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Mead Lovers Digest #0699
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #699, 6 October 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #699 6 October 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #698, 23 September 1998 ("Marc Shapiro")
Sanitary Airlocks (Dan_ccmail_Taylor_at_IRV008@ccmailgw.mcgawpark.baxter.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #698, 23 September 1998 (NLSteve@aol.com)
Re: Vanilla Mead (Dave Polaschek)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #698, 23 September 1998 (Michael M Kliks PhD)
Caramel mead--retry (Jane Beckman)
European mead ("Chuck Wettergreen")
Spanish Mead ("Chuck Wettergreen")
RE: airlock fluid (Scott Murman)
0.1 micron filtration and flavor loss ("Evan J. Williams")
Re: Fruit flies ("John A. MacLaughlin")
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #698, 23 September 1998
From: "Marc Shapiro" <mshapiro@mail.inetone.net>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 10:33:45 +0000
Steve said . . .
>
>That's a good reason to use (cheap!) vodka in the airlocks for
> anything that will be in the carboy a long time. Sure, it's not
> "necessary," but it's great for peace of mind.
And Martin replied . . .
> No, no, no! Steve, you are badly mistaken here. Acetobacter lives on
> alcohol and requires oxygen to do it's dirty work...
Actually, I use SO2 in my airlocks, but, vodka will work, too. Yes
acetobacter feed on alcohol, but not at 40%. Their tolerance for
alcohol is somewhere in the 10% to 12% range. This is why wines and
meads fermented to 12% or higher are more stable than those that are
below 10%. There are also other organisms that do better in lower
alcohol and so it is better to ferment up to at least 12% IMHO.
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: Sanitary Airlocks
From: Dan_ccmail_Taylor_at_IRV008@ccmailgw.mcgawpark.baxter.com
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 13:09:33 -0500
Regarding the ongoing "How to keep your Airlock Sanitary" discussion,
I have had luck with a pretty easy method, I fill the sanitized
standard 3 piece airlock with clean water, drop in a campden tablet,
and snap on the airlock lid. The tablet dissolves very slowly, when
it does, I toss in another tablet. No problems so far.
I am considering a blood orange/ vanilla brew, sort of a 50/50 orange
creamsicle for adults, anyone tried this? I'm wondering about orange
juice quantities and a bit concerned about the potential acidity from
all those oranges
At least I wont get scurvy
Dan Taylor
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #698, 23 September 1998
From: NLSteve@aol.com
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 19:53:02 EDT
Martin says in response to my comment suggesting the use of cheap vodka in the
airlock of a carboy to be aged a long time:
"No, no, no! Steve, you are badly mistaken here. Acetobacter lives on alcohol
and requires oxygen to do it's dirty work. Acetic acid is only a few
molecules different from ethanol, the respective formulas being CH3COOH and
CH3CH2OH. Essentially, acetobacter performs an extremely inefficient
metabolism of ethanol. In my opinion, absolutely the last thing you want to
do is put alcohol in an airlock. I would recommend a few things, clean and
sanitize your airlocks very well and use either boiled water or an iodine
based no-rinse sanitizer solution to fill them. And check your airlocks from
time to time to ensure that they have not dried out and have nothing growing
in them."
Well, sure, acetobacter works on alcohol, but 80 proof (40% ethanol)?
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought even stronger wines (15-20%
alcohol) pose a challenge to acetobacter (any response from vinegar makers is
invited). Anybody ever heard of brandy turning to vinegar? Or vodka, for
goodness sakes, being turned to vinegar? An iodine solution in the airlock
will dissipate. Boiled water is adequate but certainly won't be sterile for
long. I'm not saying you HAVE to use vodka in the airlock, but I do believe
it's wrong to suggest the use of vodka is counterproductive or will promote
acetobacter in an airlock.
By the way, Dick Dunn, your notice of upcoming time off reminds me to say
thanks for all the work you do with this board. Consider it a vacation with
full pay. . .
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Vanilla Mead
From: Dave Polaschek <dpolaschek@uswest.net>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 98 19:06:17 -0500
>Shane Gray wrote:
>Also, I'm just about to start another mead and am looking for some good
>vanilla mead recipes (and/or any variations of the above), so if anyone has
>any tried and tested recipes they'd like to share I would be most grateful.
<http://www.best.com/~davep/mme/recipes/vanilla.html>
- -DaveP
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #698, 23 September 1998
From: Michael M Kliks PhD <mmkliks@aloha.net>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 17:50:32 -1000 (HST)
Aloha to all mead makers and lovers! Any of you wishing detailed info on honey
as a food, preservative, additive, its chemistry, grading, marketing, and so on
can contact the National Honey Board at 1-800-356-5941 (<mmc@csn.net>; Web Site:
www.nhb.org) and ask for some of their very informative documents. Of
particular interest to you all will be their booklets "Honey Microbrews" and
"Honey Information Kit".
Also see a recent article in Science News (Vol. 154, pp. 170-173, September 12,
1998) on the antioxidant value of honeys of various types.
Any of you needing some of our excellent Hawaiian honeys, such as Kiawe, Lehua
Ohia, Christmas Berry, Waikane Golden (mixed upland tropical fruit) or our very
dark rich Manoa Honey Company, Beekeeper's Reserve (aged in the hive 5 years),
just drop me a line for price and availability data!
For the past decade I have been making prize winning beverages from these
honeys, such as: Crater Star Fruit Melomel, Mango-Orange Melolmel, Soursop
Melomel, Irish Ale Metheglin, Waikane Ale Metheglin, Flame Blush Pyment. . .and
so many more! We recently racked off to glass carboys 65 gallons of our
Millennium Barrel Mead that had been in a French oak (Chardonnay) barrel for 6
months. . .splendid stuff like a full bodied Mersault-Semillion blend.
Michael M. Kliks, PhD
Master Beekeeper and Mead Maker
3081 G. Paty Drive
Honolulu, HI 96822
TEL: 808-988-7202; FAX 808-988-5161
------------------------------
Subject: Caramel mead--retry
From: Jane Beckman <jane@swdc.stratus.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 14:32:23 -0700 (PDT)
Rather than playing with caramel syrup, which contains all manner of stabilizers
and preservatives, you might want to simply carmelize some sugar on the stove.
My mother always made caramel ice cream topping that way, simply by boiling up
sugar and water until it turned to caramel. Alternatively, you can get bottles
of pre-made unenhanced caramel at a lot of Oriental markets. The use it in a
lot of recipes over there.
Jilara [jilara@yahoo.com or jane@swdc.stratus.com]
------------------------------
Subject: European mead
From: "Chuck Wettergreen" <Chuck.Wettergreen@Mcs.Net>
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 98 04:28:34 PDT
In MLD #698 Curt Speaker" <speaker@safety-1.safety.psu.edu> wrote:
<A friend just returned from a trip to Europe and brought me back a
<small bottle of mead from Denmark (don't have it here a work to tell
<you the exact name). Anyway, this mead is labelled as 21.8% alcohol
<by volume - Yikes! How would you get a mead that strong? Fortify it =
<with grain? Multiple pitchings of yeast? Or is there some
<ultra-strong Viking yeast available in Denmark that I am not aware
<of??? Anyone have any information?
I just came back from a week in Madrid where I searched high and low for
mead in just about every liquor store that great city contains. Not only
did I not find any, no one had ever heard of it.
I did find (and purchased) several different "licors de miel" of both
Spanish and German manufacture, but they are all distilled and range in
alcohol percentage from 24% to 35%. I suspect that the Danish "mead" is
another one of these.
Chuck
------------------------------
Subject: Spanish Mead
From: "Chuck Wettergreen" <chuckmw@mcs.net>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 07:53:50 -0500
I spoke too soon. One of the bottles of honey liquor is really a mead,
actually the best mead I have ever tasted (really). It has a honey aroma
which will not go away, is crystal clear, and the flavor is also honey,
honey, honey. Re-reading the label, it says something like "contains only
alcohol from natural sources". The alcohol is 19% (by weight) and it is
sweet, but not cloyingly sweet. I haven't yet taken a gravity. It has the
strongest honey aroma I have ever encountered, even in just raw honey. It
smells very much like some heather honey which Wout Klingens sent to me from
Holland, but more aromatic, if that's possible. I wish that I had bought
more bottles. Oh well, another excuse to go back to Spain. The bottle was
labeled Baranano Licor Miel (the brand is Baranano, the first "n" is an
nyay).
Chuck
------------------------------
Subject: RE: airlock fluid
From: Scott Murman <smurman@best.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 16:51:40 -0700 (PDT)
> In my opinion, absolutely the last thing you want to
> do is put alcohol in an airlock. I would recommend a few things, clean and
> sanitize your airlocks very well and use either boiled water or an iodine
> based no-rinse sanitizer solution to fill them.
It's funny how even a simple thing like airlocks can give rise to so
many diverse methods. About the last thing I would put in an airlock
is an iodine solution, or any sanitizer for that matter. Accidently
dropping/splashing/spilling some into your mead would be painful.
There's also some concern about what gas evolves from an airlock
fluid, but I think that's really a tertiary concern. Personally, I
use plain old H2O.
SM
------------------------------
Subject: 0.1 micron filtration and flavor loss
From: "Evan J. Williams" <ejwillia@mailbox.syr.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 20:32:29 -0400 (EDT)
I would like to hear from anyone who has experimented with
post-fermentation filtration. I have a 0.1 micron filter. I am
considering filtering before fermentation brings my mead down to a
specific gravity lower than 1.010 in order to achieve a medium sweet mead.
Has anyone tried this or had any experience with 0.1 micron
filtration? Has anyone found this sort of procedure to strip the mead of
any flavor, character, or aroma as I have heard tight filtration can do to
beers and wine? Thanks.
Evan Williams
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Fruit flies
From: "John A. MacLaughlin" <jam@clark.net>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 10:01:48 -0400
They're back! And I'm out of vinegar! But I do have some honey and
I do recall my grandmother saying, "You can catch more flies with
honey than with vinegar."
It works! A spoonful of honey and two spoonfuls of water and a wee
drap of detergent, and the traps are working again, even better than
with vinegar. Score one for grandmotherly platitudes.
Wasn't it Mary Poppins who said, "A spoonful of honey helps the fruit
flies go drown ?"
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #699
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