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Mead Lovers Digest #0681
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #681, 25 June 1998
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #681 25 June 1998
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #680, 22 June 1998 (John Looney)
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #680, 22 June 1998 ("Burnette, Ollen--G3")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #680 (Jack Stafford)
Re: pre-Rabbinic mead (Cindy Renfrow)
Re: Raspberry Chocolate mead ("Tidmarsh Major")
Definition Request: 'Sweet Mead' ("Richard Moore")
Mead w/tea settling faster ? (CW)
Northern VA Mead-makers ? (CW)
Re: Prickly Pears ()
CDs/Videos ("Michael O. Hanson")
Siphons ("Shane Gray")
re: Prickly Pear Mead (Dick Dunn)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #680, 22 June 1998
From: John Looney <John.Looney@hos.horizon.ie>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:13:33 +0100
>
> Subject: Mead of the Israelites
> From: r l reid <ro@panix.com>
> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:42:37 -0400 (EDT)
>
> Does anyone know anything about whether mead was a known drink
> among the pre-Rabbinic period Jews/Israelites? I realize most
> folks associate it with pagan Europe, and that borai pri hagafen
> (the fruit of the vine - grape derived beverages) are the traditional
> ritual drink for the last few thousand years of the Jews. But I did
> recently come accross a reference to mead (not in a sacred or scholarly
> text mind you) among the ancient Jews, and it certainly the delight
> of honey itself is in the sacred texts and in the Tradition (essential
> folk element of bot Rosh HaShana and Shavuot, for example).
>
> If it were a drink there, doesn anyone know its name (I'm sure it
> wasn't "mead") and any details? My assumption is it would have been
> a straight "honey, water, fermentation" approach.
Mead is one of the older drinks...it comes from the Sumerian word for
honey (malhda or something - I'm probably wrong though). It's mentioned a
few times in the old testament alright. Someone quoted to the list about a
massive battle that occured, and the enemy knew that the others had drunk
mead the night before, so they banged their shields off rocks to exacerbate
their hangovers ;)
Many of the older languages still use similar sounding words for honey.
The Gaelic for honey is 'mil', and French & spanish is miel, italian is
miele, and portugese is mel. Dunno about other languages. Seems somethings
everyone had in common ;)
Kate
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #680, 22 June 1998
From: "Burnette, Ollen--G3" <BurnetteO@hood-emh3.army.mil>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:16:52 -0500
In MLD #680, Richard Weiss wrote:
> I've got a nice<IMHO> raspberry mead in bottles that is about 6
> months
> old. I'd like to add some chocolate to this but don't want to mess up
> the clarity. It's really clean. Any ideas on how to blend this mead with
> something that will give me a raspberry chocolate mead?
> TIA
> Dick Weiss
>
I had a nice success using chocolate mint with blackberrys lately.
Chip Burnette
Belton, TX
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #680
From: Jack Stafford <stafford@newport26.HAC.COM>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 08:28:20 -0700 (PDT)
On Thu, 18 Jun 1998, Samuel Mize <smize@ns1.imagin.net> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 12:54:24 -0500 (CDT)
> > Also what is a 'period of mead'? I have seen many
> > container sizes with interesting names posted on the MLD but not this one.
>
> A quart. A period is half a colon.
Otherwise referred to as the semi-colon.
Jack
Costa Mesa, CA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: pre-Rabbinic mead
From: renfrow@skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 11:14:15 -0400
ro@panix.com asks:
>Does anyone know anything about whether mead was a known drink
>among the pre-Rabbinic period Jews/Israelites? <snip>
>If it were a drink there, doesn anyone know its name (I'm sure it
>wasn't "mead") and any details? My assumption is it would have been
>a straight "honey, water, fermentation" approach.
This is the earliest recipe I have for a mead-like beverage:
[HYDROMELI] - circa 77 A.D.
"A wine is also made of only water and honey. For this it is recommended
that rain-water should be stored for five years. Some who are more expert
use rain-water as soon as it has fallen, boiling it down to a third of the
quantity and adding one part of old honey to three parts of water, and then
keeping the mixture in the sun for 40 days after the rising of the
Dog-star. Others pour it off after nine days and then cork it up. This
beverage is called in Greek 'water-honey' ['hydromeli']; with age it
attains the flavour of wine."
(From Natural History, by Pliny the Elder, Book XIV, section XX, p. 261.)
HTH,
Cindy Renfrow
renfrow@skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Raspberry Chocolate mead
From: "Tidmarsh Major" <tidmarsh@pop.mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 07:54:32 +0000
Richard Weiss <morgan@bmd.clis.com> asks for advice on adding
chocolate flavor to a raspberry mead.
I'd try adding some Godiva chocolate liqueur. I tasted a little bit
some months ago, and as I recall, it had a delightful chocolate
flavor and aroma without being terribly sweet.
You might also consider some chocolate extract, which I've seen in a
Williams-Sonoma catalog but haven't tried.
Cheers,
Tidmarsh Major, Birmingham, Alabama
tidmarsh@mindspring.com
"Bot we must drynk as we brew,
And that is bot reson."
-The Wakefield Master, Second Shepherds' Play
------------------------------
Subject: Definition Request: 'Sweet Mead'
From: "Richard Moore" <remoore@zzapp.org>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 13:05:06 -0400
I am in the second month of my first mead project, and have a few concerns.
A bit of background; I am a reasonably experienced all-grain beer brewer,
with about 2 dozen batches under my belt. The mead in question was made as
such:
1 gal (about 12#) Orange Blossom Honey
3.75 gal water
Steeped honey & water for 20 minutes at 175 degrees F to kill nasties
Added 2 T Acid Blend, 1 T Yeast Nutrient during cooldown
Pitched Wyeast Sweet Mead, stepped up 3 times with organic apple juice to 1
qt.
SG unknown; mine only goes up to 90.
Fermentation was good (not as rambunctious as beer, but heavy & steady) for
about 3 weeks. After 4 weeks, it cleared out, and I racked it off to
another fermenter. SG at this point was about 75. In the new container,
activity started up again, but only for a day or so. After that; 1 bloop
every 5 minutes or so.
At 5 weeks, it cleared again; SG at 70. Added a rehydrated pack of Lavin
1116, since I figured the wyeast was about at its limit. Activity started
immediately, but subsided a day later; SG at a hair over 60. I have a bloop
about every 3-4 minutes, and the new yeast is still in suspension at week 6
(now).
Temp has been a reasonably constant 72-74 the whole time.
OK, I wanted a sweet mead, but 60 is a bit much. My gut feeling is that 30
would be more in range. Any helpful hints here? Or should I let patience
be a virtue?
Thanks,
Rich Moore
remoore@zzapp.org
------------------------------
Subject: Mead w/tea settling faster ?
From: CW <cwelch@cais.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 22:06:40 -0400
My last 2 batches of mead [ cantaloupe and tradition(?) ] were both
made with tea as one of the ingredients. Both of these have a
rather large amount of sediment on the bottom (compared to my first
2 batches [citrus and vanilla]). I'm not sure if I'm comparing
apples to oranges in this case but has anybody else noticed that
their "tea" meads settle faster ? If so, any idea as to why
it does (the tannin?) ?
BTW, does anybody have a reference of the various commercial yeasts
that are available and how well they do with making mead/melomels/etc ?
TIA,
CW
------------------------------
Subject: Northern VA Mead-makers ?
From: CW <cwelch@cais.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 22:09:54 -0400
Does anybody know of a group specific to making mead in the Northern
VA area (WV, DC, MD) ? Would anybody be interested in starting one ?
I've got one other name and will be touching base with some of the local
homebrew clubs (BURP, DREBS, WortHogs(?), others?). Rather than
"clog" up the digest drop me a line via email at cwelch@cais.com
CW
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Prickly Pears
From: <CLSAXER@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 02:34:22 EDT
I agree with the good prickly pear info. that Martin Fredrickson shared with
us in MLD #680, and would like to add a bit.
I seems that prickly pear cacti will grow just about anywhere there is some
sun and a little patch of sandy soil. I have seen them at 8000 feet in the
Rockies and on the sand dunes at the beach at the space shuttle launch pads
(and in Hawaii, and in Texas...). In fact, that beach is where I get mine
from. However, two years ago I planted a patch of them in my yard here in
Orlando and it looks like I will have enough from my own garden to make a
batch this year.
The main consideration I have when I go to the beach to harvest the pears is
mosquito repellent! I usually end up donating a couple of pints of blood per
batch of mead. The lagoon on the interior side of the beach is called
Mosquito Lagoon. Talk about truth in advertising...!
I have found that singeing off the "prickly" spines with a propane torch is
the best way to go. This is the most time consuming part of the whole
process. I have also found that freezing the singed pears for a couple of
weeks makes them a whole lot juicier and easier to work with. I guess
freezing breaks down the "mucilaginous" components of the pears. I use two
one gallon zip-lock freezer bags of pears per five gallon batch of mead.
This amount creates for me a mead the color of a Burgundy wine when the
fermentation is complete. After a year in the bottle it will have faded to
cherry kool-aid red. After two to three years in the bottle it finally fades
to a deep red-gold (24 karat gold-ish). I imagine the color depends on the
amount of pears, where the pears are from, and the honey floral source, in
addition to the chemical properties Martin mentioned.
As far as clearing goes, my prickly pear meads always drop clear within two
months of the end of fermentation with no finings needed. All I use in my
prickly pear mead is honey, water, yeast, and pears. They ferment out in 3-5
weeks.
The honey type I have had the best luck with making prickly pear mead is
palmetto blossom honey. Palmettos are ground cover plants that are a type of
palm. Their "trunk" grows horizontally along the ground, and they have fronds
like regular palm trees. They grow everywhere here in Central Florida,
including side by side with the prickly pear cacti. Perhaps that's why their
honey makes such a good prickly pear mead. I have had people tell me that
palmetto honey is dark in color and very strong in flavor. All I can say to
that is, "Hah!" It is light in color and flavor and, to my taste, is as good
as orange blossom honey. The palmettos are in bloom now.
I have made 11 batches of prickly pear mead so far. Prickly pear batch # 6 is
the one that I won my wife's heart and hand with. Prickly pear batch # 12
will be made with home grown prickly pears sometime around Christmas 1998.
I hope this helps.
Carl Saxer
------------------------------
Subject: CDs/Videos
From: "Michael O. Hanson" <mhanson@winternet.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 16:46:51 -0700
Does anyone out there know where I can get quality inexpensive videos and
CDs on homebrewing?
Thanks in advance,
Mike Hanson
------------------------------
Subject: Siphons
From: "Shane Gray" <hippocrates@bigpond.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 20:20:08 +1000
Subject: siphons; fruits; Renfrow; containers
From: Samuel Mize <smize@ns1.imagin.net>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 12:54:24 -0500 (CDT)
Leo says:
> but I had a hell of a time getting
> the $#^*( siphon started. I'll certainly know where any contamination
> originates from in the weeks ahead =:-O
Samuel Follows:
> I've found the best siphon starter to be the body of a 3-part airlock.
The
> little tube butts against my siphon tubing. The big opening fits over my
> mouth. One quick suck, and the siphon is full without lips ever touching
it.
> No fiddling with turkey basters or other contraptions.
My favourite way of starting my siphon is to fill the tube with a little
sterilizer solution (about 1/10th strength) and place my finger over one
end. I then just place the uncovered end into the solution to be siphoned,
and remove my finger over the other container and she starts first time
Good Roads and Fair Weather,
Shane Gray
------------------------------
Subject: re: Prickly Pear Mead
From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: 25 Jun 98 23:15:23 MDT (Thu)
Yes, for prickly pear, what you want is the obloid fruit, not the flat
lobes of the cactus itself. When ripe, the fruit is a deep reddish-
purple. And (per other notes) there is no way to explain what it tastes
like. It is subtle, but distinctive, and wonderful in a mead. (No, it
doesn't taste like chicken:-)
Beyond that...
Although the extracted glop from prickly-pear fruit seems gelatinous, I am
quite sure that you don't need pectinase ("pectic enzyme") because I have
prepared the fruits by serious boiling and pressing, and I've never had any
problems with the mead clearing. Quite the contrary.
Stay away from the thorns! Don't even *think* of getting into them! They
are multi-barbed along the shaft in a way that requires studious care to
get rid of each one. Folks, beware. This is not anything like the thorn
on a rose or raspberry. This is nasty. Singe off the thorns using tongs
or leather gloves to hold the fruits. If you get even one in tender skin,
you will regret it. (These statements are empirical, not theoretical!)
Also indicated in earlier notes, prickly-pear fruit contribute something
very unusual, almost magical, to the color of a mead. I'm not one of these
"incurable romantics" so I wish I knew what it is about that color, but it
has a sort of glow that is just incredible, whether it's from a little bit
that casts it into the amber or from a lot that throws a deep reddish-
purple. I would be happy to submit samples for spectrophotometry if I
could learn about the color.
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #681
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