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Mead Lovers Digest #0779
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #779, 9 January 2000
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #779 9 January 2000
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
URLs and information (pointers _vs_ the real thing) (Mead Lover's Digest)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #775, 23 December 1999 (kathy/jim)
Need a Source for a Good Authentic Mazer (rob)
Starting Gravity Always Too Low (rob)
Freeze concentration method ("Philip J Wilcox")
Pyment ("Philip J Wilcox")
Re: Tamarind Melomel (Dan McFeeley)
Re: thiabendazole (Joyce Miller)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: URLs and information (pointers _vs_ the real thing)
From: mead@raven.talisman.com (Mead Lover's Digest)
Date: 9 Jan 00 16:36:20 MST (Sun)
A new MLD "policy":
I'm going to start requesting that if you mention a URL as part of an
article in the Digest, you also provide some information about what's at
that URL instead of just supplying the URL. (A URL is that http://...
kind of thingie you use to find stuff on the Web.)
There are two reasons for this. First, it's a help for people who have
no Web access, or perhaps difficult access, to decide whether they should
try to track down the page and look at it. Second, web pages tend to be
rather volatile, while the Digest is archived all the way back to the first
issue over seven years ago. We would like the archives to continue to be
useful, which means they need to be somewhat self-contained. An article
consisting of nothing but a URL is quite likely to be obsolete in a year or
so.
I'm not saying you need to do this for your own web page if you put that in
your .signature; I'm saying that you should do it for URLs that are part of
the substance of an article. And by all means _do_ continue to include
URLs, just as you would include other references such as books.
Thanks,
- ---
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #775, 23 December 1999
From: kathy/jim <kbooth@scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2000 20:14:28 -0400
Talked to a HB shop operator and he had some customers who made
cider, and when fermented to the right sweetness, the family
recipe from grandpa said to add salicylic acid to kill the yeast.
Salicylic acid is available from pharmacies as is a precurser for
aspirn.
Has anyone heard of this practice.
cheers, jim booth
------------------------------
Subject: Need a Source for a Good Authentic Mazer
From: rob <rob@nurwibsco.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2000 23:46:54 -0600
Does anyone know where I can find someone who sells or can make a good
authentic Mazer?
Thanks, Rob
------------------------------
Subject: Starting Gravity Always Too Low
From: rob <rob@nurwibsco.com>
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 00:06:24 -0600
I've been making mead for a while. Usually I use a recipe from a book,
but sometimes I make my own recipe.
In either case, no matter how much honey I use the Starting Gravity is
never near what the recipe says it should be, and in any case is
extremely low. I've used up to 21 pounds of honey for a 7 gallon batch
before, and the gravity has never been above 1.080. Can this possibly be
correct?
Thanks
------------------------------
Subject: Freeze concentration method
From: "Philip J Wilcox" <pjwilcox@cmsenergy.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 10:41:46 -0500
Don Van Valkenburg uses an interesting method that I would be scared of for
only one reason. Oxidation. Though i don't think you can oxidize ice, (Freezer
burn?) once the mead has thawed, oxidation will begin. All be it at very slow
rates at such cold temps. Cold enough to be negligible? I would be suprised but
who knows. I would simple take the dip tube out of my kegs and toss them into
the deep freeze overnight. When the keg is half frozen, I might reinsert the
diptube and force it out into another CO2 purged keg. This might be the method I
might have used to win several medals and competitions with a certain Eis style
of beer;<).
After reading Ahmal Tzurcan's article on Eisbock in the recent Zymurgy I
stubbornly came to the conclusion the usually well written and highly
decorated brewer had never actually made an Eisbock. I very much look
forward to editorial, and general brewing expertise of Ray Daniel's who
was not the editor of this issue of Zymurgy.
Phil Wilcox
Poison Frog Home Brewer
------------------------------
Subject: Pyment
From: "Philip J Wilcox" <pjwilcox@cmsenergy.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 11:09:52 -0500
Dear MLD,
To get back to the discussion of meads I would like to discuss pyments. I have
not yet made a pyment, but intend to do so this winter. I have a homebrewed wine
from my uncle a red french/american varity--A 97' de Jenoc (sp?) from the west
coast of Michigan, (I traded wine for beer). It is a very nice red, medium dry,
went excellent with the Christmas roast. My intention is to blend the wine with
a mead to get my pyment. My question is what Kind of mead? I have a Traditional
Michigan Fruit Blossom mead that I fear might have developed an infection of
sorts. I have a gallon of Flordia Tupelo honey and a gallon of Michigan
Wildflower honey that I could ferment out and then blend. (I'm assuming I
shouldn't blend then ferment, alcohol toxicity, scrubbing out of wine aromas...)
I am looking for suggestions on which to use. I am also looking for suggestions
on blending proceedures and how to test using just a glass of wine and some
honey disolved in it.
Thanks in advance,
Phil Wilcox
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Tamarind Melomel
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 11:30:32 -0600
Oops! This reply got lost in my out box.
On Wed, 01 Dec 1999, in MLD 771, Myrriah Lavin wrote:
>I haven't tried a tamarind melomel, but I do have a recipe for tamarind
>wine:
>
>6 oz. tamarind pulp
>2 lb. sugar
>1 tsp. pectic enzyme
>1 tsp. yeast nutrient
>wine yeast
>
>Simmer the tamarind in 1/2 gallon of water for five or ten minutes,
>strain. Into the liquid, stir the sugar and nutrient. Cool and the
>add pectic enzyme and yeast. Top up with water to make one gallon.
>(From _Worldwide Winemaking Recipes_)
>
>I know that sugar and honey quantities aren't interchangeable, but I
>can't find the conversion info at the moment. Hope this helps anyway.
Proulx & Nichols in _Sweet & Hard Cider_ give a figure of 1 lb. honey
for every 0.75 lb.s sugar. I think this is about 2 lb.s and 11 ounces
of honey for the recipe above.
Figures from the National Honey Board (http://www.nhb.org) list the total
carbohydrates in an average 100 gm sample of honey as 82.4 grams. Of
these 82.4 grams, 38.5 gm is fructose, 31.0 gm is glucose, 7.2 gm is
maltose, and 1.5 gm is sucrose, making a total of 78.2 grams of fermentable
sugars.
John White's 1962 survey of 490 honey samples yields similar figures.
Average Range
Fructose 38.9% 27.25 - 44.26
Glucose 31.28% 22.03 - 40.75
Sucrose 1.31% 0.25 - 7.57
Maltose 7.31% 2.74 - 15.98
Total 78.8%
Proulx and Nichols' conversion looks like a good ballpark figure to
work with, but as you can see from the ranges in White's analysis,
you can get a lot of variation in sugar content for different honey
samples. It seems like a good idea to make a general conversion when
going from wine to mead recipes, but check gravity readings to make
sure you've gotten close to the needed sugar content.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: thiabendazole
From: Joyce Miller <msmead@doctorbeer.com>
Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2000 14:59:16 -0500
Yes, I know, I'm visiting a thread that is positively ancient, but better
late than never. . .
For a cheap source of good orange zest, try Clementines. They're in season
now, and are treated with food-grade stuff (wax, etc.). After I peel one,
I take a very sharp knife and slice away much of the white pith. Then I
slice it into thin strips, and dry it on an aluminum pie plate (or foil)
over the pilot on my stove. At the end of the season, I have enough for a
years' worth of orange beef stir fry.
- -- Joyce
- --- Joyce Miller, msmead@doctorbeer.com
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #779
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