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Mead Lovers Digest #0746
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #746, 21 June 1999
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #746 21 June 1999
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re:Tea and Tannin: MLD #744 (Scott Murman)
Re: Never ending krausen? (Bill Murray)
Mead Lover's Digest #745, 19 June 1999 (Dave Burley)
Thoughts on a new Mead Organisation.... ("Charlie Moody")
Re: Boiling point of alcohol (Dan McFeeley)
Re: Honey Analysis (Dan McFeeley)
RE: D-47 Yeast (and blueberry mead story) (m_shapiro@bigfoot.com)
MLD #745 - Methyl alcohol, stopping fermentation & hangovers (William Millett)
darjeeling tea ("McDonald, Rod")
honey analysis ("Chuck Wettergreen")
reply to first time Mead Maker ("Stephen J. Van der Hoven")
Lack of fermentation on fruit ("Stephen J. Van der Hoven")
Stopping an active fermentation (Mark Ottenberg)
RE: Honey Analysis ("Kuhl, Brian S")
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests. When
subscribing, please include name and email address in body of message.
Digest archives and FAQ are available for anonymous ftp at ftp.stanford.edu
in pub/clubs/homebrew/mead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re:Tea and Tannin: MLD #744
From: Scott Murman <smurman@best.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 00:13:28 -0700 (PDT)
> I don't know about the historical facts, but I do know that you have to
> be very careful using tea tannins. If you overdo it, even by a little
> bit, it will leave a very noticeable astringent taste in the mead.
>
> Jeff Spurlin
This may be due to a problem preparing the tea, not necessarily with
tea tannins themselves. If you ask any tea snob (myself included)
they'll likely tell you that tea should never be steeped for longer
than 5 minutes, and even longer than 4 minutes is really pushing it.
The reason? Extraction of astringent tannins. So my advice would be
to use a good quality loose tea (not a Lipton's bag or similar), and
only steep it for 3 minutes. I would advise the similar for making a
pot of tea for drinking.
- -SM-
http://www.best.com/~smurman/tea
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Never ending krausen?
From: Bill Murray <bmurray@execpc.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 09:01:27 -0500
No... I used seed purchased from Whole Foods. The good side of all this is
that last weekend the krausen did indeed finally drop out and as I sit here
typing away the mead is slowly clearing. Smells wonderful - the first time
I have used mesquite honey... thanks to all those who provided input. The
key was, as seems to be the case in many instances, patience... such a hard
thing to learn.
Bill
>Subject: Re: Never ending krausen?
>From: Michael Kaiser <kaiseriron2@yahoo.com>
>Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 01:22:02 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Bill,
>
>Did you use a powdered corriander? The powdered corriander will impart
>a certian elevation of the surface tension, kinda like putting talc on
>the surface of water...it just stays there. If not....then I dunno :o)
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #745, 19 June 1999
From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley@compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 11:25:38 -0400
Mead Lovers:,
In response to our great janitor's wishes, I will
summarize the points without undue copying
of the related author's comments .
1) even though Methanol ( methyl alcohol) will
boil below ethanol and water, simply heating it to
its boiling point will not boil it all off a mixture,
especially a large volume. I believe methanol
is a byproduct deriving from the pulp and is
sometimes related to the use of pectic enzyme,
although I have no quote to support this. Duncan
and Acton in Progressive WInemaking note that
methanol is formed by dehydration of pectin. At low
concentrations ( a few 0.1%) it is not harmful, and
has been accused of one cause for a hangover,
perhaps incorrectly.
Dehydration is a source of the discomfort the next
morning and I encourage all embibers to have at
least one glass of water per drink you had, before
retiring, to reduce this discomfort.
2) the Specific Gravity of a mead says nothing
( or not much) about the sweetness, since a given
hydrometer reading is dependent on the starting
gravity, how much alcohol was formed and the
remaining sugar.
To determine the sugar content
of a finished mead it is necessary to use Clinitest
Kit (NOT Clinistix) from the pharmacy which
measures the sugar content directly. This test
will not work with added sucrose unless yeast have
been allowed to ferment the mixture and have
inverted the sucrose with an external enzyme,
invertase. So use Clinitest after the fermentation.
Although I have never done it, in the case of
pure honey with low dissolved solids other than
sugars, it is possible to <estimate> the sucrose
content by comparing hydrometer and Clinitest
readings. Ths would not work with juices or
malt extracts, however, since they have a
large proportion of other dissolved solids.
- ------------------------------
Maltose is fermentable by beer yeast.
Maltose is directly transported across the cell
membrane ( unlike sucrose) and is attacked by
maltase which then permits the resulting hexoses
to be fermented.
- ------------------------------
Dave Burley
------------------------------
Subject: Thoughts on a new Mead Organisation....
From: "Charlie Moody" <chmood@mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 11:43:37 -0600
The following are thoughts & ideas that have been percolating for the last
year-plus, as I've observed the floundering attempts to re-animate the AMA.
I'm offering them to the list for general discussion. The organisation of
the ideas may be spotty; computer problems have forced me to reconstruct my
ideas more than once, and severe health problems (including eye surgery)
have made my efforts few & far between (in addition to interrupting my
meading, & my off-list conversation w/ Our Esteemed Janitor - & the rest of
my life...).
So, w/ Dick's permission, let the games begin!
===========================================================================
ORGANISATION MEAD
For several years now, people have been bemoaning the downfall /
disappearance of the Americam Mead Association; rightly so, because meads,
meaders, meadsters and meaderies arguably need an organisation to serve and
support them.
As the AMA seems to be inextricably caught in limbo, starting from scratch
seems an appropriate next step. Since the MLD community is international in
scope, it seems equally appropriate that this next step should either move
beyond the confines of the U.S. to embrace the larger community. I have no
clue how to do this, so I'm inclined either to support and co-ordinate with
other national / regional groups, or allow associate memberships for those
who have no national or regional support
I see several legitimate avenues for such an organisation:
- - a representative body to support and enhance and extend the rights and
activities of both domestic and commercial meading; in other words, a
lobby. This could pursue regulatory changes to allow meading & mead sales
in brewpubs, for example, or to establish a 'semi-pro' category that would
permit limited sales by home operators.
- - a channel for collecting, publishing, and disseminating the researches &
experiences of every approach - scientific & artistic, modern and
traditional;
- - an interest group able to form purchase & support agreements with
beekeepers, fruit growers and other equipment / raw-material suppliers;
- - a regulatory body to pursue style definitions, quality standards, and
to hold competitions on a regional and national (and international?) basis;
- - an on-line presence to facilitate the communications needs of an active
association, and support the on-line (MLD) community. This would consist
largely of establishing a server to host members' web pages; competition
schedules, information & results; commercial & supplier directories; and
other electronic community services. With appropriate permissions, the
server could also host the digest & its archives, the Bee's Lees collection,
etc.
The main difficulty I see will be achieving a balance between providing the
community with substantial benefits at a reasonable cost on the one hand,
and generating sufficient revenues to sustain operations & attain specific
goals on the other. At least initially, I expect to put a substantial
amount of time and money into the endeavor - money that must, in time, be
repaid: the bucket has a definite bottom. However, the organisation must
become self-supporting, not simply able to repay my investment. Otherwise,
it may be doomed to repeat the AMAs history - and I can't afford to fund a
debacle!
To this end, I've been thinking about a 3-tiered membership schedule:
Basic, w/ limited benefits (like what - a newsletter? And???);
Active, w/ discounts on supplies in addition to the basic benefits;
Commercial, more of a sponsorship than a participatory membership?
I also suggest a substantial merchandising effort: books, workshops, tours
of commercial meaderies, seasonal tastings, drinking horns & mazers,
logo-emblazoned crown caps & label blanks, web-site advertising, in addition
to the traditional hats, tee-shirts, etc. Additionally, supplies of honey,
bottles, barrels and the like could provide revenue, assuming that
sufficient savings could be realised when purchasing them; I do NOT want
to end up like the AMA, charging premium prices to members for token
quantities of exotic honeys, etc. I feel very strongly that one of the
signature benefits of OM should be to make exotic and regional honeys
available to the membership at the lowest feasible cost.
In the absence of any other existing forum or body, I envision the
membership of the Mead-Lover's Digest as fulfilling an initial role in the
creation of this organisation, as it is already an international group of
involved and active mead makers and consumers, possessing a wide range of
skills and knowledge from which to draw. If nothing else, its members can
be invited to nominate & vote for an advisory committee to join a
mailing-list organised for the specific purpose of hashing out the details
of the organisation.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Boiling point of alcohol
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 13:02:39 -0500
On Wed, 09 Jun 1999, in MLD 745, Marc Shapiro wrote:
>I read an article several years ago that had a chart showing the time needed
>for killing yeast vs the temperature. As I remember it, the article claimed
>that only about 3 minutes was needed at 150 F and only a minute at 155 F.
>If this is correct then it seems to me that a RAPID heating to 150 F and then
>equally rapid cooling (in an ice bath?) after just a few minutes should be
>sufficient to eliminate any active yeast while minimizing the heating time
>and maximum temperature, thus reducing any 'cooked' flavors. I have not
>actually tried this, myself, however. Does anyone else have any experience
>with this sort of pasturization who can pass on the results to the rest of us?
The original source is a 1939 article by G. F. Townsend in J. Econ. Entomology,
titled "Time and temperature in relation to the destruction of sugar tolerant
yeasts in honey." The information below comes from John White's chapter
on honey in _The Hive and the Honey Bee_, 1978, p. 513.
Townsend found that five honey yeasts common to Canada were destroyed under
the following conditions.
Time at indicated temperature Temperature
470 min 125 F
170 130
60 135
22 140
7.5 ** 145
2.8 ** 150
1.0 ** 155
** Extrapolated from logarithmic curve constructed from Townsend's data,
according to John White's notes.
I saw a bar graph version of this in an American Mead Association article a
few years ago -- I think the article was a reprint of some material put out
by Ken Schramm and Dan McConnell.
It's important to note that these are minimum temperatures needed to kill wild
yeasts, but may not eliminate other microorganisms such as spoilage bacteria.
It's still necessary to use techniques such as pitching a big starter at the
start of the fermentation. Using yeast with a "killer factor" is also helpful.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Honey Analysis
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 12:56:01 -0500
On Fri, 18 Jun 1999, in MLD 745, Chuck Wettergreen wrote:
>One especially good article is an analysis of the components of honey.
>This article says that the average composition of the sugars in honey
>includes 7.2 % (7.2 g per 100 g sample) of maltose. Since maltose is
>not (I believe) ordinarily fermentable by beer yeasts, this would explain
>how some meads taste very sweet, even though all sugars are completely
>fermented out (for example, fermented down to a gravity of 0.995).
Lots of good stuff at the National Honey Board web site! It's well
worth browsing and adding their files to a refence folder.
Maltose is a disaccharide, meaning, it is a single molecule made up of two
linked glucose molecules. In order for it to be utilized by yeast metabolism,
it must first be broken down into the primary building units, the two glucose
molecules.
According to George Fix, in _Principles of Brewing Science_ (pp. 171-172):
The elementary sugars glucose and fructose are generally the first
to enter the yeast cell. They are followed by sucrose. Sucrose
is first inverted, or split, into glucose and fructose units by the
yeast enzyme invertase. The glucose and fructose units are then taken
up by the cell. Yeasts producing the enzyme melibase (most strains of
S. uvarum, but never S. cervisae) can utilize melibiose. It too is first
split outside the cell membrane by melibase enzymes.
Maltose is brought into the cell at a slower rate than glucose or sucrose.
It is transported intact into the cell by maltose permease enzymes, and
then split inside the cell into 2 glucose units by alpha-glucosidease
enzymes. Maltotriose is the last sugar to be used, and its transport
mechanisms are similar to those of maltose.
The permease enzymes (maltase and maltrtrise) are highly sensitive
to wort sugar composition and can be deactivated by high levels of
glucose and fructose. This is called catobolite repression, or
sometimes the glucose effect (15). In an all-grain wort of normal
gravity, this effect is not of major importance. However, worts with
large amounts of sugar seriously inhibit maltose and maltotriose intake.
Interestingly, in Peter Duncan and Bryan Acton's _Progressive Wine Making_
(p. 72):
It has already been mentioned that sucrose can be utilised by yeast
because its enzyme system can split or hydrolyse this disaccharide
into its two monsaccharide components glucose and fructose. The
enzyme responsible for this hydrolysis is called invertase. Since
yeast happens to be particularly well endowed with invertase, remarks
made by certain speakers at wine circle meetings to the effect that
it cannot readily ferment sucrose are obviously complete fiction.
Maltose is similarly degraded into glucose by invertase which
explains why beer worts are fermentable. Here, of course, the
maltose is obtained during mashing when the diastase produced
by the malting acts on the starch in the barley grains.
It pays to update your sources! _Progressive Winemaking_, an excellant
book, came out, however, in 1967. _Principles of Brewing Science_ was
published in 1989, and the article referred to in footnote 15 (Siro, M.R.,
T. Lovgren, "On the Maltose Metabolism of Yeast," _Brewers Digest, Sept.
1980) was published in 1980. Duncon and Acton lump sucrose and maltose
breakdown together under the actions of the enzyme invertase, but Fix
more correctly delineates enzymatic action other than that of invertase.
Back to Chuck's post -- The information George Fix provides on maltose and
its utilization in yeast metabolism offers some clarification on Chuck's
query on the presence of maltose sugars in what seems to be a dry mead.
First, a final gravity of 0.995 does not mean that all the sugars have
been fermented out. The hydrometer only measures the *average* gravity
of all the components in the mead. Sugars, of course, have a higher
specific gravity than water at 1.00, but alcohol has a lower specific
gravity than water. A high alcohol mead can mask the presence of remaining
sugars simply because the average figure for all the S.G. of the mead's
components averages out to 1.00 or less. Secondly, even under ideal
conditions, yeasts are glucophillic, i.e., they will grab up the most
easily digestible sugars first, before turning to the more difficult to
breakdown sugars. First on the list is glucose, with the more complex
sugar carbohydrates following. Even though yeasts can breakdown and
use maltose in their metabilism, they will use up the simpler sugars
first, producing alcohol along the way and possibly passing their level
of alcohol tolerance before they are able to turn to the more complex
sugars. And, taking into account the catobilite repression, or glucose
effect George Fix refers to, honey, with its high levels of glucose and
fructose, would seem to have the effect of inhibiting the permease enzymes
necessary for using maltose.
The conclusions I've come to are by inference from the material provided
by George Fix, but it looks like Chuck is on target here. Can anyone else
add any more specific comments or critiques to add to this? Is maltose a
contributing sugar to finished meads? Another thought to add here -- honey
varieties with relatively high levels of maltose might add additional
complexity to finished meads. Tulip poplar, for instance, is a honey
variety with high levels of maltose. Does this mesh with other mead
maker's experiences?
Thanks for posting this Chuck. Were there any other observations you made
on the files from NHB?
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: RE: D-47 Yeast (and blueberry mead story)
From: m_shapiro@bigfoot.com
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 14:30:54 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: D-47 Yeast (and blueberry mead story)
> From: "Patrick Lehnherr" <lehnherr@isd.net>
> Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 10:42:07 -0500
>
> ... COuld it
> be that the seal on teh 7.5 gallon bucket is not tight? Any thoughts?
I have found the seal on such buckets to be notoriously bad, with resulting
lack of bubbling through the fermentation lock.
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 Farm Winery
------------------------------
Subject: MLD #745 - Methyl alcohol, stopping fermentation & hangovers
From: William Millett <wmillett@fractal.com.br>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 17:33:06 -0300
Hi everyone,
About stopping fermentation.
I think that the best way to stop an ongoing fermentation is really by
pasteurization. In the food industry in general it is a treatment that
destroys (part, not all) microorganisms present and usually involves the
uses of temperatures below 100 degrees C (212 degrees F). Pasteurization is
a form of treatment to preserve foods (in general) that may be damaged by
high temperatures or by prolonged heating. Even if there is no total
destruction of the microorganisms (yeasts included), the survivors will not
find conditions to multiply because other techniques or precautions such as
maintaining anaerobic conditions, refrigeration, hermetic closures, pH.,
preservatives, adition of sugar will prevent them. This process is usually
applied to preserve foods from harmful bacteria (ie, that cause diseases).
I personally have not pasteurized meads, nor added preservatives (potassium
sorbate, for instance), besides metabisulfite (this one as an antioxidant to
prevent oxidation of mead being syphoned). By the way, metabisulfites
(sulfur dioxide, Campden tablets etc) are used in the wine industry not as a
sanitizer or disinfectant; its use is only to retard the growth of other
wild or undesirable yeast, while not affecting the S. cerevisiae (our
friends) so that these can outgrow their competitors and push them out of
the market, so as to say.
There is an interesting graph in American Mead Association=B4s Inside Mead
bulletin (Winter 97). It is in an article attributed to Dan McConnel and Ken
Schramm, An Analysis of Meadmaking, part 2. The graph, quoting the article,
"(...) is adapted from Dr. White's 'The Hive and the Honeybee', and shows
accurate information for exactly how long and how much honey should be
heated." (in order to pasteurize it). The graph shows that at 155 F,
sufficient pasteurization may be achieved in as little as 1 minute. If
heating is done to 145 F, pasteurization may be reached in 7 minutes. If
heating to 130 F, the honey will be pasteurized after 200 minutes, according
to the graph
I believe that pasteurization will not affect a mead, to the point of
leaving 'cooked' tastes (Brian A. confirms this in his posting). There will
be, yes, a certain loss of alcohol by accelerated evaporation, but I am not
certain if it will affect the taste of the mead. Tests are in order. Any
volunteers? The temperature should be read from a thermometer immersed in
the mead being pasteurized and positioned in a way that it measures the
temperature in the middle of the vessel (bottle).=20
About methyl alcohol and hangovers
Someone said that methyl alcohol is the cause of hangover and is considered
a poison. It is in fact a poison and if drunk pure or concentrated solutions
can cause blindness, besides other unpleasant effects. It is naturally
present in *wines* in very small amounts (average 0.1gpl) and is formed
during hydrolysis of pectic material (fruit skins etc). It is not a major
cause for hangovers or its symptoms.
My medical friends say that some of the effects of hangovers are caused, in
part, by lack of sugar in the blood after intake of large quantities of
alcohol (ethyl), as sugar is used to metabolise the alcohol in the
bloodstream. Dehydration due to ingestion of alcohol also causes some of the
symptoms of hangovers. I used to treat my hangovers with lots of fruits
juices (eg sugar and water), sweet coffee, lots of water, aspirins and
trust the rest to nature and benevolence of the gods :-)
The hangover *headache* is caused by the presence of fusel oil in the
beverage. When in large quantities it will show up with its powerful aroma
and rather harsh flavour, not to mention its poisonous properties.
Progressive Winemaking by Peter Duncan and Brian Acton (Amateur Winemaker
edition) on page 160 mentions that fusel oil is an important by product of
fermentation. It is not a single substance but a mixture of higher alcohols
(5 or more carbon atoms in the chain), mainly amyl alcohols. Most of the
fusel oil is formed by de-amination of amino-acids, during the nitrogenous
metabolism of the yeast. The addition of readily available sources of
nitrogen, eg, ammonium salts to the must prior to fermentation helps to
decrease the amount of fusel oil formed. The use of yeast nutrients
containing ammonium phosphate thus will automatically aid in keeping fusel
oil production at a low level.
Hope this is of help.
William.
------------------------------
Subject: darjeeling tea
From: "McDonald, Rod" <Rod.McDonald@isr.gov.au>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 10:04:08 +1000
Message resent:
Paul Haaf <haafbrau1@juno.com>
asked:
> Is anyone familiar with darjeeling tea? Has anyone used this
> in a mead?
Paul,
My strongest recommendation is get a teapot and drink it as tea! I would be
VERY surprised if the subtleties of Darjeeling tea had any impact whatsoever
on the final mead outcome, were you to use it, and even if you did use it
you would not want to use more than a small amount of brewed tea in a mead,
for the astringency reasons noted in MLD 745. Enjoy the tea as a tea - it is
superb (as long as it's fresh).
Rod
Did I say MLD 745??? I meant of course MLD 814.
------------------------------
Subject: honey analysis
From: "Chuck Wettergreen" <chuckmw@mcs.net>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 07:42:16 -0500
in MLD #745 I wrote:
>One especially good article is an analysis of the components of
>honey. This article says that the average composition of the sugars
>in honey includes 7.2 % (7.2 g per 100 g sample) of maltose.
>Since maltose is not (I believe) ordinarily fermentable by beer
>yeasts, this would explain how some meads taste very sweet,
Of course, as Dick Dunn and others kindly pointed out, maltose
is eminently fermentable by beer yeasts. I had a brain fart and
was getting it confused with dextrines. But, Dan McFeeley's
excellent post in this MLD certainly adds some credence to
my original post. :?>)
Chuck
------------------------------
Subject: reply to first time Mead Maker
From: "Stephen J. Van der Hoven" <sjvander@mines.utah.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 08:33:36 -0600
Ernie,
You'll probably get 10 different answers from 10 different meadmakers,
but here's my $0.02 worth. Your ingredients list is :
> 7.5 # clover honey
The usual amount of honey for a 5 gallon batch is 12-15#.
> 3 oz cinnamon sticks
Grind or crush them and simmer them in a separate "tea". Strain the
grinds out and put the tea directly in the primary.
> 3 Campden tablets
Skip the Campden tablets. They are used to kill off wild yeast or
bacteria and if you're going to boil, that does the same thing. Keep
the boiling time to a minimum, skimming any foam or scum that rises to
the top. Stop boiling when scum stops rising. I wouldn't boil more
than 10 minutes. An alternative is to heat the water to a boil, turn
off the heat and add the honey. No scum will rise, but the residual
heat will pasteurize.
> 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Grind/crush and put in the tea with cinnamon.
> .5 oz cascade hop pellets
Not usually an ingredient in mead. I'd leave it out of the recipe.
> 1/4 tsp irish moss
Not very useful for a mead. I'd leave it out also.
> .5 oz yeast nutrient
Useful because honey doesn't have much in the way of nutrients that
yeast like.
I haven't seen the Wyeast #3632 around too often. Dry yeast (Lalvin,
Red Star...) work very well and are often used by myself and others on
the list. Good luck.
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Lack of fermentation on fruit
From: "Stephen J. Van der Hoven" <sjvander@mines.utah.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 08:47:00 -0600
Pat Lehnherr asked:
> Now I do have a question on the fermentation. As I said, I racked teh
> mead on the blueberries, but I also tossed two packets of
> champagne yeast in as I've heard that D-47 is less attenuative than
> I'd like. Here it is, 2 days later, and I see no sign of fermentation! I
> racked right off the bottom of the carboy, so plenty of D-47 yeast
> should be in there, plus the 2 packets of champagne yeast. COuld it
> be that the seal on teh 7.5 gallon bucket is not tight? Any thoughts?
I have several buckets which I know or suspect have leaks around the
seal. I suggest that you pull the lid off and visually check for
fermentation. If you see signs of fermentation, then you probably have
a leakey seal or it wasn't sealed tight the first time. I've had that
happen on occasion also. As long as there's some active fermentation,
I'd leave it in the bucket and rack to a carboy in a week or two.
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Stopping an active fermentation
From: Mark Ottenberg <mark@greyrock.org>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 13:19:01 -0600
>> Subject: Stopping an active fermentation
>My Lange's Handbook of chemistry gives 78.3 degrees Centigrade (that
>tells you how old I am) as the vapor point for ethanol. If my math is
>correct, that would be 172 degrees F. I would guess that uneven heating
>and pressure variations would cause the loss of some ethanol at 160
>degrees F. 140 deg. would probably be better - enough to kill the yeast,
>not enough to cause ethanol loss.
Unfortunately, this is not a very useful reference to the real world --
boiling points and vapor pressures of liquids are affected by the solution
that they are in. If you had a pure ethanol solution, the boiling point
would occur as expected (given you were at the altitude used as the
reference point -- boiling points go down as your altitude goes up -- very
important here at 5000 feet in Ft. Collins, Colorado! ;-)
Back in Thermodynamics class in grad school we calculated the boiling point
variance for some simple solutions. UGH!! Nasty derivations for the
calculations!! I would have no way to figure them out for a solution as
complex as mead. However, my guess is that the solution composition would
cause some of the methanols and ethanols to boil off at temperatures LESS
than those their pure solutions would boil at. I did not find more than a
few elevations of boiling point, most of them were lower in solutions.
So, maybe we need to find a nice 5 gallon pressure cooker to save all that
alcohol and preserve our meads from airborne yeasties and other besties
with higher alcohol tolerances ??
Peace,
-- Mark
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Honey Analysis
From: "Kuhl, Brian S" <brian.s.kuhl@intel.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 15:11:33 -0700
Hi Chuck,
You write in part:
Since maltose is not (I believe) ordinarily fermentable by beer
yeasts, this would explain how some meads taste very sweet,
even though all sugars are completely fermented out (for
example, fermented down to a gravity of 0.995).
I reply:
Actually, maltose is two glucose molecules bound together. It is readily
metabolized by yeast.
The more probable explanation of why some meads are sweet is because some
yeast strains are not very tolerant of the alcohol they produce. The yeast
then subsequently die or go dormant before all the sugars are fermented.
Brian Kuhl
Sacramento, CA
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #746
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