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Mead Lovers Digest #0823
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #823, 10 September 2000
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #823 10 September 2000
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Correction, Rotten Eggs and acid levels ("Pannicke, Glen A.")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #822, 5 September 2000 (peter.spinney@analog.com)
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #822, 5 September 2000 ("Andy Schmitt")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #822, 5 September 2000 (Myron Sothcott)
sparkaloid ("Andrew Altschuler")
Well or Bottled Water (Myron Sothcott)
hallucinogenic mead (TPArmantrout@aol.com)
Re: organic honey ("Eric Brown")
Re: Hallucinogenic Mead (Webster Homer)
Organic honey (Mark Taratoot)
RE : Newsgroup Creation (Shane Hultquist)
Low Alcohol mead, fermented milk (Dave Burley)
Sweet Sparkling Mead ("David Wagner")
Re: Hallucinogenic Mead ("David Wagner")
Re: More on T'ej (Dan McFeeley)
Holding fermentation temperature "constant" ("Alson Kemp")
well or bottled water ("Stephen J. Van der Hoven")
Must Aeration, Crystals, & Treacle Stout ("keithwwyse")
Glucose - Rhodomel - Stainless Steel - Hydrometer conversions (Marc Shapiro)
Reply: Hallucinogenic Mead ("Anthony Torrez")
NOTE: Digest 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. There is
a searchable MLD archive at hubris.engin.umich.edu/Beer/Threads/Mead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Correction, Rotten Eggs and acid levels
From: "Pannicke, Glen A." <glen_pannicke@merck.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 16:18:00 -0400
Oops! Need a major correction to a previous post!
>Subject: Low alcohol mead
>From: "Pannicke, Glen A." <glen_pannicke@merck.com>
>Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 10:32:00 -0400
>S. ludwigii loves glucose (and dextrose) and will ferment it
>almost the same as any S. cerevisiae strain will however, it cannot
>metabolize the higher sugars, like dextrose.
Should read "... higher sugars, like maltose."
This may confuse someone who actually reads my ramblings ;-)
=============
David Wagner writes of rotten eggs:
>Has anyone had problems with hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg odor) when
>using organic yeast nutrient (yeast extract), yeast hulls, and
>potassium metabisulfite?
The rotten egg smell is characteristic of metabisulfite, but should
dissipate over time. I guess you're adding it to the must prior to
fermentation, so the sulfur gas will be scrubbed out by the CO2 during
fermentation. Yeast extract can be a bit stinky too, but not enough to
adversley affect the finished product. I rarely use metabisulfite, but when
I do, I keep an air lock on the vessel to allow the gas to escape.
==================
On another note...
Being mostly a brewer, I was very pleased this weekend when I tasted the
second batch of mead I ever made. Its a blueberry melomel. The color is
phenominal - a deep garnet! It tastes pretty damn good at only 8 weeks old!
I only wonder how it will taste after 8 months ;-) The recipe was simple: 2
dozen pints of blueberries, 12 lbs honey and QS to 6 gallons in the
fermenter. White Labs Champagne Yeast dropped the gravity down to about
0.996. Anyone care to muse what the starting gravity was? 2lbs of
honey/gallon gets you to about 1.080. I'm guessing 24 pints of crushed
blueberries pushed it over the 1.100 mark. It's difficult to measure the
starting gravity with fruit in the mix.
Now for the real question: what range of acidity should I be shooting for in
a melomel?
It's easy enough to measure and adjust before bottling, but I need a target
to shoot for.
Carpe cerevisiae!
Glen Pannicke
http://www.pannicke.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #822, 5 September 2000
From: peter.spinney@analog.com
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 16:28:04 -0400 (EDT)
In response to:
> Subject: Elderberries
> From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer@engin.umich.edu>
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 14:19:50 -0400
> The woman I bought them from described "juicing" them by boiling and
> straining. I could then add the juice to some mostly-fermented
> "traditional" mead to get an elderberry mel (with additional
> fermentation, presumably).
> Another option would be to crush them, and to throw them into the primary
> of a new batch.
> A third option would be to freeze them, and to throw them into the
> secondary (or primary) of a batch sometime later.
Elderberries have their good and bad points. While they're easy to harvest
by the sprig, its very time consuming to strip the berries off the stems.
Though they're lower in acid (if picked ripe enough) than blackberries
tend to be, they don't have a very noticable characteristic flavor -
almost bland. What they really do well is contribute color - a spectacular
magenta!
The biggest bugaboo is the sap which is released by the
fermentation process. A pulp fermentation of up to a week is usually
needed to extract the flavor and color and after this time there will be a
thick deposit of sticky, rubbery, green sap in the fermentation vessel,
especially at the "waterline". Remember the bath tub ring when the "Cat in
the Hat" got out of the tub? Now picture what it would look like if it was
the Grinch! If you do this in a carboy, you will NEVER get it clean!
When I make elderberry wine, I freeze the berries first to maximize the
release of juice and use a pectic enzyme. (Boiling fruit in general is a
bad idea because it sets pectin and drives off desirable aromatic compounds.)
After defrosting the berries, I run the primary in a 7 1/2 gallon plastic
bucket designed for the purpose (food grade plastic). The sap will NOT
respond to polar solvents (water, ethanol, methanol, isopropanol, ammonia,
acetone, detergent, glycerin etc.) - I know, I tried all of them!
It will respond to oily solvents - canola oil works nicely. Apply
liberally and scrub gently with a soft toothbrush and paper towels. Be
patient, it will come off. After a week, I strain and squeeze the pulp
and transfer the brew to a 5 gallon widemouth pickle jar (the old fashioned
kind). This offers less oxygen contact than the bucket but I can still get
my hand inside to clean it if necessary. It stays in that till I'm certain
that it won't evolve any more sap - then and only then do I rack into a
carboy.
3 qts of berries is probably about 4 1/2 pounds - that's not too much -
don't expect a lot of flavor from it if you're making 5 gallons. This year,
I used 20 pounds of berries for 6 gallons starting volume - that's straight
elderberry wine, though, not melomel. YMMV!
Wassail,
Pete
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #822, 5 September 2000
From: "Andy Schmitt" <aschmitt@warwick.net>
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 17:37:15 -0400
I made on last year from all the garden roses I could find. Cut them display
them for a day, strip the petals, wash them & freeze them. I ended up with a
couple of quart containers not too tightly packed which I dumped into a 2
1/2 gallon batch after heating.
Nice aroma, there is a different flavor than the "normal" mead but I can't
quite as yet describe it.
I think I'll do it again next year but put the petals in the secondary so
the active fermentation doesn't blow off the esters so much.
Wassail!!
andy schmitt
ow yes, Spencer...I would freeze the elderberries & stick them in a nice
secondary...wonderful for the palette...
- -----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #820, 27 August 2000
From: Phil Clarke <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 06:55:34 -0700 (PDT)
The Mead-Lovers FAQ mentions a rhodomel, a mead with
rose petals. Has anyone ever made this? How many
rose petals do you use in making it? And finally: if
I were to make it, could I put a short-stemmed rose in
a bottle of it as a decorative piece, or would it wilt
and slowly dissolve?
Phil
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #822, 5 September 2000
From: Myron Sothcott <myron7@home.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 17:04:49 -0400
Glen entered the discussion with:
> Personally, I don't drink mead enough to want to buy some in the store, but
> others might. The reason I like mead is that it's not mainstream. It's an
> old and almost forgotten beverage. That alone adds some magic and mystique
> to it. I love it when people ask "What is mead?" and I get to tell them
> "It's a very special wine made from honey and you probably won't find it in
> your liquor store." The trap has now been set and they want some because
> it's special and unique.
Glen, you miss a great opportunity to enlighten others. Mead is not
"...a very special wine made from honey..." Mead is a delightfully
enchanting beverage made from the concentrated nectar of the blossoms
of spring, of summer, and of autumn... its origins lie in the days when
the Gods where said to have walked the earth.
Myron
------------------------------
Subject: sparkaloid
From: "Andrew Altschuler" <maltdog@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 22:50:02 GMT
What's the proper procedure for fining 5 gallons of melomel with sparkaloid
(potassium sorbate)? After 2 weeks it looks the same as before I fined, I
suspect I have faulty instructions. TIA
- -Andy
DevilDog Brewery
"Moist and Insane"
------------------------------
Subject: Well or Bottled Water
From: Myron Sothcott <myron7@home.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 18:07:42 -0400
>Hello all,
>I am about to give this brewing thing a try and am wondering what the
>I have pretty hard water available from my well, which I think may be good
>for ph and buffering.
>I have also read some horror stories about the potential pandora's box of
>live matter that may be present in my well water, so is it better to buy and
>use filtered, bottled water?
>Any comments would be appreciated.
>Thanks
>Doug Mort
Doug,
When you pasteurize the honey (you do plan to pasteurize, don't you) you
will also pasteruize the water. Any additional water used can be boiled
the day before, cooled and stored for use. Try a batch that way first,
if it doesn't work out you can explore other sources of water later.
The advantage of using your well water is the consistancy you can maintain
(unless you get drastic changes in the level of the water table).
I installed a home filtration system to filter my water and had it tested
at the local agricultural extension office when I was on well water. It
worked out fine. I only had to change filter elements every three
months.
Myron
------------------------------
Subject: hallucinogenic mead
From: TPArmantrout@aol.com
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 20:08:13 EDT
In a message dated 9/5/00 1:36:41 PM Central Daylight Time,
mead-request@talisman.com writes:
<<
I had also heard of the hallucinogenic properties of Nutmeg.
Sufficient quantities are supposed to be a bring on a similar experience
to LSD. >>
I have since read about nutmeg - although a digestive and potential
hallucinagen, many books list it as toxic, even deadly at high doses. Most
agree this is about 2 whole nutmegs at any given time. The recipes I have
seen have not even come close to this amount. Even if you drank up to a
quart of mead in one sitting(!), you could theoretically brew 6-8 whole
nutmegs per gallon and still be ok. The resulting taste would probably keep
most away from it, though.
Fermenting with banana peels sounds interesting. Probably safer to use
organic ones, though. I have heard that more chemicals get sprayed on
bananas (and grapes - raisins) than most other crops. And that the residue
remains on the skins. How about a nutmeg-banana peel combo.....
There are other herbs I have read about that I have not used before - ie,
calamus root (sweet flag), damiana, and gotu kola to name a few. I will
continue to experiment. Thanks for the input.
Tim
PS Dick, I did not know metheglyn was Old Welsh for "medicine." Thanks.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: organic honey
From: "Eric Brown" <apicoltore@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 02:13:10 GMT
Being a beekeeper who's worked both for a certified organic operation in New
Zealand and presently for an operation producing some fireweed honey
(mentioned in the last digest) in the Oregon Cascades, I'd like to share a
little of what I know about organic honey.
First, regarding fireweed honey, even the remote, high-elevation forestland
where fireweed honey is produced is not free of herbicides. Just this
morning we had to remove a bee yard from the mountains because a logging
concern is going to spray some sort of herbicide to kill off some of the
competition for the fir trees.
I agree with what Matt Maples seemed to be getting at, however, that the
practices of the beekeeper are far more important than the location of the
hives in how organic the honey is. Pesticides definitely have an impact on
bees in some agricultural areas, but I think the effect is mostly just dead
bees (which naturally don't carry any nectar back to the hive). I don't
believe there's much danger of pesticides, herbicides, etc. getting into a
nectar flow.
I am very suspicious, however, of medications. Regulations, especially in
the States, are so extensive and at the same time so loosely enforced, that
beekeepers wind up using all sorts of unapproved medications and methods of
treatment. Formic acid, an organic treatment for mites, has been used in
Canada and Europe for years and years, but it still hasn't become
practically available in any legal form to commercial beekeepers here.
Instead, we're using all sorts of inorganic measures with big question marks
as to residues left in wax and honey, staying power of the chemicals after
removal of the strips, etc. Beyond medications, I'm also made uneasy by the
use of butyric acid to drive the bees out of the supers. Hours after the
fume boards are removed one can still smell the stuff in the supers. And
then there are all the little things like paint chips off the supers winding
up in the honey. Even though paint chips would be filtered out eventually,
I would expect a true organic operation to dip its boxes in parafin wax
instead of using paint.
My advice for anyone looking for organic honey is to not waste your money,
because it probably isn't any better than cheaper alternatives. Buying from
Sue Bee or Glorybee (I've heard particularly bad things about Glorybee,
which even sells some organically labelled honey) or Dutch Gold or any of
the packers is the surest path to poor quality. If I was concerned about
quality and chemical contamination (and I didn't want to run my own bees), I
would only buy honey that was packed by a beekeeper running an operation
small enough to really know what was going into his hives and honey (no more
than a two or three thousand), and I would talk to him myself.
Some good objective questions are: do you ever use terramyacin (an
antibiotic that I would consider unnecessary in an operation focused on
quality honey production), how do you get the honey out of your cappings
(anything but a cappings spinner is bound to overheat the honey, which has
drawbacks even if you plan to boil your must later), how do you get the bees
out of your supers (preferably a blower, bee escapes, or brushing; not
bee-go=butyric acid=fume boards), and how much syrup have you bought for
feed in the last three years (most beekeepers feed some sugar or corn syrup,
but a quality operation can avoid the practice most years.)
I may have written too much already, so I'll end here and invite anyone to
write me personally who wants to.
Eric Brown
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Hallucinogenic Mead
From: Webster Homer <tahuti56@swbell.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 21:47:42 -0500
Nutmeg is hallucinogenic in large enough doses, 1 to 6 tablespoons of
ground nutmeg suspended in a cup of hot water. Mace also works. The
hangover is supposed to be awful however. It would take a *lot* of
nutmeg to make a hallucinogenic mead, I'd bet that the yeast would be
killed by it. I have always thought that smoking banana peels was an
urban myth.
There are some plants that would add a *kick* though. Originally
Pilsener beers were made with henbane rather than hops. Henbane contains
scopalamine which is a hypnotic. I've also heard of people using datura
in beers. These plants are extremely dangerous (as is nutmeg in
hallucinogenic doses) and should be treated with extreme caution. I
believe that the book "Sacred Herbal Beers" by Stephen Buhner has
recipes for beers using henbane. He also suggests that the heather used
by the Picts in their mead also had a psycho-active fungus on it, so
maybe some of those ancient meads had more than alcohol going for them.
------------------------------
Subject: Organic honey
From: Mark Taratoot <taratoot@peak.org>
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 22:50:09 -0700 (PDT)
Matt wrote:
- --> I am sure I don't need to tell anyone here that there
- --> are many different certification programs when it comes
- --> to "Organic" labeling. We have some REALLY strict ones
- --> here in Oregon. Although the plants that this Australian
- --> honey came from did not have pesticides on them I call
- --> into question about the hives themselves. Here in Oregon
- --> we have large tracts of public forest that they get
- --> fireweed honey from. And even thought there are no
- --> pesticides / herbicides involved the honey does not meet
- --> most Oregon certifications because of the fungicides or
- --> mitacides used in the hives. I too would like to get hold
- --> of some truly organic honey but with the current bee
- --> blight that is not really practical. I did see some of
- --> the honey you were referring to in a shop in Vancouver
- --> Washington. I will take a closer look at it and see who's
- --> certification it carries.
I also live in Oregon, so I assume this honey passes Oregon Tilth
standards. I'm in Corvallis; the food co-op I'm talking about is
First Alternative Grocery. If you're in town, stop by and check
out their honey. I also suspect that chemicals do get applied to
the publicly owned forests 'round here.
- -m
- --
Mark Taratoot
taratoot@peak.org
------------------------------
Subject: RE : Newsgroup Creation
From: Shane Hultquist <Shane.Hultquist@pwgsc.gc.ca>
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 07:34:33 -0400
It would appear that after my request in the alt.config newsgroup, it has
come back with some negative responses to the idea of an
alt.homebrewing.mead newsgroup. They say that there isn't enough traffic in
that newsgroup to warrant moving away from it.
My rationale for doing it was the sometimes being flamed for posting about
mead stuff there as they consider themselves to be either beer or wine only
groups.
Well, I am thinking I will have to remove the request that it be set up
after the comments from the "gurus" of alt.config as I don't think the
proposal will pass.
Somehow they think I was trying to make it into a little dictatorship by
offering to house the faq on a site. Very odd. I only had suggested that
so as not to put the onus on another.
Well, we can keep this list hopping then, and just have to wait for another
day to maybe ressurect the idea. Unless anyone wants to help me fight the
good fight and get us our own newsgroup.
Keep on fermenting!!!
Wassail!
Vidar
(Shane)
------------------------------
Subject: Low Alcohol mead, fermented milk
From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 08:11:32 -0400
Message text written by INTERNET:mead@talisman.com
><
Glen Pannicke - Huh? Regarding your discussion of low Alcohol mead and S
ludwigii.
Dextrose IS glucose.
- -------------------
Lactose fermentation is not carried out by S cerevisiae. Lactobacillus does
a fine job. Can you say yoghurt?
Dave Burley
------------------------------
Subject: Sweet Sparkling Mead
From: "David Wagner" <dwagner@sa.kevric.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 08:56:19 -0500
I have a batch of lemon mead (OG 1.100) clearing nicely. I last
checked the specific gravity when racking after it fell still, and
suppose it is still around 1.025. I would like to bottle this mead
with some more honey mixed in to sparkle it. Will this work? Is it
important to pasteurize the honey before mixing it with the finished
mead? Since the yeast stopped with plenty of residual sugar left, is
it likely to ferment the added honey? I can't imagine all the sugars
left right now are unfermentable, and am afraid to add a different
strain of yeast as I suppose it would ferment the existing residual
sugar as well as what I add at bottling, making nice, dry glass
grenades.
Appreciating any pointers sincerely -David.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Hallucinogenic Mead
From: "David Wagner" <dwagner@sa.kevric.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 09:00:19 -0500
My girlfriend reminded me, since people usually don't eat banana
skins, the fruit are often sprayed with loads of pesticides. Most
pesticides directly affect the central nervous system. (Pesticides
came out of military efforts to create nerve gas, "Look, Doctor!
Batch C76A51 didn't kill the lab rats, but their fleas are dead!")
So, I suppose it is possible for some to induce hallucinations. She
also tells me a potion of banana, lime, and honey makes the imbiber
sexually irresistible, even without alcohol, so I plan to use organic
bananas (with their skins) in such a concoction. It sounds yummy to
me, and without the pesticides, it certainly won't hurt!
------------------------------
Subject: Re: More on T'ej
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 12:35:56 -0500
At 02:16 PM 9/5/00 -0500, in MLD 822, nathan in madison wrote:
>Dan provides us some interesting information on T'ej. This has me
>wondering....with leaving all the barley husk and such in the fermentation,
>is there a risk of methanol (e.g., "wood alcohol") being produced during
>the fermentation? I'm guessing, but I thought that some of the purpose of
>distillation of beverages like whiskey was to eliminate this fraction of
>alcohols from the resultant beverage. I could be way off on this...I'm not
>a fermentation guru, by any means. This is why I haven't ventured further
>with a couple of other beverages I've been made aware of which require the
>use of malted barley "husk and all" because of the risk of methanol
>production. Any thoughts from anyone?
This early reply in the same digest comes to you courtesy of Nathan's cc'd
copy which he sent to me.
I'm not a fermentation guru either, but a seach of the Home Brew Digest
archives turned up the posts below on the subject. From reading through
them, it looks like it would take large amounts of cellulose and the right
kind of wild yeast to produce methanol in T'ej -- commercial yeasts will
put out ethyl alcohol and higher alcohols, but not methanol (it's an alcohol
lower on the carbon chain scheme than ethyl alcohol). The small amounts
of Gesho probably wouldn't create significant methanol levels, even if a
wild yeast took hold that was able to produce methanol.
Any other comments?
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
- ----------------------------------[snip!]----------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #1945 Fri 26 January 1996
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 96 11:01:34 EST From: Pierre Jelenc
Subject: Poisons In HOMEBREW Digest #1943
(Aesoph, Michael) asks
> A friend of mine mentioned that the addition of certain substances
> to any fermenting beverage could produce Methyl alcohol. If I recall
> correctly, this is the poisonous variety. He specifically mentioned
> potatoes, other vegetables and certain grains. Is this true, or is he
> full of nonsense? I always assumed that the homebrewer was perfectly
> safe under all circumstances... Sorry if this is in the FAQ somewhere, I
> simply don't have it.
Fermentation does not produce significant amounts of methanol. However,
pectin, which is present in all fruit and much other vegetable matter,
does contain methanol, in the form of a methyl ester. This ester can be
hydrolyzed during the brewing process to produce free methanol. Some
wines contain considerable amounts of methanol, BTW; to the point that
they may be banned from distribution. On the other hand, pectin can be
hydrolyzed in the gut. Thus, if you can eat it, you can also drink it.
HOMEBREW Digest #1137 Mon 10 May 1993
Date: Fri, 07 May 93 08:01:49 -0600 From: Steve Dempsey
Subject: Re: Methanol (aka wood alcohol)
In HOMEBREW Digest #1136 you write:
> Specifically, WHY isn't methanol produced during homebrewing
>or I guess the question could be asked as how DO you produce
>methanol? Thanks for the info in advance.
Methanol production requires: 1) the proper yeast (wild yeasts) 2) unique
fermentables (cellulose == wood, grain husks) As a homebrewer, you use a
known yeast type that does not yield methyl alcohol as its primary waste
product. The homebrewers of days gone by could not keep things clean; wild
yeasts would get in and start eating the wooden vats used for fermenting, or
in the case of moonshine production, the grain is left in the mash during
fermentation and provides enough fiber for methanol production. After
distilling the product, the methanol concentration is high enough to do
serious damage. Nearly all methanol casualties are caused by consuming
distilled spirits produced from an improperly controlled fermentation.
Occasionally someone stupid mistakenly procures the cheapest alcohol he
can find to spike his drink, not realizing that it's poisonous. Traditional
beer/ale homebrewing has never been a problem so long as the right yeast
strains are employed. The wrong yeasts are hard enough to come by that
it's not going to be a problem unless you ferment in wooden vats/barrels,
or leave lots of grain in your wort during fermentation. Even so, the
resulting beer would have lots of other off-flavor byproducts of the unusual
yeast and you wouldn't want to drink it.
HOMEBREW Digest #1196 Wed 04 August 1993
Date: 3 Aug 1993 08:34:01 U From: "Palmer.John"
Subject: Homebrew blindness
Dan, I read your post to the Digest, the answer is no. There are two (main)
types of alcohol: Ethanol and Methanol. Hmmm maybe thats spelled ethenol
and methenol... Anyway, Methanol is the one that causes blindness and death.
It is also called wood alcohol, de-natured alcohol, rubbing alcohol. It is
made by the fermentation and distallation of cellulose ie wood. Grain
alcohol is made by the distallation of sugars. The only way to get serious
methanol contamination of your beer is to not strain the grain husks out of
your wort (at all) in all-grain brewing when its put into the fermenter.
The beer would be very nasty tasting to say the least.
------------------------------
Subject: Holding fermentation temperature "constant"
From: "Alson Kemp" <akemp@tripath.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 10:23:59 -0700
Y'all,
I've been reading about temperature and its influence on fermentation,
taste, etc. Fluctuating temperature is apparently undesirable. I a couple
of suggestion (which have probably been made before) on how to hold
temperature fluctuations down.
Put the ferementation vessel into a big container of water. The heat
capacity of the water will damp temperature fluctuations. Any plastic
container will do and many shapes and sizes can be gotten from Target, Home
Depot, etc. I have a 32Gallon (121 liter) rectangular (~2'Wx3'Lx2'T) "muck
bucket". Put a 5 gallon carboy into the bucket and fill the bucket up to
the neck of the carboy. Without a lot of analysis, temperature fluctuations
should drop by about 85%.
- Alson Kemp
Senior Applications Engineer
Tripath Technology
------------------------------
Subject: well or bottled water
From: "Stephen J. Van der Hoven" <sjvande2@ilstu.edu>
Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2000 08:32:07 -0700
The short answer to Doug Mort's question about using well water or bottled
water is use well water, (IMO, of course).
Now for the long answer. In general, groundwater does not have a lot of
organisms in it. That's not to say that groundwater is devoid of life, but
the movement of water through the small pore spaces beneath the ground
tends to filter out most organisms. However, conditions within the well
itself and the plumbing that leads to the faucet are conducive to the
growth of organisms. The well and plumbing are the most likely source of
bacterial contamination. Despite this potential problem, millions of
people in this country (the U.S.) drink untreated well water every day with
no ill effects. If you're worried about it, ask your local health
department if they will test your water. Alternatively, you can boil the
water for 10-15 minutes. I do this anyway as a means of pasteurizing the
honey. I don't boil the honey/water mixture, but boil the water, turn off
the heat and add the honey. A good reason to use groundwater is, as you
mention, that is has buffering capacity. In addition, many of the ions
dissolved in water are essential nutrients for yeast growth. Bottled water
can also have dissolved ions (read the label), but once you start filtering
water and certainly distilling it, you remove ions. One reason not to use
your well water is if you don't like the taste or smell of it. This
objectionable taste or smell may carry over into you mead. If this is the
case, I'd go with water from another source but one that hasn't been
filtered or distilled.
------------------------------
Subject: Must Aeration, Crystals, & Treacle Stout
From: "keithwwyse" <keithwwyse@ukonline.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 20:47:43 +0100
I'd like to thank Glen Pannicke for his note on yeast and it's like/dislike
of dissolved oxygen. This will make a big difference to my mead, since I
would have starved them otherwise. Cheers!
I wonder if anyone thinks it would be a reasonable idea to have a filtered
air pump, say an aquarium pump, push air through the must to give it a high
level of dissolved oxygen to begin with, before it is pitched? Would this
result in more/healthier yeasts, and so a better/more rapid brew? Has anyone
done experiments in this area?
I realise that the air contains bugs and dust which could contaminate the
must, so an elaborate set-up might be required for this, so it may only be
worth while for larger (over 5 gallon) batches. I remember seeing a
demonstration of apparatus which showed bugs and dust are in the air and
this used a U-tube. Possibly a carboy or large carbonated drinks bottle with
a siphon tube down the middle would remove a high percentage of the nasties,
before the air passes through the pump's own filters. Further, bubbling the
air through water might work better, thought the siphon tube under the water
would need to act as the intake.
Something to consider.
I'd like to throw in a little on the debate over crystals and mead, but
don't want to be flamed for it. It is just some hypothetical reasoning.
Particularly, I'd like to put this to "Brian Lundeen" <blundeen@rrc.mb.ca>
who holds a physics degree.
All biological systems emit some form of electrical (and hence magnetic)
signal, even at rest. Crystals are formed from nearly perfect regular
arrangements of atoms. So would it be a possible scenario that the regular
structure of the crystal 'filters' the electrical signals received from
biological organisms (possibly through resonance), and re-emits them, hence
encouraging harmonious fields and so experiences? In this way the different
structural characteristics of different crystals would produce different
experiences in the user. Would this extend to yeasts? Even though the yeasts
are not conscious would the sympathetic electrical field affect them in a
positive manner? There are many claims of people, even outside of crystal
beliefs, who seem to be more sensitive than most to such energies, which
might support the idea, though I can't claim that as proof. One such
tentative shred of evidence may come from the notion that immediately before
earthquakes the crust has been observed to emit electrical pulses, possibly
from the shearing of crystals in the rocks, which animals and some people
are able to feel.
I'd like also to tell you about one of my recent batches, Treacle Stout (or
Molasses Stout). Even though this does not have any honey in it at the
moment, I wanted to share the recipe with you, because I think it will
result in a very palatable equal to commercial versions.
Basically it is two pounds of treacle (molasses), heated to assist removal
from the container, with enough sugar to make the total weight up to 200g
(about half a pound). My treacle had a carbohydrate content of 64g per 100g,
and I assumed that half of that was higher sugars. This I have added to make
up a five litre bottle of mineral water, and left to settle a little. When I
looked in on it yesterday, it smelled strongly of liquorice and quite
unpleasant. But it did have some of the creamy swirly properties of comm.
versions. So in future batches I may have to add some honey to bring the
flavour around.
More as it happens.
Keith
Seeing the forest , not the trees.
------------------------------
Subject: Glucose - Rhodomel - Stainless Steel - Hydrometer conversions
From: Marc Shapiro <m_shapiro@bigfoot.com>
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 23:38:29 -0400
> Subject: Low alcohol mead
> From: "Pannicke, Glen A." <glen_pannicke@merck.com>
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 10:32:00 -0400
>
> To answer your question, I might need to ask one to the collective. Does
> anyone know the concentration of glucose in honey?
According to Dr. Eva Crane, in 'A Book of Honey', although the
constituents of honey and their concentrations vary from honey to honey,
the averages (of 1063 different honeys from around the world) for the
major constituents were:
Fructose: 38.560%
Glucose: 32.789%
Sucrose: 2.010%
Water: 17.168%
A chart with this information (and others) along with several other
charts detailing honey information can be found in the 'Honey Stats'
section reachable from the 'Personal Research' link on my web page (see
sig block below).
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #820, 27 August 2000
> From: Phil Clarke <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 06:55:34 -0700 (PDT)
>
> The Mead-Lovers FAQ mentions a rhodomel, a mead with
> rose petals. Has anyone ever made this? How many
> rose petals do you use in making it? And finally: if
> I were to make it, could I put a short-stemmed rose in
> a bottle of it as a decorative piece, or would it wilt
> and slowly dissolve?
I have made a rose petal wine, myself. It takes about a gallon of
loosely packed rose petals for a gallon of mead. I would use the same
for a rhodomel. This is a lot of petals. Please don't use petals from
a florist as you have no idea what they have been sprayed with.
Probably many things that you don't want to ingest. The safest way is
to grow your own, or know someone else who does, and don't use any
chemicals that you would not want to put in your own mouth.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: Ginger Braggot and Stainless Steel
> From: Arcturus <arcturus@cableregina.com>
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 14:32:39 -0600
>
> I have a question about my most recent batch: A Ginger Braggot.
>
> When I was adding the honey to the Dry Beer wort that had just finished
> on the stove, I was using a metal spoon (just your usual stainless steel
> kind) and accidentally dropped it into the Primary. I figured I'd just
> fetch it out later. Well, damned if I didn't forget the thing until
> today when I was doing my first racking! Is the spoon going to have
> added anything undesirable in the 12 days that it has sat in there?
Fortunately it was stainless. You should be OK.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: racking, campden and hygrometer chart
> From: "Linda Grant/Matthew Ransom" <spiritflight@kachina.net>
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 20:09:06 -0700
>
> Oh, I did find a hydrometer chart in a winemaking booklet I have ," Enjoy
> Home Winemaking: A guide for the beginner " by Crosby and Baker Books,
> Westport, Mass 02790. It shows the conversions for specific gravity, brix
> (balling), potential alcohol by volume and pounds/ounces of sugar in one
> U.S. gallon of water. Mark from Florida was in need of such a chart. There
> may be one on the web, but I haven't run across one yet.
Check out my web page. The calculations page has all of these
conversions available and may more, as well.
Marc Shapiro
m_shapiro@bigfoot.com
http://www.bigfoot.com/~m_shapiro/
------------------------------
Subject: Reply: Hallucinogenic Mead
From: "Anthony Torrez" <perpacity@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 09 Sep 2000 21:14:20 GMT
Reply: Hallucinogenic Mead
Nutmeg is hallucinogenic only in it's whole or freshly ground form. This is
because the active ingrediant, myristicin is a volatile oil. The volatile
oil is SLOWLY converted to MDA in the liver which was a pre-ecstasy drug
known as "Adam". Unfortunately Mysristicin and MDA are very neurotoxic and
can cause death by eating as little as 2-3 whole nutmegs. If it doesnt kill
you, it tends to produce a VERY toxic hangover which includes hours of
bloodshot eyes, lazinnes, nausea and vommiting. After you exeprience this,
you will never like the taste of nutmeg again.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #823
*******************************
