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Mead Lovers Digest #0623
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #623, 14 December 1997
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #623 14 December 1997
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Vicky Rowe's non-fermenting cider (Vicky Rowe)
The New Meadllennium Mead Competition (CLSAXER)
commercial meads (Rocky Mountain Meadery and others) (Dick Dunn)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #622, 11 December 1997 ("Mark W. Wilson")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #621, 8 December 1997 (Paul Kensler)
Mead Competitions (John DeCarlo)
transporting mead (Randy Paul)
Moniack's Mead, Acid in Mead?, Maple Mead (Wayne_Kozun@otpp.com)
Collective ("Matthew Stierheim")
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
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subscribing, please include name and email address in body of message.
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in pub/clubs/homebrew/mead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Vicky Rowe's non-fermenting cider
From: Vicky Rowe <vrowe@us.ibm.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 15:19:17 -0500
RE: From: mallem60@wales.bbc.co.uk (Mallett,Mark)
>Subject: Vicky Rowe's Non-fermenting Cyser
>Maybe the apple juice was not only pasteurised, but also
>contained a preservative, thus inhibiting fermentation.
Actually, it was. I examined the labels, and lo and behold, in teeny tiny print,
at the bottom of the label, on the side of the label, practically off the label,
it says 'potassium sorbate added for freshness'. Ptui! So, I racked it back
into the jugs, cleaned my pail, and went out and bought *non* sorbated
cider. The sorbated stuff got used up. Some went for hot spiced cider
at work, some for basting the Thanksgiving turkey, and some is still
in the fridge (about a gallon). I'll prolly spice and heat it this weekend.....
BTW, here's the recipe. It turned out great, and it's quick, too!
Only about 6 weeks from pitch to drink!
Yule Cyser
5 gal pasteurized unsorbated cider
2 lbs Tupelo honey
1 lb brown sugar
1/2 c bottling sugar
10 cinnamon sticks, broken, palmful allspice, palmful
cardamom, crushed
3 tsp ea orange and lemon peel
2 pkg Pasteur champagne yeast
Heat 1 gallon cider to 160 F. Added honey, brown sugar, 5
cinnamon sticks and rest of spices. Stir and simmer for 15
minutes at 160, covering often. Put 3 gallons cider in
fermenter, cold. Pitched must into this. Pitch yeast with
3.5 tsp nutrient at 80 F.
Ferment in primary for 2 weeks. Add remaining gallon to
secondary and rack primary onto this. Ferment another
2 weeks. Boil 2 c water with 5 cinnamon sticks and more of
other spices (same proportions). Cool and add corn sugar.
Mix this into must and bottle. Let condition for at least
2 weeks to carbonate.
O.G. 1.080 F.G. 1.00
Note: When I bottled, I bottled half as above, and to the rest I
sorbated it to stop the ferment, then added 2 c water boiled
for 15 min with cider spices above to which was added about
1 lb honey. I added this to the rest of the must and bottled it.
First taste: the first is dry and tart, the second a little sweet and
spicier, and not carbonated.
Other Note: Took a bottle of the carbonated dry down to
American Brewmasters, and with great ceremony
(cracking the bottle, it went *whhoooshh* very nicely) we
opened and drank it. It was quite good, a little young, but with
good legs, and a nice cinnamon aroma and finish. It packed a
pretty good kick, too! All in all, a success, I think!
Vicky Rowe
Notes Administrator, Merrill Lynch Server Farm
"No good deed ever goes unpunished" --Unknown
Email:
IBM: vrowe@us.ibm.com
Home: rcci@mindspring.com
------------------------------
Subject: The New Meadllennium Mead Competition
From: CLSAXER <CLSAXER@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 14:13:25 EST
The Central Florida Home Brewers are proud to announce the inaugural
New Meadllennium Mead Competition.
The New Meadllennium Mead Competition is a mead only competition, open to all
mead makers everywhere. It will be taking place in Orlando, Florida on
January 10 and 11, 1998. The New Meadllennium will be an annual event taking
us meadfully into the new millennium.
There is a rather large community of mead makers in the Central Florida area
and we invite you to come and be a part of our celebration of the worlds first
alcoholic beverage. If you cannot join us please feel free to enter your
finest meads in our competition. Awards include custom crafted hand-blown
glass mazers. The best of show prize is the New Meadllennium Decanter also
custom crafted in hand-blown glass.
For more information go to the Central Florida Home Brewers web site at:
www.creol.ucf.edu/~cfhb/
or contact the competition organizer:
Carl L. Saxer
3019 Leslie Dr.
Orlando, FL 32806
CLSAXER@aol.com
(407) 858-2515
Wassail!
Carl Saxer & the Central Florida Home Brewers
------------------------------
Subject: commercial meads (Rocky Mountain Meadery and others)
From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 11 Dec 97 15:19:57 MST (Thu)
a couple of mentions of Rocky Mountain Meadery in digest 622...
John Mason <John@dashe.com> wrote:
> To pick up on the meadery thread, while in Denver over Thanksgiving I
> tried a semi-dry mead from the Rocky Mountain Meadery. I found it to be
> representative of a traditional mead, unlike Chaucer's, which is truly
> awful. It was good, but not great, and a touch too sweet for my taste.
> I believe they have a dry offering as well. With all the Colorado
> representation on the list I'm surprised no one has mentioned it.
Michael Moynihan (blood@teleport.com) wrote:
> There's also the Rocky Mountain Meadery in Colorado. From my recollection
> their "Lancelot" was the best, most of the other variety were sub par.
I thought there had been some discussion of RMM in the distant past. Any-
way, they're not bad--I would feel OK suggesting that somebody who's never
had mead give them a try to see what it's all about. I find two faults in
their meads:
* too sweet. They make four traditional meads: the dry, which actually
is pretty much dry; the medium-dry, which is fairly sweet; the semi-
sweet, which is *very* sweet; and the sweet, which is off the scale
as far as I'm concerned.
* too clean--i.e., overfiltered. There's no question that RMM's meads
are brilliantly clear and free of off-flavors, but they also lack any
subtle nuances and there's not a lot of depth. (Same thing happens
to over-filtered commercial wines.) Sometimes it takes a few rough
edges to make it interesting.
Michael also wrote about the Chaucer's brand:
> Downright lousy if you ask me. I believe the reason for this is probably
> not simply due to 'over-processing' or the like, but rather that it isn't
> even real mead at all. From all I can gather Chaucer's is simply
> substandard white wine which is cut with honey--hence the sweetness and the
> low alcohol.
I doubt this. It would have to say on the label if it were made with part
grape wine, and the last I checked (which I admit has been some time ago)
it did not. My diagnosis on Chaucer's--which is nothing but an educated
guess--is that they acidify their must to a TA level comparable to that of
a wine. This is way too much for a mead, of course, and when you do that,
the result will suggest a vague fruity background.
And one final note on Michael's posting...
> If you know anyone going to Ireland, have them bring back some Bunratty's
> Mead. Great stuff.
OK, but DON'T fall for the Bunratty "Meade" available in the US. That one
*is* made in the way Michael had guessed above: It is a mediocre white
wine with honey and herbs added. There are two puzzles to this product:
* Why does Bunratty send this to the US, if they have decent mead for
sale in Ireland? Are they trying to keep US tourists away? I've heard
various praises of the Irish product; I just can't imagine why they
would market something so inferior in the US.
* Why is the label even allowed in the US, since it's clearly deceptive?
The trademark name "Meade" and the back label go together to create
the impression that this poor, over-sweetened, doctored-up white wine
has some connection to the centuries of history of true mead. The
information on the front label that it's really a white wine is in
light amber on a pale yellow patterned background; it's obvious they
_don't_ want you to find out what it is. I had thought the US BATF was
a lot stickier about such things.
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd, domain talisman.com Boulder County, Colorado USA
...Are you making this up as you go along?
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #622, 11 December 1997
From: "Mark W. Wilson" <mwilson@ichips.intel.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 16:28:01 -0800
Charles moody writes-
> full cases, I'd love to hear about it. For the record, this trip will
> involve a half-mile climb in altitude over the course of 1400 road miles,
> and will probably take 3-4 days @ 55-65 mph.
Don't worry about it. I was on the road for a month, from Ohio to Oregon,
my mead (2 cases, in bottles) was fine. No explosions, no off flavors, etc.
Having my LPs and an Iron City beer sign stolen along the way was not as
fun.
If you can't bottle by then, I would suggest taking it in a corny keg purged
with CO2, or at least a carboy that you can seal with a cap or solid
stopper, purged with CO2.
- -Mark
------------------------------
From: reding <reding@MCIONE.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 22:31:01 -0600
This is odd. I used the premiere cuvee yeast for a 20 gal batch. It
started at about 1.115 and finished between 1.015 and 1.020 (I split the
batch into 4 5-gal carboys). I made a starter with this yeast in it
finished in about 1 month with a medium sweet finish.
One suggestion is to add some honey back, the amount depending on taste,
and add 100 to 200 ppm sodium sulfite. That would be 100 mg to 200 mg per
liter or about 2 g per 5 gal. That will prevent the yeast from fermenting
any further. I have never tried this but it should work if you want to
sweeten your mead and increase the body.
Good luck.
Keith
>
> Subject: (no subject)
> From: Samuel Williams <samw@swbell.net>
> Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 14:15:19 -0600
>
> I have compleated my second batch of mead. I used Cuvee yeast, which
> I thought I read that it poops out about 10-12% alc. Now my mead is
> finished and is a wonderfuly clear mead but droped to 0.099 and about
> 14% (calculated). Needless to say it is bone dry.
> I would like to sweeten it before I bottle. Can someone tell me how
> to go about this using honey as the sweetener? How much alcohol does red
> star premere cuvee tolerate? I am sure that all fermentation has stopped
> as the gravity hasn't dropped at all in the last 4 weeks. the water in
> the air lock hasen't moved in the same time period.
> TIA
> Sam
Keith Reding
St. Louis, MO
reding@mcione.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #621, 8 December 1997
From: Paul Kensler <pkensler@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 06:31:12 -0600
Steve wrote:
"Now, a question: I'm still looking for a source of interesting varietal
honey, & while I'm open to suggestions, I'm particularly interested in
heather or rosemary honey. Any ideas?"
Steve,
Sorry I can't help you with heather or rosemary, but here in Texas we have
Mesquite (from the blossoms of the mesquite tree) and Guahillo (I believe
its from a cactus flower, maybe a creeping vine?) honeys. I currently have
a gallon of each waiting for an empty carboy, so I have not used them yet.
But reportedly, they both produce delicate, clean meads. The honeys are
both very delicious, without a lot of heavy or spicy flavors.
If interested, they are available by mail from St. Patrick's in Austin, TX
(URL:http://www.internetnow.com/stpats/) - no affiliation, etc...
PK
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Competitions
From: John DeCarlo <jdecarlo@mitre.org>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 08:11:35 -0500
Hello,
Does anyone on this list try and keep a list of mead competitions? Or
perhaps competitions that include mead?
I was just talking to a coworker who is an apiarist. He happened to
mention a local apiarist who had been working hard to win the annual Mead
competition for years. And then I realized that this didn't sound
familiar to me. Probably because I have a beer brewer background.
He will get me more information, but I get the impression that many if
not all Apiarist Societies (if I have the name right) have mead competitions.
I don't know if it would be on the regional level or state level.
Anyway, I am tasking him to get me more information from his club at the
next meeting, but I thought I would ask here in parallel.
I would be fascinated to see how apiarist groups approach mead as opposed
to brewing groups.
- --
John DeCarlo, Arlington, VA--My views are my own
Internet: jdecarlo@juno.com
Web: http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/1113
------------------------------
Subject: transporting mead
From: Randy Paul <randy@computer.org>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 22:24:04 -0500
>... Should I resist the urge? Make only meads that will be
>ready to bottle in 3 months? Go for it & trust that days of highway
>vibration won't subtly mutate my stuff? ...
I'd go ahead and brew, but transfer to cornelius kegs for the trip.
- -- Randy
------------------------------
Subject: Moniack's Mead, Acid in Mead?, Maple Mead
From: Wayne_Kozun@otpp.com
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 17:01:11 -0500
For those of you living in Ontario (or within short driving distance) the
LCBO's vintages stores now have in Moniack's Mead from Scotland which seems
to be highly regarded by many people posting to this digest. I happened to
pick up a few bottles and I must agree that it is delicious with a very
dense flavour and dark colour - as dark as whiskey. If you want some you
better move quickly as I believe it is only a limited time listing and they
may not get more after this batch is gone.
As a novice mead maker I have a few questions for the experts.
Some mead recipes I have seen call for the addition of acid to the must.
Is this really required? Are clarifying agents of any sort required in
mead?
I have started a small batch of Maple Mead using nothing but Maple Syrup,
Water, Yeast and Yeast Nutrients.
Does anyone have any experience with maple mead (ie. without honey)?
Are yeast nutrients required in maple mead?
How long does it normally take to ferment?
Is there anything to watch for with a maple mead that differs from
traditional meads?
How do maple meads taste?
Do meads made from only maple syrup taste much differently than meads made
from both honey and maple syrup?
Are there any melomels that anyone can suggest that would taste better with
maple syrup rather than honey?
------------------------------
Subject: Collective
From: "Matthew Stierheim" <vilt@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 13:04:41 PST
Hello all I have a question. I'm farly new to mead brewing here
and I'm afriad I might have a problem with my latest mead.
I started a blackberry mead last week: 10# local honey and 3# black
berry pasturized the whole lot and forced cooled toped to 5 gal and
pitched a Red Star yeast OG: 1.041. Anyway fermation started off fast
and strong. I racked last night into a new carboy OG 1.018. Ok now
the problem the last few days its gotten realy cold here (gads Flordia
should'nt get this cold :)) getting to about 27f at night a few days
there and about 60 during the day and would'nt you know it my heater
is not working so its gotten that cold in the house. (fixed now)
So what I'm wondering is what effect will this have on the yeast?
Will I get stuck fermation? and if I do should I repitch?
BTW when I racked I took a sample..(don't we all..:>) not bad
still very honey tasting with a slight undertoon of blackberry and a
deep purple color though with a very alcoalic tast that I hope will
age out...
TIA
Matt in JAX FL
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #623
*******************************
