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Mead Lovers Digest #0841
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #841, 8 March 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #841 8 March 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Commercial Meads (Vicky Rowe)
Plum seeds (trish entsminger)
champagne corks and mead (Peter Matra)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #840, 28 February 2001 (Potgold@aol.com)
Re: Commercial Meads (Phil)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #840, 28 February 2001 (David Chubb)
Operation: Shitloads o' mead (Phil)
Where to get bulk honey in Madison, WI (John Baxter Biggins)
sweet mead problems (JPullum127@aol.com)
Freddy Kruger, Jason, and my yeast... ("butcher")
Cloudy pear mead (Joyce Hersh)
Re: Stability of Honey (Dan McFeeley)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Commercial Meads
From: Vicky Rowe <gotmead@rcci.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 21:36:08 -0500
Subject: Commercial Meads
From: Russ Riley <russriley61999@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 06:50:20 -0800 (PST)
>I'm curious what some of your favorite commercial
>meads are. There aren't really many out there, and
>from what I've read, some brewers don't particularly
>like most of them. All I've had were Chaucer's (which
>I don't remember) and White Winter, a Wisconsin
>meadmaker (they've got some very good ones!). Any
>other's you'd recommend I try? If so, can they be
>ordered over the Internet (all I've seen around
>Chicagoland are the above; apparently Havill's Mazer
>Mead from New Zealand is excellent, but I can't find
>any). Thanks, and feel free to e-mail me directly.
I've had Chaucers (both the regular, and the boysenberry
they make in CA). The regular is ok, the boysenberry is
wonderful. White Winter is fab, I've been a fan of their
raspberry and blueberry for years. I've also had Bunratty
(ok), and the mead they make for the MD Renaissance
Faire and the Scarborough Renaissance Faire in Waxahachie,
TX. Both were excellent.
I've a list of the various meaderies around the world at
http://www.gotmead.com , and before you order, you should
check your state's laws for interstate shipping of wine at
http://www.winelaw.org or http://www.freethegrapes.org .
Quite a few states have draconian laws about shipping
wine into their state (I live in NC, its a felony offense),
so check first.
Vicky - who usually collects several varieties when she's in
CA each year, and barters with friends to find it for her
The Meadwench
------------------------------
Subject: Plum seeds
From: trish entsminger <trish-e@pacbell.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 19:00:09 -0800
I made a mead back in October with native yellow plums. I just threw in
the whole fruit, intending to transfer it within about 1 week. I forgot
about it and now it's been months. My concern is... do plum pits/seeds
contain arsenic or cyanide? Could the high alcohol level now present
leech out those minerals? Should I dump the whole batch? Is it safe?
Trish Entsminger
trish-e@pacbell.net
------------------------------
Subject: champagne corks and mead
From: Peter Matra <petermatra@mobile.att.net>
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 00:40:28 -0500
so I'm assuming you can't use wine bottles? they are not strong enough?
thanks
Peter Matra
www.petermatra.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #840, 28 February 2001
From: Potgold@aol.com
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 08:00:55 EST
In a message from: Lazurus106@aol.com
<< By the way if you make lots of mead or just like making very high quality
or
both! Hunt up and make friends with your local beekeeper. An afternoon's
help
last fall made me a friend a chance to learn beekeeping, and a lot of high
quality low priced honey. I'm hopeing to have a chance this spring at some
pumpkin blossom honey, almost water white and a very nice aroma.>>
I agree with the recommendation, but not the "pumpkin blossom honey."
Pumpkins have so few blossoms per acre that their nectar production keeps
bees just about in a maintenance mode (that is: they burn up the nectar about
as fast as they bring it in), and it would be a dark honey, if they ever
succeeded in storing a surplus. Look around for what else is blooming. Up
in your country, it could be clover or star thistle, or maybe something else,
but definitely NOT pumpkin.
Dave Green SC USA
The Pollination Home Page: http://pollinator.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Commercial Meads
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 06:22:15 -0800 (PST)
Re: Commercial Meads (Russ Riley)
The earle Estates Meadery, in Locke, NY, makes some
excellent meads, including an excellent cherry melemel
and blueberry melomel.
Phil
=====
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:
http://www.pipeline.com/~dogglebe/nychg.html
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #840, 28 February 2001
From: David Chubb <csu.vetmed@vt.edu>
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 09:24:28 -0500
>
>Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #839, 21 February 2001
>From: Nancy McAndrew <mcandrew_n@yahoo.com>
>Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 16:47:34 -0800 (PST)
>
>Jeff Zajac had a problem with a too dry lime mead. I
>often end up with very dry meads; mainly because I
>like them. I have found that when it becomes too dry,
>adding a little crystalized sugar (belgium sugar--NOT
>corn sugar obviously) it sweetens it right up and does
>not turn my bottles into time bombs. Just pitch it
>and let it dissolve, usually takes 16 hours or so, and
>bottle away.
>Good luck! Happy Fermenting!!
>
>~Nancy McAndrew
>Lynchburg, VA
Greetings from others in your area. :-) I have a batch of spiced
meade running right now and will be ready to do it's final racking in a
month or so.
>------------------------------
>
>Subject: Commercial Meads
>From: Russ Riley <russriley61999@yahoo.com>
>Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 06:50:20 -0800 (PST)
>
>I'm curious what some of your favorite commercial
>meads are. There aren't really many out there, and
>from what I've read, some brewers don't particularly
>like most of them. All I've had were Chaucer's (which
>I don't remember) and White Winter, a Wisconsin
>meadmaker (they've got some very good ones!). Any
>other's you'd recommend I try? If so, can they be
>ordered over the Internet (all I've seen around
>Chicagoland are the above; apparently Havill's Mazer
>Mead from New Zealand is excellent, but I can't find
>any). Thanks, and feel free to e-mail me directly.
>
>Russ
I have tried quite a few of the commercially available meade's. Of
all of them (if you can get it) I prefer the Lurgashall Meade. They are a
"winery" that makes nothing but meade and pear wine based in the UK (at
least that's all they export to the US). One of the others are Valhalla
Vineyards (based in Roanoke, VA) who produce a single batch a year and are
VERY hard to get bottles of. You might want to find some of the local
wineries and ask them if they do small specialty batches of meade (a lot do
them for Yule).
Personally I avoid Chaucer's like the plague since I don't think
they let they're meade age very much. I prefer the Lurgashall (and is what
I am shooting for with my batches) but it is expensive due to import taxes.
--David Chubb
Computer Technician/Network Liason
|========================|
| David P. Chubb
| VMRCVM Computer Tech
| Phase II Duckpond Dr.
| Virginia Tech
| Blacksburg, VA 24061
| Phone:(540) 231-7969
| E-mail: csu.vetmed@vt.edu
| Pager: (540) 557-9649 (digital)
| Fax: (540) 231-7367
|========================|
------------------------------
Subject: Operation: Shitloads o' mead
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 06:32:49 -0800 (PST)
My wife and I gave away splits of mead as wedding
favors last and, now, some friends have asked us to
make some for their wedding in October 2002. I'll be
making six gallon batches of cherry melomel, a pumpkin
pie metheglin, and a maple-flavored mead. We're
hoping the colors will work with the autmn theme of
the wedding. I'll also be making an 'emergency' six
gallon batch of traditional mead in case one of the
three batches is bad or needs blending.
I presently have four other carboys filled with
various meads that I've made in the past six months
(kiwi, strawberry, plum and a cherry/cinnamon)and one
that's ready to bottle (ginger/clove/cinnamon).
I won't be doing much beer brewing for a while as I'm
out of carboys. In fact, I'll be buying another one
just weekend just for this mead rush.
If anyone can offer any suggestions on how to make
things a little easier for me in the next two or three
weeks, I'd appreciate it.
Phil
=====
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:
http://www.pipeline.com/~dogglebe/nychg.html
------------------------------
Subject: Where to get bulk honey in Madison, WI
From: John Baxter Biggins <jbbiggin@med.cornell.edu>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 10:50:22 -0500
I'll be moving to Madison, WI & am wondering where to get bulk honey.
Wild honey from local apiaries is preferable. Any help appreciated.
Also...any mead makers in the MadCity area out there??? I've already
touched base w/ the homebrewing community, so anyone who digs on the
groovy vibe of the mead, contact me. Will be bringing a batch of my
own w/ me.
- --
John B. Biggins
Cornell University Medical College
Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Student -- Program in Pharmacology
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Laboratory for Biosynthetic Chemistry
Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
lab:(212)639-6405 fax:(212)717-3135
http://www.ski.edu/lab_homepage.cfm?lab=189
"Science, like Nature, must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation.
Given the same state of integrity
It will surely serve us well."
-- Neil Peart; Natural Science (III) -- Permanent Waves
------------------------------
Subject: sweet mead problems
From: JPullum127@aol.com
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 13:15:16 EST
approximatly 18 months ago i made a sweet mead with 1 1/2 gallons honey, a
little bit of yeast nutrient, no acid blend ect. i used wyeast sweet mead
yeast. i racked and tasted again last night. the gravity started @1.120.
gravity is now only 1.050. and it is really too swweet for my tastes. is
there something i can do such as adding another yeast(i really don't want to
go down to a really dry mead such as when i used champagne yeast in a dry
sparkling mead) or maybe some acid blend or something to counteract some of
the sweetness. maybe its supposed to be like this but i really don't want 5
gallons of the stuff as it is now.
------------------------------
Subject: Freddy Kruger, Jason, and my yeast...
From: "butcher" <butcher@drizzle.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 16:50:11 -0800
Hello List.
I have made a couple of cysers in the past 6 months. When I got to the
desired potentcy I dropped crushed sulfite tablets (following the package
directions of portions per gallon) in to the mixture and bottled the next
day. Within a month yeast was growing back to full strength and bottles of
apple mead were everywhere they shouldn't have been.
What is the *best* way to kill yeast?
Thanks,
Butcher
------------------------------
Subject: Cloudy pear mead
From: Joyce Hersh <msmead@doctorbeer.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 19:55:10 -0500
I had a similar problem when I made a pear mead. It was pectin. Just add
a drop or two of pectinase. I didn't even bother to agitate the mead. I
just added two drops, and the whole five gallons went clear in under 1 second.
Ahh, the power of enzymes.
- -- Joyce
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Stability of Honey
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 09:29:28 -0600
On Wed, 21 Feb 2001, in MLD 839, Nathan Kanous wrote:
>Aha, there's the kicker. Either the stuff stays forever (ala the Pyramids)
>or it disappears instantly. I think one critical issue is storage. Namely,
>keep it sealed. If honey is allowed exposure to the environment, it's much
>more likely to lose the aromatics than if it's hermetically sealed.
That's a good point -- honey is hydroscopic, i.e., it naturally absorbs
water from the air and has to be sealed off. This is one of the reasons
why honey is a good ingredient in baking. It absorbs water and helps
keep moisture in baked goods.
Storage temperature is also important. This might sound surprising,
but cellar temperatures are not the right range for storing honey.
Raw honey crystalizes most rapidly at about 57 degrees F. It has been
found, however, that storing honey at freezing temperatures protects it
against crystalization. Honey stored for 5 weeks at 32 degrees F was
found to resist crystalization for two years, even when kept at the
critical 57 degrees F where honey crystalizes most easily.
Crystalization and hydroscopicity are two factors that are critical in
fermentation of honey during storage. The yeast population in honey is
osmophillic, meaning, yeasts that are adapted to living in a high density
liquid environment. At about 17 percent water content or lower the yeasts
are inactive but when the water content rises above 17 percent, the yeasts
stir out of dormancy and begin to ferment the honey. This is not a good
thing -- these wild yeasts will spoil the honey, not make good mead.
Crystalization draws the sugars out of solution which then increases the
water content. Less sugar in solution means less density, i.e., more water.
More water, and the yeasts will stir into activity. If the honey is poorly
sealed or left open to the air, hydroscopicity will add even more water to
the honey, increasing the chance of fermentation. Bulging honey containers
are a sure sign to honey producers that the honey has spoiled from
fermentation.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #841
*******************************
