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Mead Lovers Digest #0766
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #766, 7 November 1999
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #766 7 November 1999
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Bottling question suggestion (Bryant Johnson)
Re: An obviously stuck fermentation, I think, but... (Stephen Murphrey)
terminology ("Light Otter")
old lithuanina mead recipes..alot of hops! (jonathan edwards)
Apple Butter Cyser..OG 1.169!!!! (jonathan edwards)
Re: Lalvin EC-1118 (Tidmarsh Major)
bakers honey (Hddanfxdwg@aol.com)
Pectic enzyme (LaBorde, Ronald)
Making a sparkling mead (Bill Murray)
Small, simple recipe request ("DAVID J. GIBB")
Kegging Mead ("Michael O. Hanson")
Re: EC-1118, Bottling Question, Stuck fermentation ("Wout Klingens")
Orange/lemon zest and mead ("Wout Klingens")
NOTE: Digest only appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Bottling question suggestion
From: Bryant Johnson <yarnspinner@nceye.net>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 22:52:58 -0400
The first question I'd ask is this: What kind of corks did you use?
I bottled a cyser/metheglyn a few months ago and used two different
types of corks: the cheap ones that came with my bottles and some
more expensive conglomerate corks (made from pulverized cork with
solid rounds of cork at the ends). The cheap corks were terrible
(I've since drunk all those bottles due to leakage) but the higher
quality corks have held up wonderfully! I'll never use those cheap
ones again!
My advice: never skimp on the quality of the cork!
Bryant Johnson
Dunn, NC
ICQ# 5822481
mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
>
> Mead Lover's Digest #765 29 October 1999
>
> Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
> Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
>
> (SNIP!)
>
> Subject: Bottling Question
> From: Jim Layton <a0456830@rtxmail1.rsc.raytheon.com>
> Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 10:14:36 -0500
>
> I am an inexperienced mead maker and need a bit of advice regarding
> bottling technique. I bottled a still mead this summer, putting roughly
> half of the batch into crown capped bottles and the other half into
> corked wine bottles. The crown capped bottles are fine, no carbonation
> has developed and the mead tastes OK. My problem is with the corked
> bottles - they leak. The procedure I followed for corking the bottles
> was taken from a rather small booklet on home wine making: soaked the
> corks in a bisulfite solution for a couple of hours, insert corks (this
> step seemed to go well), let bottles sit upright for 2-3 days, then lay
> bottles on their side.
>
> Everything looked fine for several days following laying the bottles
> down, but a couple of weeks later I looked again. Sticky goop around the
> corks and ants everywhere. I cleaned up the goop with a wet cloth and
> stood the bottles up, so far no more ants. That was a couple of months
> ago. Now I'd like to know what my options are. Should I leave them
> standing? Pull the corks and recork? Seal with wax, maybe? Drink them
> before these leaky corks allow oxidation/evaporation?
>
> Advice regarding how to deal with the current situation and how to avoid
> it in the future would be much appreciated.
>
> Jim Layton
>
> ------------------------------
>
------------------------------
Subject: Re: An obviously stuck fermentation, I think, but...
From: Stephen Murphrey <swmurph@attglobal.net>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 01:12:22 -0400
If "1.200" was not a typo, then you probably already have enough alcohol
in there to preclude any further fermentation by the yeast.
>
> Subject: An obviously stuck fermentation, I think, but...
> From: William Macher <macher@telerama.lm.com>
> Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 20:13:29 -0700
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Last November I started my third mead, which I intended to be a sweet mead
> and which was fermented on the yeast from a batch of belgian style beer.
>
> ... have concluded that my current mead,
> which I last evening transfered to a new carboy, is stuck. The starting
> gravity was 1.200. Last evening the meads gravity was 1.050.
>
> What should I expect this mead to finish at if I am shooting for a sweet mead?
Regards ... Stephen Murphrey
------------------------------
Subject: terminology
From: "Light Otter" <lc.otter@home.net>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 00:10:14 -0500
I am a newbie to this list and brewing/drinking in general.
and I have a few questions.
What is racking? Why do you need a tube for it? I thought all you did was
spoon the scum off the top, and that was racking.
Can I have a carboy that's smaller than 3, 5 or 6 1/2 gallons?
The largest container with a lid that I have is the plastic 1 gallon
cranberry juice jug that I bought last week.
Can you make an airlock at home? I have no supply store near me.
Do I need to ferment more than once?
Or do i just cook the meth, rack it, stick it in my cranberry jug and forget
about it for a month/year or two?
- -Light Otter-
lc.otter@home.net
ICQ #22131799
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors--and miss.
- --Robert Heinlein
------------------------------
Subject: old lithuanina mead recipes..alot of hops!
From: jonathan edwards <mrpookey@mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 09:02:15 -0400
> Mead
> Ancient Recipe
> Midus
>
> 2 quarts honey
> 5 gallons water
> 1/2 lb. hops
> yeast
> 1 slice bread
wow, 1/2 lbs of hops! in a mead! i'm sure this is a typo...or are you
looking for a mead so bitter it is undrinkable? :-0
jonathan
------------------------------
Subject: Apple Butter Cyser..OG 1.169!!!!
From: jonathan edwards <mrpookey@mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 09:14:35 -0400
hey now,
just thought i'd report in on the apple butter cyser i made last week.
here's the recipe for 6 gallons:
12lbs Wildflower honey
6 gallons Fresh Presses apple juice
3lbs Turbinado Sugar
2lbs Light DME
14-18 cinnamon sticks
couple of cloves
3lbs FRESH homeade apple butter
wyeast 3347 gallon starter
here's what i did:
to make the apple butter we went to the local farmer's market and picked up
5lbs of apples. get the kind that are good for pies and suck. cored and
peeled them. add 1/2 gallon apple juices to large stock pot. heat to almost
boiling and add apples. as apples become hot they will get mushy. smush them
up. transfer mush to a crock pot or heat oven to around 300F. let cooks
SLOWLy for about 6-7 hours or until thick. stir occassionaly.
for the cyser i added one gallon of the 6 gallons of juice and heated. added
honey. dissolved. added Turbinado sugar. you'll have to look around for this
sugar but it's worth it. don't use brown sugar. heat to almost boiling and
add dme, cinnamon, and cloves. i then heated this whole sweat mixture at
medium for about 1 hours.
added apple butter to carboy. add refridgerated apple juice and then the hot
mixture. mixed and oxygenated. pitched 1 gallon decanted starter of wyeast
3347. make sure you get the starter big enough. had visible fermentation in
2 hours. added blowoff tube. this yeast goes crazy! attach the blowoff tube!
i'll let this ferment out and then rack onton 3lbs of white raisins in the
secondary. let age. for at least a year if not more.
the og was 1.169! whoa! should be ready for the real millenium!
happy brewing,
jonathan
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Lalvin EC-1118
From: Tidmarsh Major <ctmajor@samford.edu>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 14:07:37 -0500
Carl Wilson asks about Lalvin EC-1118 in a mead. I used it a couple
of years ago in a peach melomel (13 lbs orange-blossom honey and 11
lbs peaches for 5 gal). It came out very well, though it is just
slightly tannic from leaving the skins on the peaches. I like it but
my wife thinks it's not too bad.
Cheers,
Tidmarsh Major
Birmingham, Alabama
------------------------------
Subject: bakers honey
From: Hddanfxdwg@aol.com
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 11:15:53 EST
I was given a five gallon bucket of bakers honey from the bee keeper that
supplies my family's almond orchard with bee hives for pollinization. Are
there recipes that this dark honey would be more suitable for, or is it
usable for mead?
------------------------------
Subject: Pectic enzyme
From: rlabor@lsumc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald)
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 16:21:36 -0600
I have some liquid pectin enzyme, about a year old. The bottle says keep
refrigerated, I have. Is it still good? Will it cause any problems? It
was inexpensive, but it means a drive to the homebrew store for a fresh
bottle.
I have read somewhere, where the pectin enzyme was put in the boil! This
doesn't seem right, but there it was, in print. Can this be possible, won't
the boil kill off the enzyme?
I am fermenting 18 pounds of honey for a 5 gallon mead. I plan to rack some
of this onto raspberries and cranberries later after the fermentation slows
down, then after tasting, continue to feed more honey until I get a balanced
raspberry or cranberry mead. I will probably keep 3 gallons as a pure honey
mead, and play with a separate 1 gallon of raspberry and 1 gallon of
cranberry mead in a 1 gallon jug each. This will give me 3 chances of
something good coming out.
Then, I will put in the pectin enzyme if necessary to help clear any pectin
haze.
So this lurkers questions are:
* IMPR - Is my pectin ruined?
* How much cranberries for 1 gal?
* How much raspberries for 1 gal?
* Will this work, racking onto the berries after most of the fermenting
is done already? Most recipes, like wine , call for the fruit in the
beginning of the primary.
Ron
Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor@lsumc.edu
------------------------------
Subject: Making a sparkling mead
From: Bill Murray <bmurray@merr.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 18:38:11 -0600
Fellow listers...
Most of my meads are still, but I am venturing forth into the world of
sparkling. Would someone like to share with me a proper amount of bottling
sugar to use when bottling? If I convert my beer amount it works out to
about 3/8 cup sugar to 1/2 cup water in a 2.5 gallon batch of mead...
accurate? Close? Thoughts? Thanks!
Bill
------------------------------
Subject: Small, simple recipe request
From: "DAVID J. GIBB" <dgibb@ONLINE.EMICH.EDU>
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 12:32:54 -0500 (EST)
Hail and Wassail to all. I am a virgin meadmaker, as I have yet to
produce my own nectar passed from the gods. So, naturally, I have
questions. Does anyone have a small, simple recipe for a traditional
mead? I am thinking a 1 gallon recipe, just to get the feel of it without
purchasing the big carboys yet. Also, I was thinking of a slightly sweet
mead, with a good honey boquet, not too strong. A recipe would be
appreciated, and the preferred yeast, and fermenting time. Any ideas
would help greatly.
David Gibb
Ypsilanti, MI
Grey Wolf Meadery (at least, soon...)
DGibb@online.emich.edu
------------------------------
Subject: Kegging Mead
From: "Michael O. Hanson" <mhanson@winternet.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 11:19:28 -0600
Has anybody out there used soda kegs or party pigs for kegging sparkling
mead? If so, how do they work
compared to bottles? I like party pigs for kegging beer because they are
less expensive to start with than soda kegs and more portable. It is also
easier to fill two party pigs with beer or mead than two cases of bottles
per five gallon batch.
Thanks,
Mike Hanson, President
Hanson's Hobby Homebrewing, Inc.
www.homebrewery-mn.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: EC-1118, Bottling Question, Stuck fermentation
From: "Wout Klingens" <wkling@knoware.nl>
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 17:39:41 +0100
"Carl Wilson" <carlw@sonetcom.com>
wrote:
>Just wondering if anyone has tried Lalvin EC-1118 for making mead? If
>so, please let me know how well it worked.
I am sure a lot of the MLD readers tried and so have I. It's a highly
attenuative yeast strain which ferments out very dry under most conditions.
I made a 21% show mead batch with it with a FG 1.015.
Jim Layton <a0456830@rtxmail1.rsc.raytheon.com>
wrote:
>was taken from a rather small booklet on home wine making: soaked the
>corks in a bisulfite solution for a couple of hours, insert corks (this
>step seemed to go well), let bottles sit upright for 2-3 days, then lay
>bottles on their side.
I've heard, that bisulfite dissolves the glue (if you use the pressed ones)
in the corks. I found mine to be rather "crumbly" when I used sulfite.
Nowadays when I bottle I rinse them in iodophor, put them in cold water,
prior to bottling, to the bottling and cork. At no time the contact time of
the corks with water is longer than 30 minutes or so. But then I use a floor
corker, which doesn't need long soaking times.
>standing? Pull the corks and recork? Seal with wax, maybe? Drink them
>before these leaky corks allow oxidation/evaporation?
Interesting point. I used the short-term storage type of corks. Which are
shorter. You get the occasional leaker from that. But I wonder if sealing
off with wax, which I considered too, has any influence on the aging
process. I am convinced, that mead ages to something better within a year,
which is the period, that those short corks are guaranteed for (1-2 years).
And I don't want to influence that aging process by waxing.
So I am considering the more expensive types.
For now sealing with bee's wax seems a good idea to save some of your
bottles.
Any other thoughts on this?
William Macher <macher@telerama.lm.com>
wrote:
>I have made two two mead prior to this one. Both had final gravities of
>less than 1.000. My intention with this one was to make a sweet mead. I
>have taken a look at the archives, and have concluded that my current mead,
>which I last evening transfered to a new carboy, is stuck. The starting
>gravity was 1.200. Last evening the meads gravity was 1.050.
Are you sure you OG was 1.200? If so then your fermentation isn't stuck,
it's *very* done. Your alcohol percentage is off my scale, but I guess it's
around 22%, maybe more, which seems highly unlikely with a beer yeast.
>What should I expect this mead to finish at if I am shooting for a sweet
mead?
If you get this batch going again, I am afraid, you'll wind up with a dry
one with the champagne yeast in it.
>Loosing my cool for a moment, I opened three packs of dry champange yeast
>and dumped them in the carboy on top of the 1.050 must...no activity yet...
Ok, let's see if we can save this one. Suppose the 1.200 is a typo and it
was 1.100 instead.....
Did you just dump the yeast in or did you rehydrate it first? If you
rehydrated the yeast then you should be able to get it going again.
How much DAP did you use in preparing the must? If none, then try a *tiny*
bit and see what happens. Like 1/4 teaspoon in a 6 gallon batch. *If* the OG
was 1.100, then chances are, that you get a few points of that 1.050. If
not, then make a dry batch and blend it with the dry one.
Another method is making a starter and when that's active add to the batch.
Of course, again, only if the 1.200 is a typo.
That's the best I can do for you.
Maybe other ideas?
>I guess I will let it sit for another year...it did taste interesting, but
>really too sweet...very honey like...but this novice mead taster does not
>know much anyway...
He who doesn't ask knows even less :-)
It was a real eyeopener for me to realize, that if there are no off-flavors,
but the FG isn't what I aimed for, it's always possible to save any batch
through blending. A relaxing thought, because no batch will ever be a loss.
Regards,
Wout.
------------------------------
Subject: Orange/lemon zest and mead
From: "Wout Klingens" <wkling@knoware.nl>
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 18:20:20 +0100
Meadlovers,
Adding zest to a mead is a rather common thing to do, if I read the
literature.
Well, I make a "mean" orange mel. With lots of zest. *Everybody* likes it.
The main reason I guess is, that I am blessed with the opportunity to get
Moroccan oranges.
The other day I asked my greengrocer when they are due. He told me to wait
until Januari for them to be at their best.
I casually told him, that I liked the zest especially. He looked at me
totally shocked and said that the zest is absolutely not to be consumed
because of pesticides and he showed me the crate with the warning on it. It
has Thiabendazole in it.
Not shocked at all I told him, that I read somewhere that those pesticides
are highly soluable in water and easy to rinse off with water and some soda
to remove the wax as well.
But he had me worried. The warning on the crates aren't there for
nothing....
So I did a search on the 'net on "thiabendazol" (without the "e") and came
up with some excellent German texts about this stuff.
It's a lot worse than I thought.
- - T. partially penetrates the peel. And therefore (my conclusion) impossible
to remove completely.
- - T. is always present in homepressed orange juice. Though not in dangerous
concentrations, it's there. The article states, that the benifits of
homepressed juice outweigh the disadvantages of the toxin relative to the
amount present. (Of course some of the peel oils will be in the juice, hence
the presence of the poison).
T. induces blatter cancer in animal testing.
T. is also used in worminfection of the skin. The remarks about this
application were, that though it is partially absorbed, no ill effects have
been proved to pregnant women and their baby. (Contradictory??)
While I was at it I also looked at the remarks about sorbate and sulfite.
Sulfite is toxological suspect. And to my extreme surprise, sorbate isn't!
At all!
Anyway, I dumped a perfectly good 6 gallon batch of OJ-mel :( I knew I am
not going to drink it so I did.
I'm not going to make another OJ-mel again. The oranges I need are too
expensive and I'll never find any zest that is as perfect as the Moroccan.
For those who want a real good recipe: well, here's my secret:
For 25 liters:
The juice of 100 oranges (1 crate).
1 pound of heather honey.
Dark wildflower honey.
Zest of 30 oranges.
An attenuative yeast, whichever you prefer.
Use as much of the dark wildflower you like. Depending on personal taste.
The more honey the more alcohol. Feed if you like, or don't. Add zest only,
when fermentation is done. The d-limonine in the zest will kill off the
yeast, which is a fine way of stopping fermentation prematurely thus leaving
some residual sugar.
Remarks.
I made my most successful one very strong indeed. Something like 18% or so.
In this year's Mazers I entered it outside contention. McConnell scored 40,
Schramm scored 39.5 and Thomas scored 40. My apologies to these reknowned
judges for trying to poison them :(
This mead will never fail. The only thing, that will make it better is using
less zest, like 20 oranges, because this particualr mead had a definite acid
burn, though the TA was only 7.0. I suppose that it will vary with the type
of zest you use.
Disheartedly yours,
Wout.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #766
*******************************
