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Mead Lovers Digest #0669
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #669, 15 May 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #669 15 May 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Honey (Alasdair65)
Re: stopping fermentation ("Marc Shapiro")
Flavor descriptions for young mead (BernardCh)
Clearing problem ("David Johnson")
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Subject: Honey
From: Alasdair65 <Alasdair65@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 18:03:15 EDT
Just a minor comment slightly off the honey weight to sugar topic. I resently
made a Peach mead using a wine base by substituting honey for the sugar. This
subject of how much to use came up. I talked to many people and had ideas but
had over looked the obvious. Take a hydrometer reading and add honey until it
reads what I wanted.
Alasdair
Caer Anterth
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Subject: Re: stopping fermentation
From: "Marc Shapiro" <mshapiro@mail.inetone.net>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 11:56:34 +0000
On 5 May 1998 14:40:56 EDT, Czesp <Czesp@aol.com> wrote:
> ... Assuming that you used 5 gallons of cider with SG
> of 1.08 and 5# of honey (0.5 gal), your must should have SG of
> 1.105 (24.9 Brix), and your mead should be very sweet when fermented
> with champagn yeast. However, it is very unlikely that SG of your
> cider was 1.08... The SG of apple cider is usually 1.04 to 1. 05.
Assuming the
> SG of 1.05, your cider contained 1.086# of sugar per gallon, and your
> total sugar content was 1.886# per gallon (20.8 Brix). This would
> produce a dry mead. Your SG reading was probably too high because of
> the presence of pulp in your cider.
I agree that an initial SG of 1.08 for cider seems very high and that
1.04 - 1.05 is more likely. I would not even be overly surprised
with a SG of 1.03, myself. I disagree, however, with the first
comment about champagne yeast fermenting a must of 1.105 to a very
sweet cider. Champagne yeast is very alcohol tolerant and will in
all likelihood ferment a must of 1.105 very dry (so long as the must
is well balanced for acid and nutrients). It will take the yeast a
while to do so, but, unless the fermentation is otherwise stopped, a
very dry apple wine is the liky result.
HTH
Wassail!
Marc Shapiro m_shapiro@bigfoot.com
Visit 'The Meadery' at:
http://www.bigfoot.com/~m_shapiro/
"If you drink melomel every day, you will live to be 150 years old,
unless your wife shoots you."
- --Dr. Ferenc Androczi, Winemaker of the Little Hungary Winery
------------------------------
Subject: Flavor descriptions for young mead
From: BernardCh <BernardCh@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 12:18:30 EDT
I've just rack off my first mead to a tertiary carboy for clarification.
The SG was down to 1.002 (OG 1.088) and it has excellent honey aroma and
flavor but is a little "hot" in the finish (with evident alcoholic "kick").
Is this just because its young and will it mellow out with age? how long?
Chuck
BernardCH@aol.com
Music City Brewers, Nashville TN - Music City USA
Aspiring mead maker
------------------------------
Subject: Clearing problem
From: "David Johnson" <dmjalj@inwave.com>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 13:20:13 -0500
Meadmasters,
On 2/9, I prepared a mead using 14 lbs of cranberry Blossom honey and 4
tsp of yeast nutrient and ended up with 4.25 gals of 1.124 must. I
pasteurized a 150 deg. rising to 180 deg over 15 min. I pitched lalvin
K1-V1116 and we were off. On 3/14, fermentation had slowed and it had
started to clear. Gravity was now 1.002. Wanting a sweet mead, I boiled up
2 lbs of grocery store honey and added it. Gravity was now 1.022. There has
been no sign of clearing since. I checked the gravity and it is 1.022. The
flavor shows only some honey character, an impressive alcohol burn and
perhaps some higher alcohols. I transfered to another carboy. What is this
haze likely to be? Is the yeast just hanging around because there is still
a lot of nutrient in suspension? or did boiling the second addition cause
this? Is there any problem to leaving this for awhile? I am in no hurry to
bottle. My main concern is that I don't want this to acquire any off
flavors while it is in bulk storage. How often am I obliged to rack it? If
I decide it is too sweet when I get around to bottling it, can I just
dilute it? With this level of alcohol, do I need to be concerned about
contaminating organisms? If I get the urge to fine I suppose that gelatin
is an adequate choice.
Thanks in advance.
Dave
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #669
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