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Mead Lovers Digest #0744
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #744, 8 June 1999
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #744 8 June 1999
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Stopping an active fermentation ("Brian A")
Re: D47 (Carl Wilson)
Summer Thistle Honey/Chai Tea (Richard Gardner)
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #743, 28 May 1999 ("Stevenson, Randall")
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Digby=B4s?= picture (William Millett)
maple mead (J S)
Never ending krausen? (Bill Murray)
Tea and Tannin (Dan McFeeley)
Effects of High Fermentation Temperatures (Matt Birchfield)
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Subject: Stopping an active fermentation
From: "Brian A" <merrymead@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 19:21:18 PDT
Hey All,
It seems to me that the easiest way to naturally kill your yeast and stop a
fermentation is to heat your mead to 160F (pasteurize). I've done this once
for a sweet strawberry mead, and it did kill the ferment... I'm not sure if
any of the (low to begin with) alcohol evaporated due to the pasteurization,
but the final product was well liked by friends, and remained perfectly
still for over a year. If I remember correctly, I syphoned the pasteurized
mead back into a sanitized carboy, then waited a week for additional
clearing and racked to bottles.
Everything I've ever read says not to do this, that it will givee the mead a
cooked, or burnt taste, but this was not my experience. Has anyone else
tried this method before? Anyone know the temperature at which alcohol
evaporates?
Merry Mead,
Brian
------------------------------
Subject: Re: D47
From: Carl Wilson <carl_w@prodigy.net>
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 16:31:17 -0500
I'm getting ready to do a batch of traditional mead today using D-47.
I've never used it before but thought I'd give it a try. I've used
K1V-1116 on one batch with very good success, so I thought I'd give D-47
a try.
I'll post the results here.
> Subject: D47
> From: Gary Shea <shea@gtsdesign.com>
> Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 02:40:12 -0600 (MDT)
>
> My experience with D-47 is limited -- I have a peach mead that I pitched
> a couple packs of D-47 into, did the pH adjustment and incremental
> honey-adding thang while the activity was still really noticeable.
> It has never stopped fermenting, despite reasonable pH, and I would
> expect decent nutrients from the peaches. It's now consumed something
> like 3 1/2 lbs of honey/gal (this is something of an estimate, as I
> can't find all the logs for that mead just now), is too dry for me
> (ymmv -- I like sweet meads), still has that CO2 bite to it, and I
> don't think it's every going to stop, and it has a nasty new mead
> flavor. Ughh. I made it about 1 1/2 years ago.
>
> Gary
>
> > Subject: Yeast Questions
> > From: Al n Paige <alnpaige@flash.net>
> > Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 20:51:32 -0500
> >
> > Has anyone had any experience using the yeast ICV D-47 by Lalvin? What
> > was your pitching rate for a 5 gal batch? At what temperature did you
> > ferment the mead? Were there any off flavors produced by the yeast?
> > Stuck ferments? Any and all info would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > TIA
> >
> > Al Franciosi
------------------------------
Subject: Summer Thistle Honey/Chai Tea
From: Richard Gardner <rgardner@mwr.is>
Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 22:51:14 +0100
I just picked up a 5# jug of Summer Thistle Honey at a health food store
labeled "Shenandoah Valley's answer for sourwood honey." It is relatively
light in color and has a nice spicy flavor. Has anyone out there used this
honey in a mead or know the characteristics of this honey?
FYI: I've had some recent good success using "Stash Chai Tea" (Stash is the
tea company) to add some spice and acid to a clover honey based mead - sort
of "killing two birds with one stone."
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #743, 28 May 1999
From: "Stevenson, Randall" <rstevenson@LDI.STATE.LA.US>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 09:26:46 -0500
In MLD issue #743, 28 May 1999 Wout Klingens noted
" I "heard" (that means, that I have never read any scientific proof) that
refermentation through budding of any leftover yeastcell isn't possible
above 12%. I also "heard" that yeast cell in lagphase won't "come to life"
above 12%. "
I have definitely seen the opposite occur. I have a melomel at almost 18%
abv. I added sugar and bottled in Grolsch bottles for a sparkling mead.
The melomel was clear when I filled the bottles, but the tiny amount of
yeast produced significant lees in the bottle, which means that budding
occurred at around 18% abv, but definitely above 12%.
I have "heard" that Potasium Sorbate does not stop the fermentation, it
prevents the yeast from budding, and therefore slows the fermentation and
can be used to reduce the lees in a secondary fermentation. Preferring to
keep the chemical additives to a minimum, I have not tried that yet.
In MLD #742, someone asked about strawberry melomel.
>From experience, I would suggest that anyone making a strawberry melomel,
soak the strawberries in water (or suger water) and extract the juice to
make the melomel. If the seeds are allowed in the must, the alcohol seems
to extract an oil from them, that results in the melomel having a varnish
flavor. This recipe was copied from "The Mead Maker's Page"
(http://www.eklektix.com/gfc/mead/)
Strawberry Splash Mead Forrest Cook, Jon Corbet (Microburst Brewery) recipe
copyright (C) 1989 Forrest Cook and Jonathan Corbet Brewed 5/13/89 Bottled
6/23/89 Size 7 gallons 8 lb Alfalfa's Boulder clover and wildflower honey
mix 2 lb Madhava western wildflower honey 2 lb fresh pureed strawberries 6
cups corn sugar 0.5 cup lactose 1.5 oz cascade leaf hops (boil) 2 tbsp
gypsum 1 pack red star champagne yeast (started in diluted must) 1 tea
strainer lemon grass tea added when transferred to carboy 1 cup corn sugar
(bottling) OG 1.052 @ 109 deg F (started in white pail) IG 1.004 @ 70 deg F
(moved to carboy) FG 0.998 @ 73 deg F Comments: Tastes sweet at first, has a
sour aftertaste, very promising. Aged nicely, use more strawberries next
time.
Wassail,
Randall Stevenson
------------------------------
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Digby=B4s?= picture
From: William Millett <wmillett@fractal.com.br>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 23:20:28 -0300
Good evening everybody,
I just thought that some of us with a historical bend might be interested in
a picture (engraving) of Sir Kenelm Digby. Just check out the following site:
http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/smith/d/digby1.html
No affiliations whatsoever. Just thought it interesting.
Good luck to all.
William
------------------------------
Subject: maple mead
From: J S <fjalar_zymu@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 11:42:52 -0700 (PDT)
I have made a maple wine recipe a few times over the last few years and
generally it's been great. I was thinking about entering in a
competition but I have no idea how it should be classified. It's 5 qts
pure maple syrup and 5 lbs mesquite honey fermented w/champagne yeast.
I don't think it's traditional. Is it a braggot (sp?) A metheglin? I'm
confused, any thoughts?
------------------------------
Subject: Never ending krausen?
From: Bill Murray <bmurray@execpc.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 08:10:38 -0500
Here's the deal... made a corinader metheglyn on 5/22 and to this day it
still has a thick krausen (I likely spelled that wrong but can't find it in
the dictionary) on top in the carboy... no sign of it even beginning to
crack and fall away. The mead is still cooking away in my kitchen at a room
temperature of 75 degrees which is just fine (though I must say it seems to
be going on longer than any of the other batches I have made) but I have
never had a krausen hang around this long... any thoughts as to why? Made a
cherry melomel just three days ago and the krausen on IT is already
breaking down and falling into the proverbial soup... this is what I
normally experience. So fellow meadsters... what might be the issue here?
Any thoughts appreciated, and my guess is that I just need to be patient
and it too will go away eventually... this is just out of the ordinary.
Thanks!
Bill
p.s. - and if I spelled "krausen" wrong, how does one spell it?
------------------------------
Subject: Tea and Tannin
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 09:00:12 -0500
We were having a discussion on another list about Acton & Duncun's book
_Making Mead_, and I happened to note that the authors mentioned the use of
strong tea as an older method of adding tannin to meads. Acton & Duncan
stated that they prefer the use of grape tannin, as well as other additives,
to the older country wine techniques of adding lemon juice, Marmite, and
epsom salts. Checking another English author, Clara Furness, _Honey Wines
and Beers_, I saw that tea was again recommended for the same purpose.
Patty Vargas, a U.S. writer, mentions the use of tea in her book _Country
Wines_, but her mead recipes traditional meads that do not include tannin
additives in any form. Other U.S. authors such as Papazian do not mention
the use of tea, or even the need to add tannins to meads. Pamela Spence
in _Mad about Mead_ suggests the use of grape tannin, however.
The use of tea is a country wine maker's method of adding tannin, but I was
wondering if I was seeing a preference of English mead makers versus mead
makers in the U.S. Is this the case, and if so, does anyone know anything
about the historical roots of the tradition?
Thanks in advance!
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: Effects of High Fermentation Temperatures
From: Matt Birchfield <peridot@usit.net>
Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 14:51:08 -0400
How susceptible is mead to high temperatures during fermentation?
The heat wave the last few days in SW Virginia caused my very slow-
fermenting batch of very strong (read this TOO strong) mead to jump
into the high seventies yesterday. The Fermometer on the side of the
carboy reads ~78-degrees.
Will this have a detrimental effect on the finished product?
TIA,
Matt Birchfield
Blacksburg, VA
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #744
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