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Mead Lovers Digest #0652
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #652, 28 February 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #652 28 February 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
a plea for editing (Mead Lover's Digest)
Re: Aging vessels (RBarnes001@aol.com)
Blue Mead (nathan_l_kanous_ii@ferris.edu)
Racking tubes (Zaephod Beeblebrox)
rauch barggot (bill irwin)
syphon solution ("Mr. Warren Place")
Oxygen and wine ("David Johnson")
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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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: a plea for editing
From: mead@raven.talisman.com (Mead Lover's Digest)
Date: 27 Feb 98 23:19:04 MST (Fri)
Folks -
When an article arrives here for the digest, it's subject to a number of
sanity-checks to be sure it belongs in the digest and will be readable by
the average email recipient. I am finding that an increasing number of
submitted articles don't meet the basic criteria; as a result they get sent
back for editing. You can save your time, my time, and all sorts of frus-
tration if you'll make sure that what you send obeys a handful of simple
(and mostly fairly obvious) rules:
* 7-bit characters only. I know this is a nuisance, but there are still
many systems and gateways that can't take larger character sets. In
any case I can't translate to make a single digest from multiple char-
set sources.
* simple text: no MIME multi-part, no quoted-printable, no attachments
* line length no more than 80 characters. It's actually better to keep
it somewhat under, so that if someone quotes you, the quoted text won't
get line-wrapped.
* no re-wrapped text: If your mailer decides to take long-ish lines and
re-break them, the result is a message with long/short/long/short line
alternation, and it is absolutely maddening to read. I will catch this
and reject it if it's more than a couple of re-broken lines.
Please do whatever you can to create your article in readable form and then
check it before you send it. I will continue to be fussy about what I
accept because I think it's better to force one writer to spend extra
effort making the article readable than to force a thousand readers to
struggle with formatting problems. But if you'll anticipate this up-front,
it will save your time as well as mine.
If anybody's got questions or suggestions about format of articles (what is
acceptable, suggested; why it is how it is, etc.) please drop me a note at
the -request address.
- ---
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Aging vessels
From: RBarnes001@aol.com
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 05:23:31 EST
In a message Dick Dunn said:
> Aging in small wood casks is particularly touchy on both these
> counts due to the surface/volume ratio...personally, I wouldn't even try
> aging mead in a cask smaller than 10 gallons.
Could you explain this?
I've been looking at some one gallon casks lately; what's this surface/volume
ratio affecting.
> I'd put plastic at the bottom of my list.
Definitely we agree here!
------------------------------
Subject: Blue Mead
From: nathan_l_kanous_ii@ferris.edu
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 18:33:31 -0500
Dick Dunn, was it you? Someone posted previously (quite a while ago) about
their mead taking on a blue hue. I think my most recent two meads both
have a very light blue hue to them. Anybody else?
Nathan in Frankenmuth, MI
------------------------------
Subject: Racking tubes
From: Zaephod Beeblebrox <frankem@erols.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:17:39 -0500
What's all this fuss about racking and sucking on the tube?
Just fill the stinkin' tube with tap water and let 'er rip. Pardon my
obtuseness but just what's the problem here. A tube has a capacity of
1/4 cup (yes I did measure it!). This AIN'T SQUAT compared to 5 gallons!
A friend used to do the oral assist method unknown to me. It seems all
his brews tasted like belgians. Later I found out where the bacteria
came from.
Erg!
Now educated and using a water fill method, he is only turning out
begians deliberately and his brews taste MUCH better. And I'm not
disgusted to drink them.
The only reason I can figure for not using a water prime method is for 1
gallon experimental batches or limited production. F'rinstance my annual
2 liter elderberry wine I use the Sucking thing and it can't be beat.
But I don't usually do such small batches since the effort for five
gallons is only minimally more.
Frank M.
BTW:
Two wrongs don't make a right, BUT:
Two Wrights can make an airplane,
Three rights make a left,
Four rights cause you to go in circles.
Just thought you'd like to know!
------------------------------
Subject: rauch barggot
From: bill irwin <billirwin@uswest.net>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:46:05 -0800
Hi all..
I had several requests for my "rauch braggot" recipe, so I thought I'd
post it here for those interested or curious or peculiar enough to
consider a smoked mead.
1 # german smoked malt ground medium fine.
Stew the grain in 3 qts. water at 155f for 60 minutes.
Rinse (sparge for the brewers in the crowd) the grain stew through a
fine cloth mesh filter with 170f water to 1 gallon total runnings.
Add 12# mild honey (I used Clark's clover unfiltered)
Add water to 5 gallons. Pasteurize at 145f for 15 minutes. Skim if
necessary.
I used 2 packs of Lavlin EC-1118. I aerated the must with Oxygen for 10
seconds prior to pitching the yeast. Original gravity was 1.096 on
8/9/97. Gravity on 1/3/98 was 1.000. Smoky... Have fun
I made another batch..same recipe except I used British peated malt
instead of German rauchmalz. The jury is still out.
Bill from Bill's Bathtub Brewery (and Meadery) Lone Tree, Colorado
billirwin@uswest.net
"no good deed goes unpunished" Gore Vidal
------------------------------
Subject: syphon solution
From: "Mr. Warren Place" <wrp2@axe.humboldt.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:17:35 -0800 (PST)
MLD'ers
Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but I have been so
busy I could only skim the last few digests. The syphon method I have
been most happy with is as follows: first, I syphon my sanitizer out of
the carbouy I'm planning to use (using my mouth to start it), then when
it's nearly finished I put my thumb over the end of the hose. Now, remove
the racking cane(still covering the end of the hose), dump the remaining
solution out of the carbouy, and place the racking cane into the carbouy
with mead. Direct the end of the hose into a glass and let it flow until
all air bubbles come out.(For the next step I hold the glass next to the
mouth of the carbouy) then quickly move the tube from the glass to the
empty carbouy mouth. Works like magic and there is little risk of
contamination. An even easier way to fill the tubing is to simply
submerge the tubing in sanitizer w the racking cane attached. Then it's
much then same as above. It's so much easier to show, but I think you'll
get the idea.
Warren Place
wrp2@axe.humboldt.edu
www.humboldt.edu/~wrp2
------------------------------
Subject: Oxygen and wine
From: "David Johnson" <dmjalj@inwave.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 11:49:56 -0600
Meadmasters,
The recent discussion about oxygen and winemakers as it may (or may not)
apply to mead gave me a reason to write to George Clayton Cone the wine
consultant on the Lallemand website and at least get an authoritative
opinion on it from the winemakers standpoint. It is a pleasure for me to get
Mr Cone's gracious and informative opinions. I will qoute my post and his
response.
David Johnson wrote:
Mr. Cone,
I would like to say I appreciate your answers to some of my previous
questions. Especially since they have been related to mead and cider
rather than wine. There has been a recent discussion on the Mead Lovers
Digest about the role of oxygen in fermentation in mead, wine , and beer.
It has been observed that winemakers seem to be less concerned about
introducing oxygen into wine and that some consider it to be somewhat
beneficial to development of the flavor profile in red wines and other
styles ( not just sherry ). I had been reading through some of my old
files and found you had made the following comment:
"Most of the Lalvin strains of yeast will work well up to 16% alcohol if
adequate nutrients are added and air allowed to be present during the first
24-48 hours of fermentation (no air later) along with frequent agitation.
With special care and nutrients, several of the strains can be made to
produce 20+ % alcohol."
This suggested to me that you could answer some of the questions that
have been debated over the last few digests. Adding oxygen at the beginning
of fermentation is good for the yeast. We use various methods to get O2 into
our musts ranging from compressed O2 or filtered air through an air
stone to shaking a partially full carboy. How long after fermentation can
this be done and still be reliably more helpful than problematic?
Also, is there a benefit to allowing O2 to be present after fermentation
"to aid in maturation"? Is this only true in certain styles? Is the amount
of
O2 from gentle racking likely to be a problem?
David Johnson
David,
Glad to hear from you again.
Oxygen is a touchy subject to give advice on. The yeast, during its growth
phase, love it and so do spoilage bacteria, at the end of fermentation..
Judicious useof SO2 usually keeps the spoilage bacteria under control. A
healthy fermentation with rapid production of alcohol minimizes the
bacteri problem.With sound clean grapes no SO2 is used at the begining of
fermentation
because the yeast fermentation will overwhelm the bacteria. With
unsound grapes, SO2 is necessary.
It sounds like you have a good system for the introduction of oxygen into
the must during the growth phase. The ideal time to add oxygen is when the
yeast have doubled about 4-5 times. This is close to the stationary phase.
The yeast can use the oxygen at any time but it is only necessary for a
brief period about the time the yeast reaches the stationary phase.
This should be between 24 - 48 hours. So it would be wise to stop aeration
before 48 hours. The yeast need only a very small amount of oxygen-8-10 ppm.
An hour or so of bubbing air through the must should be enough. As you know,
some wineries pump over, several times a day, the juice on top of the
floating crushed red grapes to extract more color and to maintain
temperature
controlin the cap. This pumping over aerates the must. If you are
fermenting white
grapes at 55F. the stationary phase will be reached later than in red grape
fermentation at 80F. You have to be the judge as to when the best time to
start and stop aeration. I work with wineries in Poland. We start very, very
low aeration about 12 hours into the fermentation and stop it at about the
36th hour.
I wish that I could be more definitive about time and volume of air at the
begining.
I will answer you question on oxygen and aging of wine as soon as I return
from a quick
trip, later today or tomorrow.
- -------------
David,
Oxygen and aging;
A limited amount of oxygen is necessary for the aging of wine; red wine more
than white wine. It does all kinds of neat things to soften the tannins and
phenol. It begins early in red wine fermentation with the pumping of the
must over the floating crushed grape skins (cap) several time a day to
extract more color.It begins to modify the color compounds, phenols and
tannins at this stage.Bordeaux winemakers are noted for the racking and
splashing.
Dr. Dominique Delteil, ICV, France, has developed a special pumping over,
splashing protocol that extracts and modifies the color compounds, phenols
and tannins. Look for a late '98 article in Practical Winery Journal this
year. Don't know which one it will be in. We have an article on this
subject. Gentle racking is great. Air gets into the wine during barrel
aging around the bung hole plug, and during capping off to replace the
evaporated wine with both red and white wines. Stirring the wine while it
is on the lees also introduces oxygen. There are many factors involved in
how much oxygen is required during aging. It generally centers around the
amount of harsh phenols and tannins that are extracted from the skins.
Having said all these good things about limited oxygen and aging you must be
warned that spoilage bacteria can use the oxygen at the same time to produce
high VA (vinegar). You must always have sufficient SO2 to keep the bacteria
under control. Smell and test frequently for VA as an early warning to stop
adding oxygen and monitor SO2. If you are going to produce light, fruity
wines such as Riesling, Chenin blanc, non barrel aged Chardonnay, 'vin
nouveau', etc, you need little or no oxygen.
The Australians are reviving the totally Oxygen free production of red wine
from the crusher to the bottle. It keeps the wine very fruity. There is a
propensity for the fermentations to develope H2S.
Wish that I could be of more help and specific.
Let's hear from you again.
Clayton
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #652
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