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Mead Lovers Digest #0809
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #809, 18 June 2000
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #809 18 June 2000
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
r.c.b ("Houseman, David L")
moving mead ("Charles Terrell")
Re: Should I Bother/Temperature (Dave Polaschek)
RCB mead discussions ("Brian Lundeen")
Wood Barrels? (JLong@tcadvertising.com)
Re:Blackberry ("Matt Maples")
Re: That strawberry mead (Dan McFeeley)
r.c.b and mead (Yacko Warner Yacko)
r.c.b. ("Alan Meeker")
re:R.C.B. ("Matt Maples")
Re: South African winter/temperature question (NLSteve@aol.com)
Stuck & violent mead (NLSteve@aol.com)
Re: Should I Bother (Damien Hingston)
Peony mead ("Nathan Kanous")
Re: Black Berry mead (Elfboy0@aol.com)
Mead guidelines ("DeFalco's (Scott Birdwell)")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #808, 9 June 2000: RE: Should I Bother (KANDANANB@...)
brewing in winter ("Stephen J. Van der Hoven")
Mazers. (Adam)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #807, 31 May 2000 (Shroom)
Yeast recommendation (Elfboy0@aol.com)
New e-commerce honey store & pasturization work around (Fred Peachman)
Sediment in must (Elfboy0@aol.com)
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.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead, or
via anonymous ftp at ftp.stanford.edu in pub/clubs/homebrew/mead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: r.c.b
From: "Houseman, David L" <David.Houseman@unisys.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 11:08:07 -0400
Dick Dunn's observation about rec.crafts.brewing is with respect to mead.
Is the situation out "in the real world" any better about beer brewing or
cider making or any other endeavor? There are experts and self-proclaimed
experts. Some post on these boards as well. I do agree however, that we
shouldn't just sit by but use what we know to educate. These hobbies can
benefit from more participation. It will help the stores that serve us so
it's self-serving on our part, not just altruistic. Certainly Dick or
someone could invite them to join this forum. But one additional suggestion
is making venues like mead-lovers digest and homebrew digest more user
friendly to everyone. Web based chat rooms and browser paradigm access is
the rule. This may be a challenge for our hosts but that's the clear
direction. Rather than mail, perhaps a portal to browser based chat and
bulletin boards would help attact more participation?
David Houseman
------------------------------
Subject: moving mead
From: "Charles Terrell" <tachyon@pobox.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:12:02 -0500
We have a couple of carboys fermenting in a friend's kitchen. They are
almost ready for their first racking, but not quite. The friend is about to
move to a nicer place across town. Any suggestions for how to move the
carboys without damaging the mead?
Thanks!
- ----
Charles Terrell <tachyon@pobox.com>
Programmer/Analyst - Pegasus Solutions, Inc.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Should I Bother/Temperature
From: Dave Polaschek <davep@davespicks.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:32:02 -0500
"Patrick Schreiber" <Patrick.Schreiber@las.co.za> wrote:
>Is there any advice for brewing in cold conditions?
Yes. Being from Minnesota (in the northern US), this is something I'm
quite familiar with.
>What do the experts think, should I bother?
>Should I try an experimental batch, of say 5 litres, and what recipe should
>I use?
I would say you should "bother". You're likely to get good results.
Use just about any recipe you'd like. I would go with a full 20l (5
gallon) batch. For one, the larger thermal mass of a large batch protects
the fermentation against small temperature swings. It takes longer for a
larger mass of liquid to change temperature, or to restate it another
way, over the same time, the larger mass of liquid will change by a
smaller amount.
The low temperature of 8-10C is no problem for many yeasts. Even if you
had a constant temperature at that level, you could produce a good mead.
You say your average temperature will probably be about 15C, which is
well within the range of almost all yeasts. In order to buffer the
temperature of a fermentation in winter in Minnesota, I used an old
sleeping bag (or blanket) wrapped around the fermenter. This provided not
only protection from thermal changes, but also from getting bumped and
from any direct sunlight. My method was to wrap the sleeping bag around
the fermenter, leaving the top open. This let me put a thermometer on the
side of the fermenter and look at it without disturbing things too much.
Today I'd use one of the cheap dual-temp digital thermometers with a
remote sensor. They'll keep track of the minimum and maximum temperature
for you and cost less than US$20.
One thing to note is that since fermentation gives off some heat, you may
actually need to open the top of the blanket a bit early on, and then
close it up as fermentation slows. This is why having a thermometer is a
good idea. You can monitor things and adjust a little bit if the the
temperature is trending up or down over time.
On a similar note, JLong@tcadvertising.com wrote:
>What is the best temperature range for fermenting mead? What would be the
>mediocre temperature range? And what would be the unacceptable range?
> [ also for aging ]
I've had good results fermenting mead at everything from 10C to 25C. I
try to age it at the same temperature I'm comfortable at (20C).
If it's much warmer than 25C for fermentation, you'll get a very rapid
ferment (similar to a steam beer) and higher alcohols. Below 10C, you're
likely to get a very slow fermentation and lose patience. It's possible
to get very good results at the low end of the temperature scale, but for
me, that's a slow enough fermentation that the temperature ends up rising
before it's done.
In my experience, for both aging and fermentation, temperature changes
are more damaging than "out of range" temperatures. A sudden change from
20C down to 10C may well shock the yeast, slowing them down. Similarly, a
sudden change from 15C up to 25C shocks them in a different way, and has
produced a nastier flavor than having the entire fermentation run at 25C.
My method for aging is to put the mead into an interior closet, wrapped
in old blankets. This is also my storage method for bottles of wine.
While it's not as ideal as having a climate-controlled wine-cellar, it's
considerably cheaper, and I've aged wines over five years this way with
no discernable flavor problems.
You may want to consider using a yeast that's adapted to your temperature
conditions. I've used "American Lager" yeast in cold weather, and Edme
Ale yeast (sadly no longer available) in warmer weather. I use almost
exclusively beer yeasts for my meads after problems with inconsistancy
and stuck fermentations with mead yeasts. I've heard that the mead yeasts
have improved, but I'm used to beer yeasts at this point, and see no
reason to change.
- -DaveP
Dave Polaschek - Polaschek Computing, Inc. - davep@best.com
PGP key and other spiffy things at <http://www.best.com/~davep/>
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach
you to keep your mouth shut." -- Ernest Hemmingway
------------------------------
Subject: RCB mead discussions
From: "Brian Lundeen" <blundeen@rrc.mb.ca>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:54:35 -0500
> Subject: rec.crafts.brewing and mead
> From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
> Date: 2 Jun 00 22:57:40 MDT (Fri)
>
But that's myopic at
> best--the
> newsgroup has wide circulation, and every potential mead-maker who is
> turned off to mead by the folks on r.c.b or the experiences
> he has as a
> result is a loss to our community.
>
> What, if anything, can mead-makers do to address the r.c.b crowd?
> - ---
>
Dick, the answer to me is obvious. Be a part of the solution. Take part in
the discussions in rcb.
I'll be honest, Dick, I was pretty annoyed the first time you tossed this
out in the Homebrew Digest, and that feeling has returned this time as well.
Maybe I'm taking this a bit personally, but I think of the rcb as an on-line
brew club, and it doesn't sit well when someone sits back and takes shots at
us.
There is no question that you, and your regulars here, have superior
knowledge of mead and mead-making. However, can you claim that bad advice
never gets posted here, or that if it does, it is always corrected? Dave,
these are open forums for people to express their opinions. Some are
learned, some aren't. Ultimately, it is up to you, as a critical thinker, to
review information from various sources, and decide what is good advice, and
what isn't.
I sympathise with your concern that potential mead makers will be put off by
acting on bad advice. However, I also don't feel a lot of sympathy for
someone who just flat out quits because they asked a question in a
discussion group and the advice didn't work out for them. That's just
looking for the easy road where there is none, and frankly, people like that
are no loss to the mead or wine or beer making communities. To become good
at any craft, you have to have the will to learn, learn, learn, from books,
from colleagues, from on-line sources, and most importantly, from your own
experiences, good and bad.
As far as spam and other garbage in the newsgroups, I find rcb to be very
low on that sort of stuff, and very high on comaraderie. It is one of the
friendliest, most helpful bunch of people I have found in discussion groups,
and if there is bad advice given, it's out of a desire to help. And I get
very little in the way of email garbage since making my address
"spam-resistant".
Again, if you want the quality of the mead discussions to go up in rcb (and
rec.crafts.winemaking, which to me is the more logical place for discussing
mead), then take part. I can understand and respect a reluctance to take
part because of time constraints. We all have lives and can't spend 24 hours
a day discussing all of our interests in every forum that exists. However,
to refuse to do so out of a sense that we are Philistines not worthy of
enlightenment, well that just smacks of arrogance and I can not respect that
attitude in the slightest. I want to believe that the people here are above
that. So prove me right, and join in our discussions.
Brian
Self-annointed defender of all that is good and true in RCB ;-)
PS I'm not normally this much of a self-righteous prick. I actually have a
pretty good, if twisted, sense of humour.
------------------------------
Subject: Wood Barrels?
From: JLong@tcadvertising.com
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 09:03:45 -0700
Hello everyone!
I actually have a few questions I hope people can help me with:
1) Does anyone know of where I can buy wooden barrels at decent
prices? I am taking a lot of mead & wine to Pennsic this year and I would
rather take it in wooden barrels then glass carboys. I don't need
expensive oak aging barrels, just good water-tight one. Any help? If you
are at Pennsic stop by House Blackstar for a taste!
2) Does anyone know of any recepies for a quick & good mead that will
be ready in between 30 & 60 days? I realize that the alcohol content will
be very low, but I am afraid that the 30 gallons of mead that I am taking
to Pennsic won't last the week.
3) Does anyone know of any resources where I can find Recepies for
mead & wine from the Medieval and Renaissance time period?
Thanks to everyone for your Help!
- -Kharstin
------------------------------
Subject: Re:Blackberry
From: "Matt Maples" <matt_lists@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 09:49:07 -0700
>because of the berries.). I tasted it, and it tasted like Night Train.. ,
>but that's to be expected from the age.
>it's still mirky, but there is no action inside the jug.
>
>well, the question:
>
>should I wait for it to clear completely on its own?
>Can I Bentonite it? is this a bad idea?
All the blackberry mels I have done REQUIRED at least 18 to 24 month to get
rid of the "Night Train" (heat/medicinal) flavor. The answer is yes you can
use bentonite or sparkaloid to speed things along. Unless you need that
carboy back I would let it bulk age for 6 months (or more) and then you will
probably not need a fining agent. If you must use a fining agent I prefer
sparkaloid. Mead making is a patient art, I use to crank out mead from
ferment to bottle in 8 weeks but have since found things turn out better if
you can manage to forget about them for a few months:-)
Matt Maples
May mead regain its rightful place as the beverage of gods and kings
------------------------------
Subject: Re: That strawberry mead
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 11:31:01 -0500
On Fri, 2 Jun 2000, in MLD 808, Dan McConnell wrote:
>>From what I have seen almost all of Micah's recipes are unorthodox.
>>From what I have seen almost all of Micah's meads are fantastic.
>
Is there a relation? Probably...
Is there such a thing as "orthodoxy" in meadmaking? ;-)
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: r.c.b and mead
From: Yacko Warner Yacko <yacko@mint.net>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 12:41:34 -0400
Dick,
I'm afraid that not only will you find a lack of knowledge from some so
called experts on r.c.b, but you'll also find a thread of people who
don't consider that mead belongs on r.c.d AT ALL! In older threads, I
recall reading that mead is not brewing in the way they define it. They
cite definitions suchs as :
>From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:
brewing
n : the production of malt beverages (as beer or ale) from malt
and hops by grinding and boiling them and fermenting the
result with yeast
Whereas other definitions, which are conveniently ignored include such
information as :
>From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Brew \Brew\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Brewed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Brewing}.] [OE. brewen, AS. bre['o]wan; akin to D. brouwen,
OHG. priuwan, MHG. briuwen, br?wen, G. brauen, Icel. brugga,
Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and perh. to L. defrutum must boiled
down, Gr. ? (for ??) a kind of beer. The original meaning
seems to have been to prepare by heat. [root]93. Cf. {Broth},
{Bread}.]
1. To boil or seethe; to cook. [Obs.]
2. To prepare, as beer or other liquor, from malt and hops,
or from other materials, by steeping, boiling, and
fermentation. ``She brews good ale.'' --Shak.
3. To prepare by steeping and mingling; to concoct.
Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely. --Shak.
4. To foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot;
to concoct; to hatch; as, to brew mischief.
Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!
--Milton.
Clearly we can see that their (the mead and wine detractors on r.c.b)
are refering merely to the definitions that include 'malt' and more
specifically 'hops'. I'd also have to suspect that those same people
would be suspect of any brew made that does not conform to
Rheinheitsgebot as well. While this small segement of the r.c.b
community is, at this time, being held back, I am thinking that wit hthe
volume of traffic I see on r.c.b it's only a matter of time before it
fragments out into various sub groups. The only question is when someone
gets organized enough and with enough knowledge of Usenet RFC and CFV
type things to make it happen. Then of course there would be the CFV to
determine whether it would happen.
Aside from this little digression, I think the best thing to do on r.c.b
is to gently insert facts into the conversations. Knowledge IS power,
and one is more likely to give someone positive mead information by
referencing proper citations for info. Whereas someone can say 'mead
sucks til it's a year old' one could counter with 'well - in the study
done by Morse in 1967 he says...' blah blah blah.
On usenet, a single questions will have N answers, where N= the
number of people reading the post. While N won't reply, the idea is
there. Plenty of answer, right or wrong, for every question. The end
user has to sift through the garbage and find the right info.
People giving good resources, like Vicky's gotmead.com pages and
similar things, ar ethe best way to fight this. Results of study's in
various things, even if not scientific in their entirety, are the way to
combat it. Like my yeast study. I present how I did everything and am
presenting current results with all the relevant info. Someone can
decide for themselves how to interpret my results for themselves (though
those doing the tasting will have the better of it :)
Cold hard facts... best defense on USENET. And politeness doesn't hurt.
$.02 given
<down off soapbox now>
yacko
On Wed, Jul 16, 2036 at 02:36:58PM -0600, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: rec.crafts.brewing and mead
> From: rcd@raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
> Date: 2 Jun 00 22:57:40 MDT (Fri)
>
> I used to be an avid USENET ("net news") reader and contributor. I
> retreated when the onslaught of address-harvesting and spam became too much
> to bear. However, I still have a small news feed and I still occasionally
> dig through rec.crafts.brewing. There's a bit of mead discussion in it.
>
> But when I dig in and start reading, I'm often appalled by the lack of
> knowledge and experience apparent in some of the postings from people who
> put on airs of being experts. The real stumbling-about leads to stuff like
- --snip-- to keep my ranting from looking longer than it is :)
> Well, then, one reaction is that the folks on r.c.b have become a bunch of
> Philistines and should best be ignored. But that's myopic at best--the
> newsgroup has wide circulation, and every potential mead-maker who is
> turned off to mead by the folks on r.c.b or the experiences he has as a
> result is a loss to our community.
- --
Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man.
-- Klingon Soldier, "Day of the Dove", stardate unknown
------------------------------
Subject: r.c.b.
From: "Alan Meeker" <ameeker@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 13:03:33 -0400
Dick Dunn bemoans the sad state of advice on r.c.b. concerning mead...
>>What, if anything, can mead-makers do to address the r.c.b crowd?
I don't know Dick, short of playing policeman and personally responding to
each and every post that you find to be in error, but that will take an
inordinate amount of time and also expose you to the spammers.
One fix might be to compose a general message to anyone on r.c.b. interested
in mead. In this message you could give a brief and diplomatic warning to
potential meadmakers concerning the lack of quality information on r.c.b.
and direct them to other, more reliable sources of info (fact sheets, web
pages, books, and of course the MLD!). Save this and post it once a week to
r.c.b.
FWIW
- -Alan Meeker
------------------------------
Subject: re:R.C.B.
From: "Matt Maples" <matt_lists@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:23:13 -0700
>What, if anything, can mead-makers do to address the r.c.b crowd?
I had given up on RCB eons ago but I'm sure we have some people here at MLD
who have not. I think the easiest and most polite thing to do is, when an
off-kilter mead opinion shows up RCB is to have an MLDer point out that the
weird opinion posted is not the general consensus at MLD and invite them to
join us to find out more.
I know "mead making" and "general consensus" are mutually exclusive terms
but it would get the point across:-)))
Matt Maples
May mead regain its rightful place as the beverage of gods and kings
------------------------------
Subject: Re: South African winter/temperature question
From: NLSteve@aol.com
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 15:49:35 EDT
Patrick S. says:
"Is there any advice for brewing in cold conditions?"
If 15 deg. C. equals 59 deg. F like I think it does, that's a bit challenging
to many yeasts normally used for mead. You could consider searching for a
"microclimate" in your house, such as near the refrigerator, where it might
be warmer; jacketing the carboy with insulation to preserve heat from
fermentation; purchasing a gentle heating pad to place under the carboy (but
not too warm!), or choosing a yeast made to work in the 50s F. Perhaps
Wyeast's California Lager or similar? Or a champagne or white wine yeast?
Check the yeast vendor's literature or web pages, or e-mail them (Lalvin or
Wyeast's web pages are a good place to start, if you have access to their
products).
I'd also make sure to add a little nutrient -- don't give the yeast any
unnecessary challenges. If you choose beer/ale yeast, lower the starting
gravity a bit to allow for less fermentation & lower alcohol without undue
leftover sweetness. With white wine yeast or, especially, champagne yeast,
you'd want to use more honey. But you can add honey little by little later
on until you get desired sweetness anyway. Hope this helps a bit. You should
be able to do fine.
Steve,
The Right-Side Up Part of the Planet
Similarly, J. Long asks about fermenting/aging temperatures. My first answer
(you might guess) is "it depends," but because an overgeneralization is
better than nothing, how about 65 deg. to low 70s for fermenting. Higher
"could" produce off-flavors and too much lower could challenge or slow
fermentation. For long-term aging, think like wine: 50-60 sounds good;
definitely keep under 70 degrees. Keep it fairly constant. (I'm not an
expert -- I just want to make sure new hobbyists get "some" kind of answer;
occasionally basic questions here slip through the cracks).
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Stuck & violent mead
From: NLSteve@aol.com
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 15:57:12 EDT
Kevin says:
<< it was 1.065. It looked like there was no fermentation going on, but I
figured that it might because it wasn't warm enough. So I, in my infinite
wisdom, put the
carboy on a heating pad set to "low", and let it go.
Here's where the fun begins. I looked in on it this afternoon, and the
airlock was full of mead and many, many bubbles were rising from the depths.
AND the carboy was hot to the touch. Some of the must had forced itself out
between the airlock and stopper as well. >>
Assume the yeast is hurtin'. Probably you forced a whole bunch of C02 to
gassify at once by raising the temp., leading to your foaming mess. Consider
racking off the old yeast, making sure the new carboy is filled to to top and
pitching fresh yeast -- maybe champagne yeast if you don't want to play nice
anymore. Good luck. Never give a batch the death sentence without a fair
trial. It still could be good.
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Should I Bother
From: Damien Hingston <Damien.H@unforgettable.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 07:53:40 +1000
>
>Subject: Should I Bother
>From: "Patrick Schreiber" <Patrick.Schreiber@las.co.za>
>Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 12:36:43 +0200
>
>Hi there, I was hoping to get some advice.
>
>I have recently decided to brew up some mead, I have read everything that I
>could get hold of but my question hasn't been answered. My problem is that,
>living in South Africa, winter is just starting. The temperature will vary
>between 15 and 21 Degrees Centigrade here during the day, and it gets down
>to about 8 - 10 Degrees at night, average room temperature will sit at about
>15 degrees I suppose. I am worried that this will be too cold for the yeast
>to survive and to work well. I don't want to waste all that honey if it
>isn't going to work.
>
>Is there any advice for brewing in cold conditions?
>What do the experts think, should I bother?
>Should I try an experimental batch, of say 5 litres, and what recipe should
>I use?
>
I'm in a similar situation here in Australia. Just lately the
temperature has been varying widely (subzero outside during the
night, up to 15 or so during the day. I've currently got a batch of
mead brewing. It's in my shed, with a heater, and seems to be
fermenting quite happily. I've brewed another batch in conditions
similar to this, and I had no problems with that one either
Hope that helps,
Damien
- --
Damien Hingston
Email: Damien.H@unforgettable.com
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory
------------------------------
Subject: Peony mead
From: "Nathan Kanous" <nlkanous@pharmacy.wisc.edu>
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 7:23:00 -0500
Hi All,
Lots of peonies in bloom right now. I've thought of floral meads before
but not tried one. Anybody ever tried to use peonies in a mead or beer?
I also think a nice scotch ale would work well. Any thoughts or suggestions
would be appreciated.
nathan in madison, wi
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Black Berry mead
From: Elfboy0@aol.com
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 09:48:23 EDT
Paul Hudert <pippi@erols.com> writes:
> I started this mead April 12..
...
> it bubbled like crazy for a good while.. took the berries out 9 days later..
> bubbling just fine..
>
> now, it has stopped. It's been dead for a week. it's only been a month
> and a half and the S.G is now 1.004 (I didn't get an original reading
> because of the berries.). I tasted it, and it tasted like Night Train.. ,
> but that's to be expected from the age.
> it's still mirky, but there is no action inside the jug.
>
> well, the question:
>
> should I wait for it to clear completely on its own?
> Can I Bentonite it? is this a bad idea?
>
> it seems like a silly question, but it's just so short a time, I've never
> had a recipe stop fermenting that quickly!
I've made three batches of raspberry mead, and one with raspberries,
blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. I'm going to assume that the
raspberries and blackberries are similar enough that the behavior in mead
creation is similar.
In *all* of these cases, I also experienced incredibly rapid completion time,
I believe also on the order of a month and a half. I did nothing to clear up
the meads - I just waited for them to clear on their own (which is what I
always do), and they have come out wonderful. Taste great, drinkable
extremely quickly, little or no sediment in the bottles.
The more recent multi-berry was actually my 7-gallon I had to move about 3
weeks after starting it. As part of the packaging, I had enclosed it in a
cardboard box. I didn't get into a new place for a bit after I moved, and
wasn't in much of a rush anyway. I pulled it out of the box probably a few
weeks later (total time around 6-8 weeks), and pulled out a clear mead with a
*LOT* of dead yeast at the bottom. :)
- Joshua
------------------------------
Subject: Mead guidelines
From: "DeFalco's (Scott Birdwell)" <defalcos@insync.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 10:27:32 -0500
The recent discussion on HBD about inadequacies of the Mead and Cider
styles in the new Beer Judge Certification Program style guide has not gone
un-noticed. The BJCP has commissioned a small styles team to focus on a
more thorough update of the Mead and Cider styles. This team will be
lead by David Houseman. However, he expects to utilize the experts in
the these beverages rather than rely just on beer
brewers and judges. If you are such an expert in Mead or Cider, please
contact David at dhousema@cccbi.org to volunteer your time to work with
this committee.
Thanking you in advance,
Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies
Houston (aka "Bonhamville") TX
BJCP Competition Committee Chairman
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #808, 9 June 2000: RE: Should I Bother
From: KANDANANB@aol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 00:36:33 EDT
I wouldn't give up. Your mead will still ferment-it will take a bit longer,
but you might want to wrap your carboy with a sweater.
If you can manage to start off warm, you should be OK.
Optimal temp is 21-26 C., so maybe if you have a warm room or space heater
for the cold nights.
My personal experience has been that as long as I'm consistent with temps, my
brew and mead turns out fine. Good Luck
------------------------------
Subject: brewing in winter
From: "Stephen J. Van der Hoven" <sjvander@mines.utah.edu>
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:06:35 -0600
Patrick Schreiber asked about brewing in cold temps. My solution for
brewing when it gets cold is to put hte carboy/bucket in a larger
container filled with water and maintain the desired temp (usually 60-70
F or 15-21 C) using fish tank heaters. If you can get a submersible
heater, then you won't have a temperature gradient in the water bath.
However, I've always used the non-submersible kind and haven't noticed
any ill affects. I just stir the water before making a temperature
measurement to see if it's at the temperature I want it at.
------------------------------
Subject: Mazers.
From: Adam <a24061@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 14:28:47 -0700 (PDT)
I recall some discussion of mazers a month or two ago.
Some of you may
be interested in the website for a bowlturner in the
UK who makes
"pear-wood mazers" (and other interesting things):
http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/cups2.htm
http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/
(I have no connection with this; I just came across it
by chance on
the net.)
- -- Adam
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #807, 31 May 2000
From: Shroom <shroom@theriver.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 16:10:39 -0700
Ryan Zwahr
rzwahr@bigfoot.com
says:
in North Carolina, and we have pretty warm weather here. I don't have a
basement, but I do have a crawlspace. It stay's fairly cool under
there, although it does get chilly at night sometimes and it does need
to be treated occasionally for termites. Our house is usually 78
degrees or so, and I thought that might be too warm. I'd prefer to do
it outside if possible, but I just can't think of a cool enough spot.
Ryan-
Living in Arizona, I have the same problem. I've found that brews prefer steady
temperatures rather than daily warm/cool oscillations, even if the temps are
relatively high (78 deg as you say). I have not tried an ale or lager (beer) at
these temps, I suspect bad taste would result. Anything with a high OG,
from mead to trappist/Belgian, should have no trouble. I'd say brew in
the house.
------------------------------
Subject: Pear Melomel?
From: "Eric Bonney" <ebonney@fuse.net>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 22:19:11 -0400
Has anyone made a pear melomel? I was considering doing one, but didn't
know how much fruit to use or how to prepare the fruit. I am going to
make
a 5 gallon batch. Should I peel the pears, then puree them, or just cut
them up and put them into the fermenter? Any ideas on types of honey that
might go good with pears?
Eric-
I just tried one in my 2.5gal "experiment" carboy - starting with standard
store-grade D'anjou pears, putting them through a veggie juicer, dumping in a
sterilized carboy with raw honey (all cold process - no heating of any
ingredient, so carboy sterility is critical.) and pitching an ale yeast
(White Labs in this case). Result so far is not enough pear taste to
counteract the yeast ferment products and alcohol level. This would not
have been the case with a sweet mead yeast, but the ale yeast adds its own
"character". It also fermented quite dry (only 2 lbs/gal initial honey)
so after ferment stop with sorbate I'll add sweetener, possibly honey
dissolved in pear juice to improve the pear taste. I'll let you know if
it turns out!
General lessons from this: You can't have too much fruit; use pure juice
AND add fruit to the primary ferment. You might try adding some fresh
apple or white grape (store-bought 100% juice), commercial juices seem to
add these as a base to pear juice, I wonder if they don't have the right
idea for flavor enhancement.
Also, use as bland a yeast as you can. Don't pick something that will
create complex flavor molecules - a "sweet mead" should do it.
Fred Bourdelier
Tucson AZ
(the town where you learn it only takes 2 fingers to drive a car...)
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast recommendation
From: Elfboy0@aol.com
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 11:41:28 EDT
So far, I've been using Wyeast liquid cultures exclusively. Where I've
recently moved, the reasonably close brewing supply stores (1 or 2 hours!)
don't carry my yeast! Specifically, I've been using the Wyeast Dry Mead
yeast. I don't know exactly what powdered strains or brands the stores have
available, but can anyone make a recommendation as to yeasts that are as
close as possible to Wyeast's Dry Mead liquid culture? (If you are replying
directly to the list, CC'ing me on the reply would be appreciated, as I'm
hoping to make this Mead on Wednesday). Thanks!
- Joshua
------------------------------
Subject: New e-commerce honey store & pasturization work around
From: Fred Peachman <fpeachm@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 17:04:54 -0700 (PDT)
>Dutch Gold Honey just went live with their e-commerce
>store, With 1, 5 and 60 pound containers of honey
>available.
>
>Their are 13 Flower specific varities including harder
>to find ones like blueberry, buckwheat, avacado and
>Tupelo (60 pounds of Tupelo! WooHoo!)
>
>The only catch is that they filter and pasturize their
>honey.
Looks like they also sell unprocessed clover honey:
http://www.dutchgoldhoney.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=6&pf%5Fid=50&mscssid=M
G12C1CJ83S92GCE002JBKCNLEAC8WP7
=====
- - Fred Peachman -
fpeachm@yahoo.com
------------------------------
From: "David Pierson" <mutant__23@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 23:06:43 EDT
i was wondering whether there are any good "quick" mead recipes out there?
i just put together two six gallon batches using wyeast german and london
ale yeasts and ten pounds each of raw unboiled honey. hopefully it will
take less time than the batch i made with sweet and dry mead yeasts. any
guesses? thank you, david pierson (mutant__23@hotmail.com)
------------------------------
Subject: Sediment in must
From: Elfboy0@aol.com
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 10:22:24 EDT
I just started a new batch of mead yesterday. I prepared the must as I
usually do, boiling water with herbs, adding honey, skimming. The water was
spring water, a little on the older side (it had been sitting a bit, but
there were no signs of algae or bacteria growth). The honey was extremely
crystalized, but disolved quite fine. Once the must was cool enough, before
pitching, I poured it into the glass carboy (clean & sterile), then added
some more herbal tea. I let the carby sit for a little bit before pitching,
and noticed a fairly significant amount of sediment falling out. Having no
idea what it was, I thought perhaps this always happens and I don't see it
because I usually use a plastic pail for primary fermentation (I usually make
melomels). So, I pitched last night, thinking that the yeast activity would
be enough to stir things up. Upon looking this morning, I have a rather
vigorously fermenting mead, and a sediment layer going nearly half-way up the
carboy! Has anyone experienced this before? Any thoughts? Will this take care
of itself? Is there something I need to do for this? The herbs I used, if it
will matter, were cardamom, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, black tea,
and amchur (all kept in a muslin bag). I've used this same batch of honey
before (it wasn't quite so crystalized at the time), and there didn't seem to
be a problem then - the sediment layer was a little higher for that batch
than I'm used to getting, but sitting at 3 inches for 7 gallons I didn't find
it unusual for that batch. Additionally, that batch used dry mead yeast and
35 lbs of honey, so if the honey were the problem in my current batch, I
should have definitely seen something with the previous batch (unless the
problem is the crystalization).
- Joshua
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #809
*******************************
