Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Mead Lovers Digest #0665
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #665, 20 April 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #665 20 April 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
RE: Freezing Mead (Louis Bohm)
Mead and the production of "Other activitys" ("Madbrewer of Tuatha de Brig...)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #664, 15 April 1998 (Pghgardens)
Roger Morse and Speed Mead (Dan McFeeley)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #664, 15 April 1998 (dennis key)
First Mead Bottling time ("Michael R. Tucker")
Looking for a Maple Mead Recipe (Phill Welling)
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: RE: Freezing Mead
From: Louis Bohm <gandalf@arakis.sugar-river.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 11:41:01 -0400 (EDT)
I am new to the concept of freezing mead for the higher acl. levels.
Can anyone give me some discriptive directions on how they have done it?
Thank you,
Louis
------------------------------
Subject: Mead and the production of "Other activitys"
From: "Madbrewer of Tuatha de Brighid." <chudson@unm.edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:29:52 -0600 (MDT)
> Yes, indee dee it be true for mead too. On July 4, 1996, my (then to be) wife
> Doris and I made a batch of traditional mead in just such a manner. We used
> mesquite catclaw honey and copius amounts of copulation. We named it Meadae
> Copuli (for obvious reasons). It is the best batch of mead we have yet
> brewed. It has won every mead competition we have entered it in. However we
> have received several requests from competition organizers (a pun?) to stop
> entering it as it seems to cause erratic (read erotic) behavior among the
> judges and stewards who drink it.
> No I don't think it's the apples.
> Hope this helps,
> Carl
>
Maybe it is mead with different types of honey other than Clover or
Wildflower. Three years ago I made a most excelent Spiced Pumpkin mead
10 lbs of pumpkins and a gallon of Mesquite honey for five gallons plus
the usual spices for a pumpkin pie. Finally cleared after 2 years and we
started drinking it for Yule 1996. The only problem we had was we had a
son born on Halloween 1997. Conincedence? Hum....
Walk in Frith and Light.
Chuck/|\
Give a man a beer and he wastes an hour...
Teach a man to brew and he wastes a lifetime.
chudson@unm.edu
chudson@mozart.unm.edu
Yes my son it is grain,
In which any fool can eat.
But the Lord has a more
Devine use in mind.
Let us give Thanks to the
Bounty and Praise to the
Beauty and learn about,
Beer.
Friar Tuck.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #664, 15 April 1998
From: Pghgardens <Pghgardens@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 13:35:05 EDT
I am somewhat new to the making of mead. My first attempt seemed to work just
fine. It is a dry ginger mead that has been in the bottle for over a year.
It tastes much like a dry champagne. But I have recently made a malomel using
3lbs of strawberrys 5 ozs of fresh ginger root and 12lbs of honey. With all
of the talk about acid blend and ph, I'm getting a bit paranoid. at the time
I did not know the purpose of adding acid blend and added 4 tbs of the stuff
to my must. The ferment seemed good and fast. specific gravity is close to
1. A more experienced friend had a taste at racking time and said he could
taste the acid. It does have a sharpness about it.(nothing all that offensive
Something I had attributed to the very young age. Did I ruin this mead? Is
there something that I can add neutralize some of the acidity or should I?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Crispi
------------------------------
Subject: Roger Morse and Speed Mead
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 16:45:21 -0500
David Sherfey <sherf@warwick.net> wrote in MLD 664:
>1) The work and writing of Roger Morse was quoted as source for this
>subject. I note that the article written in 1972 (and re-published in
>1995) says "It was found that a pH of 3.7-4.6 was desirable for honey
>fermentation..." Yet, in his book "Making Mead (Honey Wine)", published
>in 1980, says on page 119 that "...a pH in the range of 3.0 to 4.0 is
>suitable for a fermentation" would indicate that perhaps a change of
>thinking occurred between '72 and '80? Why would the higher pH range not
>have been included in the book?
Morse is a little unclear about pH throughout the book which is surprising
given his attention to it in his other more scientific writings. I think
the section you quoted from is all he has to say about specific pH range
and he's pretty vague as it is. A range of 3.0 to 4.0 seems pretty wide
to me especially since pH values are computed using logarithmic principles.
In the MLD post that started this thread, Jay Conner wrote that winemakers
use more specific pH values -- 3.5 for red wines and 3.2 for white wines.
The reason for the different pH values is that red wine does not need as
much acid to balance the flavors as do white wines because of its additional
tannin. But note that the difference between the two pH values needed to
suggest an adequate acid balance for two different types of grape must is
only .3 of a unit.
I don't think Morse changed his ideas much in the book since he mentions
pH control, and the differences in acid content and buffering agents between
grape and honey musts elsewhere in the book. On pp. 61-62 he discusses
the project he and Keith Steinkraus worked on, resulting in a patent for
meadmaking techniques meant for commercial production. This is the project
he writes on more fully in other published works. In his book, however, he
gives brief mention of the need for pH and temperature control and lists an
additive formula, but does not elaborate or give any guidelines for readers.
His book seems to be giving a more general account of using wine making
techniques in mead making but still giving brief mention of his own work.
>2) If one merely uses a nutrient mix similar to that described in
>Morse's book, wouldn't that be sufficient to balance the must (to avoid
>pH crashes) to achieve relatively short (approx. 1 month @ OG 1.020)
>fermentations at a starting pH of 3.0?
Although the formulas Morse worked with contained buffering agents,
I think the overall effect was to smooth out the pH drops rather than
completely stabilize the must at a specific starting value. He found
that with the use of formula one (formula two only contained vitamins
and nitrogen sources), the pH often dropped below 3.0, slowing the
fermentation. Ken Schramm in his last MLD post also recommended keeping
the pH high even with the addition of buffering agents.
As much as this discussion has focused on Roger Morse, I think it's
important to keep in mind that as innovative as the ideas he introduced
on meadmaking were, he is not the last word on the subject. There were
only two uncontrolled variables in his experiments in mead fermentation
mentioned in his other papers -- alcohol content and time needed to
complete the fermentation. This means that the controlled variables of
pH, temperature, amount of added starter, and additive formulas in the
experiments only indicated how fast you could make mead with adequate
alcohol levels. A pH value of 3.7 to 4.6 produced finished mead in about
two weeks, but many other factors in fermentation are pH dependent or
strongly influenced by pH levels, such as the use of potassium sorbate or
sulfites. These other factors in fermentation were not part of the
experiments, although Morse seems to have tried to make adjustments such
as recommending a starting pH at 3.7 in order to inhibit bacterial growth
that could start at the higher pH ranges, or compromising on lower
temperatures of 64 degrees F instead of the 75 to 80 degrees that had
produced fermentation times of approximately two weeks.
The reason Morse focused on the shorter fermentation times was because
he hypothesized that the cause of mead with offensive flavors was from
lengthy fermentation times. However, this brought him into conflict with
vintners who recommended longer fermentation times at cooler temperatures
in order to produce better quality wines. In a sense, I think both are
right. What Morse's work shows is that when the deficiencies of honey must
are corrected for, the fermentation is cleaner and the chance of off-flavors
being produced by yeast are greatly reduced. Naturally, a must that is more
suitably favored for yeast fermentation would finish much faster. In other
words, the shorter fermentation time is not the prime agent of producing
better mead, it is the cleaner fermentation created by adjusting for
deficiencies in the must. Shorter fermentation time is one of the produced
effects along with reduction of off-flavors. Grape must is already a
near-perfect environment for yeast, so the longer fermentation time at
cooler temperatures will not adversely affect the quality of the wine.
The same thing is true for an adjusted honey must that has adequate nutrients
and pH levels but is fermented at a longer period at cooler temperatures.
Finally, it should be kept in mind that there is nothing dogmatic
about mead making techniques. Morse was quick to point out the mead
of Brother Adam, a Benedictine monk who used techniques that Morse had
scientifically shown to be detrimental to mead making. Morse stated in
his book that he could present a strong argument against Brother Adam's
recommended methods but he couldn't argue with the quality of his mead
which was outstanding. A few years ago, there was a debate on this list
on the use of citric acid as an additive during fermentation. One poster
insisted that it is very poor technique to use citric acid because it
inhibits the EMP metabolic pathway used by yeast during fermentation.
He made a very strong case and even cited the literature on the subject
which showed that he was correct. Citric acid does indeed interfere with
the EMP pathway. On the other hand, Dick Dunn responded by pointing out
that regardless of how correct the theory was, mead makers have made good
and even outstanding meads for quite some time using citric acid and other
methods that could be considered less than scientifically perfect. Who is
correct here?
Time to quit here -- I hadn't planned to write this long a response!
Hope the above was helpful.
__________
________
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #664, 15 April 1998
From: dennis key <dione@unm.edu>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 13:30:20 -0600 (MDT)
Regarding pH in a five month old must: you can adjust pH at any time
during ferment using calcium carbonate. I check pH and S.G. every couple
of weeks and adjust as necessary. I have had no problems.
Never Thirst,
Dione
------------------------------
Subject: First Mead Bottling time
From: "Michael R. Tucker" <mtucker@frii.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 13:10:34 -0400
Hi All,
I think I'm finally ready to bottle my first mead ever. I transferred it
off its sediment in late february, and its lain dormant now for a couple of
months. I tested the gravity yesterday, and tasted it as well. The final
gravity looks to be 1.010, I assume its finished fermenting. As for
taste.... well...... I am shocked to say the least. I have tasted this
batch (never having tasted mead in my life) all along the entire process,
and frankly thought it tasted horrible. BUT, I must say that I tasted it
yesterday and I am very impressed. What a wonderful concoction!
Hey that's good stuff! And I hear it gets better with age. wow. no
wonder you people like this drink.
At any rate, I am impressed.
One final note- I'm looking for Vicky from North Carolina.... I lost your
email, and need to find out about the Faire.....
Also, I lost the email addresses of some guys that were helping me along
with this batch (my machine crashed). One of you offered to judge this
fair elixir for me and give me some tips on improving it..... thanks.
- ---
Michael R. Tucker
http://www.frii.com/~mtucker
mtucker@frii.com
------------------------------
Subject: Looking for a Maple Mead Recipe
From: Phill Welling <kern@pcisys.net>
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 02:25:50 -0600
I've picked up 32 oz of grade A maple syrup.
I would like a small maple mead recipe or a recipe that I can scale down.
Phillip J. Welling
ICQ #: 2579862
Visit my home page at:
http://www.pcisys.net/~kern/
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #665
*******************************
