominent in honey as compared to grape, and of course there
is the often noted fact on this digest that honey is poorly buffered. This
also makes me wonder how well the instructions given for the use of
bicarbonates apply to honey musts.
Hope the above was helpful. Again, any comments, critiques or corrections
would be welcomed.
__________
________
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: RE: metheglin suggestions
From: Matt_Maples@ncshealth.com
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 11:25:51 -0700
I have made a sweet sparkling sage mead before. I thought it was really
good but some people didn't like it (I think because they just didn't like
sage). I based the recipe on one out of "A Sip Through Time". Let me know
if you want the recipe. I have made some liquors made with angelica root
(among other things). If you do do anything with it use it sparingly as it
is extremely bitter.
I have tasted oil of bergamot before and thought that it would be a fun
herb to brew with. If you make anything with it please let us know how it
turns out.
- -Snip-
I am fortunate to be working at a farm that grows a variety of herbs. I am
looking to brew a mead utilizing some of them along with our tulip poplar and
black locust honey.
------------------------------
Subject: Re:sweet tooth
From: Phill Welling <kern@pcisys.net>
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 13:02:24 -0600
Ok, I looked at some recipies for maple meads and would like some advice on
something.
I am most likely going to add 1# honey and 1# of grade A maple syrup to
make 1 gallon of must.
To make a sweet mead should I add another 1# of honey in a month and 1# of
maple surup in another month? Or should I add them in other times or throw
them all in at once?
Phillip J. Welling
ICQ #: 2579862
Visit my home page at:
http://www.pcisys.net/~kern/
------------------------------
Subject: Hygiene
From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 26 May 98 13:12:24 MDT (Tue)
Yes, Hygiene is a place, a town in fact. Sec 25 of T3N, R70W, or in a more
generally understood coordinate system, about 105 deg 11' W, 40 deg 11' N.
It is a small farm community, a pretty nice place. So, as a meadmaker I
know that "good hygiene is essential" but as a resident I also know that
"Hygiene is essentially good."
Programmers are sometimes a scruffy lot. So are DeadHeads. Being both,
if anyone chooses to slight my appearance I can reply that I not only
understand hygiene, I live there.
The town was named for the Hygiene Home, a sanatorium located there at the
end of last century...
...but I digress...
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #673
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