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Mead Lovers Digest #0831
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #831, 5 December 2000
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #831 5 December 2000
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #830, 24 November 2000 (Lazurus106@aol.com)
Re: Nonalcoholic beer and wine (BillPierce@aol.com)
Old Recipe Question ("phillipa jarrett")
Re: cider yeast (Steve Daughhetee)
RE: SO2 additions ("Brian Lundeen")
fining with bentonite (larryc@veriomail.com)
sack mead (Russ Riley)
Spices in metheglin (P-O Gustafsson)
Agave Nectar Anyone? ("Jayne & Steve Robb")
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: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #830, 24 November 2000
From: Lazurus106@aol.com
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 23:24:23 EST
Greetings friends,
I'm approaching bottling the first batch of peach/ purple loose striff
honey and it has the most beatiful very light amber ( with no clarifying
agents at all) with just the slighest peach color the first taste is a little
slight but pleasant then a tiny bit bitter but the last impression is a very
pleasant honey fruit with just a hint off sweet. It has all the feel off
something that will age nicely six months to year. And be very drinkable.
The only thing slowing me down now is that I don't have enough wine bottles
to get the job done.
The batch of Braggot is still also awaiting bottling in the carboy. I plan
on adding a little more sweet to carbonate it. So should I stick to its
natural sugars honey/malt or us corn sugar. the first two cannot change the
falvor but the corn sugar is very precise in its cabonating effect. So what
do use guys think?
Cheers,
Dutch
PS I'm supposed to get a care package of 200-250 ea 750 ml bottles. This
weekend so I should be able to progress shortly.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Nonalcoholic beer and wine
From: BillPierce@aol.com
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 00:48:15 EST
In MLD #830 Mike Hanson asks about making nonalcoholic beer and wine. I
don't know about nonalcoholic wine (isn't that really fruit juice?), but
there is some information about homebrewing nonalcoholic beer in the
following link:
http://hbd.org/brewery/Library.html#NABeer
The bottom line is that the process is rather difficult and the results not
necessarily equivalent to commercial products. Even the large brewers have
considerable trouble producing a palatable nonalcoholic beer. However, Mike
should read the information in the link above and judge for himself whether
it might be worth the effort.
Cheers!
- -- Bill Pierce
Cellar Door Homebrewery
Recently relocated to Salt Lake City, UT
------------------------------
Subject: Old Recipe Question
From: "phillipa jarrett" <eltee@ar.com.au>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 09:36:48 +1100
Greetings Fellow Brewers,
This is my first post. I haven't started brewing mead yet, but have
brewed plenty of beer. Our neighbour has hives so will be making mead in
the near future.
I am researching about a historical mead recipe and hope someone out
there can help out with ingredients and suggestions for suitable yeasts
to use.
The mead is called Brushka, the spelling may differ. It was brewed in
the Ukraine/China area. It was known to cause the drinker to be semi
paralysed in the legs after a few glasses. It is an old drink that was
brewed for 1000's(?) years. It was known as a health or tonic drink.
It was brewed using left over honey after the best honey was sold so
would have had twigs, cappings etc in it. It was brewed in wooden vats
with lids in cellars. Local wild hops were added and local herbs,
possibly mint and also some white bread. The brewers were adept at using
whatever was available. As it brewed mead was drawn off and consumed and
the vats topped up with fresh ingredients. After a few months the vats
were washed out and a fresh batch started.
I have searched some but not all of the digest archives without success.
Can anyone help with further details?
Cheers Phillipa
------------------------------
Subject: Re: cider yeast
From: Steve Daughhetee <sdd6@cornell.edu>
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 19:10:31 -0500
Bob asks:
>is cider yeast acceptable for mead? i have some cider that will be finishing
>up soon, and some honey. i'm thinking of pitching the honey into the yeast
>cake at the bottom of the primary. it's white labs cider yeast.
I have no experience with the White Labs cider strain, but I have had
good success fermenting meads on cider primary yeast. The large
inoculum produces a strong, clean fermentation. I have noticed a
slight apple flavor carrying over in the mead, but this is not
objectionable.
Steve Daughhetee
Trumansburg, NY
------------------------------
Subject: RE: SO2 additions
From: "Brian Lundeen" <blundeen@rrc.mb.ca>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:21:24 -0600
Dan Mcfeeley writes of SO2:
> For those who are looking for more specific guidelines, the potassium
> metabisulfate sold by Presque Isle yields 40 to 45 ppm per
> 1/4 teaspoon
> when added to five gallons. One campden tablet will
> contribute 75 ppm per
> gallon, their recommendations are 1/2 tablet per gallon.
Just to add on to what you wrote, Charles Plant has some excellent articles
on SO2 and the preparation and use of solutions, which are much easier to
work with if you don't have a precise gram scale for measuring out the
powder. They are at:
http://www.bcwine.com/vawa/technique.html
Cheers,
Brian
------------------------------
Subject: fining with bentonite
From: larryc@veriomail.com
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 18:56:42 -0800
I tried using Bentonite this last weekend to clear a mead that has
been in a glass carboy now for a total of about 6 months. The 2.5
gallon batch consisted of 7 pounds of local unfiltered and un
pasteurized wildflower honey, 1/2 cup of lemon juice, 1 tsp yeast
nutrients, and red star champagne yeast. This batch was fermented
over the peak of the summer heat which was as high as 100+F. It's
been sitting in the carboy now for about 2 months with no activity but
still not cleared. I made a slurry of the bentonite with 500 mls or so
of water and mixed it into the carboy 48 hours ago. It has settled to
the bottom of the carboy, but the mead is still cloudy. It tastes great
and I am about to give up on the clarity and just bottle it. Any
suggestions?
Larry Cazes
------------------------------
Subject: sack mead
From: Russ Riley <russriley61999@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 11:28:37 -0800 (PST)
I want to start out by saying that I just joined this
mailing list and that I'm really excited to be able to
interact with others who have interest in mead
brewing!
Anyway, I've been reading various mead websites
recently, and a mead recipe I've yet to come across is
a sack mead. I've only read a few past issues from
this digest, so if it's been covered here I've missed
it. However, various sites like The Bee's Lees and
others, which are loaded with recipes, haven't a one.
Has anyone ever brewed one before? The definition
seems pretty loose, but overall I'm imagining an
upwards of 4 lbs. honey per gallon, 15-20% abv,
knock-you-on-your-derriere type of drink. I'm curious
about what yeasts may be able to handle it, what
nutrients/buffers/other special considerations may be
necessary, etc.
Another aspect I've considered is if different flavors
emerge. Anyone who's ever tasted a good barleywine
know that high-gravity brewing can produce some really
interesting flavors, and I'm curious if this happens
with mead as well.
Also, what does a mazer look like? Any pictures of one
on the web?
Thanks,
Russ Riley
------------------------------
Subject: Spices in metheglin
From: P-O Gustafsson <beeman@algonet.se>
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 23:34:11 +0100
I'm just starting up meadmaking and have some basic questions on how to make
metheglins. To get some kind of reference I have made a number of 5 liter
batches with different ingredients. Basically they are hops, one hole
sliced lemon, ginger, and cinnamon. I'm using ale yeast in some, and
Wyeast dry mead in others.
I would appreciate some thoughts on the amount of spices and how they go
together. Also how to best get the flavour out of them. I boiled them all
together for 15 min, but I'm not sure that's the best way. Some aroma will
probably be boiled away, and it could be better to leave them in the must
for the first days of fermentation and then strain them off.
Some of the batches have boiled and skimmed honey, others I mixed it into
cold water. Too early to see much difference yet, but I think those not boiled
ferments slower. That is what you could expect when the enzymes are not boiled
out of the honey.
Any thoughts?
- --
Regards
P-O Gustafsson, Sweden
beeman@algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~beeman/
------------------------------
Subject: Agave Nectar Anyone?
From: "Jayne & Steve Robb" <robbjs@newbernnc.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 22:49:42 -0500
My local homebrew supply shop just got in some Agave nectar. Has anyone
experimented with using this stuff in a mead? If so, in what proportion to
the overall batch size? How did it turn out? To me, the raw nectar tastes
more like molasses than the tequila flavor I was expecting.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #831
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