Mead Lovers Digest #0850

eZine lover (@eZine)

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Mead Lovers Digest

 · 7 months ago

Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #850, 28 May 2001 
From: mead-request@talisman.com 

 
Mead Lover's Digest #850                                  28 May 2001 

            Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming 
                      Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor 

Contents: 
  Competition Announcement ("Scott Stihler (AVO Analyst)") 
  Re:  At the start of fermentation (Phil) 
  Mead-O-Sweet (Kristinn Eysteinsson) 

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Subject: Competition Announcement 
From: "Scott Stihler (AVO Analyst)" <scott@giseis.alaska.edu> 
Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 09:04:18 -0800 (AKDT) 

Announcing the 4th Annual E.T. Barnette Homebrew Competition! 

This is an AHA sanctioned competition. 

 
The grand prize for Best of Show is $500!!! 

 
This year there will be a separate Class for Meads. 

Six Classes will judged: Mead, Dark Ale, Light Ale, Dark Lager, 
Light Lager, and Specialty/Mixed style. 

Great prizes and custom medals will be awarded to the 1st, 
2nd and 3rd place winners in each of the six judged Classes. 

Entries will be accepted: July 3-11, 2001 

Entry fees: Submit three 12-16 oz brown or green crown capped 
bottles and a check or money order for $5.00 in U.S. funds. 

Judging: The first round of judging will take place on July 13th. 
The date and time of the final, Best of Show round of judging 
is to be arranged once we know how many entries and judges we have. 

Location: Fox, Alaska (~10 miles north of Fairbanks) 

More information as well as Entry and Bottle ID forms may be found 
at the following URL: 

http://www.mosquitonet.com/~stihlerunits/ScottsDen/Beer/Events/Events.html 

Should you have any questions please contact Scott Stihler at (907) 474-2138 
or stihlerunits@mosquitonet.com. 

BJCP Judges are needed! 

Please forward this message to anybody you know that might be interested 
in either entering this competition or helping out with the judging. 

Cheers, 

Scott Stihler 
Fairbanks, Alaska 

------------------------------ 

Subject: Re:  At the start of fermentation 
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com> 
Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 12:44:24 -0700 (PDT) 

>I started my first batch of mead a week ago, mostly following the  
>basic procedure in Mad About Mead by Pamela Spence.  I'm using  
>an open fermenter as suggested in the text. According to the book,  
>I'm supposed to skim the surface foam daily "until the vigorous  
>activity slows and the foam begins to recede, usually after the fifth  
>day (more or less)," then siphon into a glass secondary fermenter.   

I've never read Mad About Mead, but IMHO, this sounds 
like a disaster in the making.  When brewing beer, you 
have that krausening/krausen foam-thing in a couple of 
hours.  This foam is a barrier that airborn yeasts 
can't get into.  You won't get this with a traditional 
mead.  The yeast works slower and you won't get that 
krausening/krausen foam-thing to protect the batch. 

In regards to skimming the foam for the first five 
days, you're only leaving yourself open for infection. 
 And when I make a (non-fruit flavored) mead, I don't 
any activity for the first four or five days. 

 
>Here's my problem: there is no foam and no vigorous activity. I have 
>no idea if it's doing what it should be doing. There are bubbles and  
>I can smell alcohol when I peek at it.   

It's definitely fermentation at this point, though 
who's to say what yeasts are in there, doing the work. 

Maybe I'm completely wrong about this, but I'm hearing 
bells and whistles in my head (and they're drowning 
out the voices).  Open fermentation for mead just 
doesn't seam right. 

You may want to pick up a copy of `Making Mead (Honey 
Wine)' by Roger Morse. 

 
Phil 

 

===== 
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website: 
http://www.pipeline.com/~dogglebe/nychg.html 

------------------------------ 

Subject: Mead-O-Sweet 
From: Kristinn Eysteinsson <kiddiey@ismennt.is> 
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 13:06:52 +0100 

I live in an area in Iceland where meadowsweet (Fillipendula Ulmaria) grows 
in abundance. The Icelandic name for this herb is mjadurt which means 
mead-herb. This is because the Vikings used it to flavor their mead. I 
would like to try making a meadowsweet metheglyn this summer. Has anyone on 
this list used meadowsweet in their meads? How much would you suggest I use 
and what is the best way of extracting the flavor (put it in the primary, 
boil it (make herb tea) or something else)? Also, what honey would you 
recomend?  

Kristinn Eysteinsson 
kiddiey@ismennt.is 

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #850 
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