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Mead Lovers Digest #0847
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #847, 1 May 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #847 1 May 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
A Meadmakers Library (Long!) (Dan McFeeley)
Re:My 1st & 2nd batches: some questions (Marc Shapiro)
Serendipity struck recently (NatanTgrei@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #846, 22 April 2001 (David Sherfey)
more CO2 ruminations ("Alan Meeker")
RE: My 1st & 2nd batches: some questions ("Dilley, Steve")
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #846, 22 April 2001 ("Kemp, Alson")
CO2 Blanket (Spencer W Thomas)
Lots of different stuff (Vicky Rowe)
Getting Started?? ("Jesse Hoover")
Raging raspberries (NLSteve@aol.com)
Mead Lover's Digest #846, 22 April 2001 (Dave Burley)
Raspberries (Gasco58@aol.com)
Pears and mead (Jane Beckman)
Correction (Terry Estrin)
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: A Meadmakers Library (Long!)
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 12:46:22 -0500
Hello all -- this is a list of references on meadmaking that I've posted
about from time to time on the Mead Lovers Digest. If anybody else
knows of some good sources that weren't included, let me know and I'll
add them in.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
I. MEAD AND MEADMAKING
Bryan Acton & Peter Duncan. _Making Mead_ Ann Arbor, Michigan: G.W. Kent
Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9619072-8-2
Brother Adam. _Mead_ International Bee Research Association, England.
(reprint of the article appearing in _Bee World_ 34(8): 149-156, 1953.
Available through Wicwas Press (Beekeeping Education Service, Wicwas
Press. P.O. Box 817E, Cheshire CT 06410-0817).
_The Magic of Mead_ (video) Steve Forrest (also featuring Robert Berthold,
Roger Morse, Frank Androczi) Copyright Dauenhauer Production, 1991.
Available through Wicwas Press.
Clara Furness. _Honey Wines and Beers_ Northern Bee Books
ISBN 0-907908-39-X May be available through Wicwas Press.
Robert Gayre/Charlie Papazian. _Brewing Mead: Wassail! In Mazers of Mead_
Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 1986. ISBN 0-937381-00-4
Roger A. Morse. _Making Mead_ Cheshire, Conn: Wicwas Press, 1980.
ISBN 1-878075-04-7
Aldo L. Persano - Hidromieles - historia, recetas y m?todos para su
elaboraci?n. Editorial Hemisferio Sur, 1987, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Harry Riches - Mead - Making, Exhibiting and Judging. Bee Books New & Old,
1997, Charleston, Cornwall, Great Britain. ISBN 0-905652-41-X.
Pamela Spence. _Mad About Mead!_ St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications,
1997. ISBN 1-56718-683-1
II. HONEY
Eva Crane. _A Book of Honey_ New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
ISBN 0-19-286010-0
Eva Crane. _Honey: A Comprehensive Survey_ New York: Crane, Russak &
Company, Inc., 1975, ISBN 0-8448-0062-7
Dadant & sons, editors. _The Hive and the Honey Bee_ Hamilton, Illinois:
Dadant & Sons, 1975.
III. OTHER RESOURCES WITH SECTIONS ON MEADMAKING
Sanborn C. Brown. _Wines & Beers of Old New England_ Hanover, New
Hampshire: The University Press of New England, 1978.
ISBN 0-87451-148-8
Terry Garey. _The Joy of Home Winemaking_ New York: Avon Books, 1996.
ISBN 0-380-78227-8
Hagen, Ann. A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food: Processing and Consumption.
Published by Anglos Saxon Books, England. 1993. (c)1992 Ann Hagen
Hagen, Ann. A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink: Production &
Distribution. Published by Anglos Saxon Books, England. 1995. (c)1995
Ann Hagen
Patrick Higgins, Maura Kate Kilgore, Paul Hertlein. _The Home Brewers
Recipe Guide_. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992.
ISBN 0-684-82921-5
M. A. Jagendorf. _Folk Wines, Cordials, and Brandies_ New York: The
Vanguard Press, Inc., 1963.
Charlie Papazian. _The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing_ New York: Avon
Books, 1984, 1981. ISBN 0-380-76366-4
Charlie Papazian. _The Home Brewers Companion_ New York: Avon Books, 1994.
ISBN 0-380-77287-6
Pattie Vargas and Rich Gulling. _Country Wines_ Pownal, Vermont: Storey
Communications, 1992. ISBN 0-88266-749-1
IV. HISTORICAL SOURCES
Cindy Renfrow. _A Sip Through Time: A Collection of Old Brewing Recipes_
1994. Published by the author, Sussex, New Jersey, 1994."
ISBN 0-9628598-3-4
Lady Arwen Evaine fert Rhys ap Gyynedd. _The Compleat Anachronist
Handbook of Brewing_ Number 5, March 1983. (Available through The
Society for Creative Anachronism, SCA Marketplace, P.O. Box 360789,
Milpitas, CA 95036-0789)
Hieatt, Constance B., and Sharon Butler. _Curye on
Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth
Century (Including the Forme of Curye)._ Early English Text
Society. Second Series 8. London: Oxford UP, 1985.
Hajek, Hans. ed. _Daz Buch von Guter Spise: Aus der
Wuerzburg-Muenchner Handschrift._ Texte des Spaten
Mittelalters, Heft 8. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1958.
A translation is also available on the web at
http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/akatlas/Buch/buch.html
Major, Charles Tidmarsh. _An Edition of Reynolds MS 1._
Diss. U. of Georgia, 1999. Fourteenth century English manuscript
which includes a collection of Middle English household and
medical recipes as well as a recipe for mead and metheglin.
Parts (including the mead recipe) are available at
http://www.uab.edu/reynold.
Marc Shapiro. _Alcoholic Drinks of the Middle Ages_ Number 60, March 1992.
(Also available through the Society for Creative Anachronism, see above)
Note -- there is a bibliography for Medieval/Rennaissance brewing
and vinting available at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/brewing.html
Many of these texts have sections on meadmaking.
V. GENERAL INTEREST
Eva Crane. _The Archaeology of Beekeeping_ New York: Cornell University
Press, 1983. ISBN 0-80140-1609-4
Gene Ford. _The Benefits of Moderate Drinking: Alcohol, Health & Society_
San Francisco: Wine Appreciation Guild, 1988. ISBN 0-932664-60-1
D. E. Le Sage. _Bees in Indo-European Languages_ International Bee
Research Association, England. (reprint from _Bee World_ 55: 15-26,
46-52, 1974)
Claude Levi-Strauss. _From Honey to Ashes_ New York: Harper & Row,
Publishers.
Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin. _Drinking in America: A History_
New York: The Free Press, 1982, 1987. ISBN 0-02-918570
Jarich G. Oosten. _The War of the Gods_ Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1985. (Chapters 4 and 5 cover Indo-European mythic cycles centering
around mead)
Hilda Ransome. _The Sacred Bee_ New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1937.
(May be available through Wicwas Press)
VI. WINE AND WINEMAKING REFERENCES
Leon Adams. _The Wines of America_ San Francisco: McGraw Hill, 1990.
Stanley Anderson & Dorothy Anderson. _Winemaking_ New York: Harcourt
Brace & Company, 1989. ISBN 0-15-697095-3
C. J. J. Berry. _First Steps in Winemaking_ Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1987.
ISBN 0-900841-83-4
Roger B. Boulton, Vernon L. Singleton, Linda F. Bisson, Ralph E. Kunkee.
_Principles and Practices of Winemaking_ New York: Chapman Hall, 1996.
ISBN 0-412-06411-1
Peter Duncan and Bryan Acton. _Progressive Winemaking_ Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
1967. ISBN 0-900841
Hugh Johnson. _Hugh Johnson's How to Enjoy Wine_ New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1985. ISBN 0-671-72459-2
Hugh Johnson. _Vintage: The Story of Wine_ New York: Simon and Schuster,
1989. ISBN 0-671-68702-6
G. W. Kent, publisher. _The Complete Handbook of Winemaking_ Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 1993. ISBN 0-9619072-2-3
Yair Margalit. _Winery Technology and Operations: A Handbook for
Small Wineries_ San Francisco: The Wine Appreciation Guild, 1990.
ISBN 0-932664-66-0
Emile Peynaud. _Knowing and Making Wine_ New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1984. ISBN 0-471-88149-X
Bruce W. Zoecklein, Kenneth C. Gugelsang, Barry H. Gump, Fred S. Nury.
_Wine Analysis and Production_ New York: Chapman Hall, 1995.
ISBN 0-412-98921-2
VII. ARTICLES
Brother Adams. "The Art of Making Mead." _Zymurgy_ vol. 10, no. 5,
Winter 1987.
Tracy Aquilla. "The Biochemistry of Yeast." _BrewingTechniques_
vol. 5, no. 2, March/April 1997.
Pat Baker. Barkshack Gingermead in Wonderful world of worts. _Zymurgy_
January 4, 1979.
Benjamin Smith Barton. "Some Account of the Poisonous and Injurious
Honey of North America." _Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society of North America_ vol. 5, 1802.
Seving Biberoglu, MD, et. al. "Mad Honey." _Journal of the American
Medical Association_ vol. 259, no. 13, April 1, 1988.
Ralph Bucca. Stalking the wild meads. _Zymurgy_ Summer 1993.
Byron Burch. "Making Sense of Making Mead." _Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
George Clayton Cone. "The Basics Of Mead Fermentation."
http://www.lallemand.com/brew/inferment/InFerment/Archive.htm
Steve Dellasala. "How to Judge Meads." _Zymurgy_ vol. 23 no 2
March/April 2000.
James H. Dickson. "Bronze Age Mead." _Antiquity_, LII 1978.
F. Filippello, G. L. Marsh, W. V. Cruess. "Suggested Directions for
Making Honey Mead." _American Bee Journal_ vol 75, September 1935.
James W. Johnston, jr. and Chevy Chase. "The Mead Maker Uses Herbs."
_The Herbalist_ vol. 39, 1973.
R. W. Kime, M. R. Mclellan and C. Y. Lee. "Ultra-Filtration of Honey
for Mead Production." _American Bee Journal_ vol. 131, no. 8,
August 1991.
Brad Kraus. "When Mazers and Mashers Meet: The Magic of Brewing with Honey."
_Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
Kenneth Lampe, PhD. "Rhodendrons, Mountain Laurel, and Mad Honey."
_Journal of the American Medical Association_ vol. 259, no. 13,
April 1, 1988.
Bill Litzinger. Mead Making: The most Ancient Art of Brewing. _Zymurgy_
Winter 1984, pages 24-25.
Jim Martella. "It's Been A Pleasure Meading You: An International
Meadery Tour." _Zymurgy_ vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1996.
Adrienne Mayor. "Mad Honey!" _Archaeology_ vol. 48, no. 6, November/
December 1995.
Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm. "An Analysis of Mead, Mead Making and the
Role of its Primary Constituents."
http://www.eklektix.com/gfc/mead/danspaper.html.
Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm. "Mead Success: Ingredients, Processes
and Techniques." _Zymurgy_ vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1995.
Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm. "Mastering Mead Formulation: The Art and
Science of the Sacred Honey Brew." _Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
Gabe Mirkin, MD. "Side Effects of Raw Honey." _Journal of the American
Medical Association_ vol. 266, no. 19, November 20, 1991.
Alan Moen. "From Glorious Obscurity to Modern Production: The Buzz about
Mead.
_Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
Roger Morse and Keith Steinkraus. "Wines from the Fermentation of Honey;"
Eva Crane, _Honey: A Comprehensive Survey_ New York: Oxford University
Press, 1980. ISBN 0-19-286010-0
Clifford T. Newman Jr. Mead making - honey 'champagne' or 'wine'. _Zymurgy_
Spring 1986.
Charlie Papazian. New Zealand Honey Mead. _Zymurgy_ Winter 1984.
Charlie Papazian. Prickly Pear Cactus Mead. _Zymurgy_ Summer 1987.
Susanne Price. "Stimulate Your Senses with Mead." _Zymurgy_ Fall 1992.
Russell Schehrer. In Mead We Trust. _Zymurgy_ Fall 1991.
Shadan. "The Making of Melomels and Flower Metheglins." _Tournaments
Illuminated_, Spring A.S. XXII no. 82.
C. L. Stong. "The Amateur Scientist" _Scientific American_ vol. 227,
no. 3, September 1972. (This column features a lengthy reprint from
one of Roger Morse's publications on meadmaking)
Patricia Telesco. "Brewing With Flowers." _The Herb Quarterly_
no. 74, Summer 1997.
Spencer Thomas. "The Magic of Mardi Gras Mead." _Zymurgy_ vol. 20, no. 1,
Spring 1997.
VIII. WEB LINKS (note -- web sites come and go. Some of these
links may no longer be available or have moved elsewhere.)
http://www.circus.com/~omni/mead.html
The Mead Brewing Archive
http://www.persocom.com.br/api-df/apidf.htm
API-DF HIDROMEL MEAD MAKERS - aBrazilian apicultural association
with a page on meadmaking (in Portuguese).
http://www.apiservices.com/apimondia/apimondia_us.htm
Apimondia - Beekeeping - Home page
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/mead-msg.html
Stefan's Florilegium:Making mead. Honey base...
http://hbd.org/brewery/gambmug/toc/gm.5_1.toc.html
Gambrinus' Mug - The Brewery's Recipe Exchang...
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1265/cwine.html
Alcoholic Drinks of theMiddle Ages - Wine
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1265/calcohol.html
Alcoholic Drinks of theMiddle Ages
http://members.home.net/bcawa/
British Columbia Amateur WinemakersAssociation
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/brewing.html
Medieval/Renaissance Brewing Homepage
http://www.apiculture.com/opida/opida_us.htm
O.P.I.D.A. - Beekeeping
http://www.mygale.org/00/gilde/ Gilde Braban?onne
A French brewing and vintning club.
http://www.virtualcommunity.com/fruitwine/more.html
Fruit Winemaking Quarterly
http://www.bcwine.com/vawa/usingso2.htm
VAWA - Using Sulphur Dioxide To Protect Wine
http://www.netsonic.com/rthomas/whitewinter/meads.html
White Winter Winery - Iron River, WI - MEADS
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/ibra/
International Bee Research Association
http://hbd.org/brewery/cm3/index.html
The Cat's Meow
http://www.eklektix.com/gfc/mead/mead.html
The Meadmakers Page
http://hbd.org/brewery/MHall.html
Mead Hall
http://www.inetone.net/mshapiro/
The Meadery
http://www.nhb.org
The National Honey Board
http://members.aol.com/renfrowcm/links.html
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/
Cindy Renfrow's homepages
http://hbd.org/atommash/goodies.html
Michael Hall's goodies page -- an article on meadjudging is there, also
a mead scoresheet and mead brewing logs.
------------------------------
Subject: Re:My 1st & 2nd batches: some questions
From: Marc Shapiro <m_shapiro@bigfoot.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 19:21:48 -0400
Jay Swartzfeger <jswartzfeger@home.com> wrote:
> My first batch is a 1 gallon batch using 2.5# of local (Arizona) desert
> bloom honey and champagne yeast. I didn't boil-- I heated the must just
> enough to make the honey easily dissolve while I stirred. It's pretty much
> a straightforward mead except for the few cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks I
> threw in. It's been bubbling nicely for a week now, and I'm probably
> getting a bubble every 6-7 seconds or so in the airlock.
>
> I have 2 questions about my 1st batch.
>
> 1) After a week in primary, I have a very fine layer of sediment on the
> bottom (probably between 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch thick). How long can my
> primary sit atop this sediment? I've read lots of different things... do I
> wait until my fermentation has slowed considerably? Wait a week? A month?
I leave my mead in the primary until it has virtually finished
fermentation. When the bubbles through the airlock are down to one per
minute, or less, I rack into a clean carboy. I wouldn't worry about
that thin layer of sediment. If the sediment gets to over 3/4 of an
inch then you may want to rack as long as the bubbling has slowed down.
For a simple metheglin, like yours, it could take a while before
fermentation winds down, you might want to add some yeast nutrient and a
pinch (like 1/16 teaaspoonor less) of epsom salts to perk up your yeast
some.
> 2) Based on the general ingredients/techniques listed above, does it look
> like my first batch will run on the dry side? That's what I'm looking for,
> but now I'm worried it may run too dry/hot because of the champagne yeast.
If all goes well and you do not get impatient you should certainly get a
dry mead.
> My second batch... wow, what a wonderfully terrifying experience it's been.
> :)
>
> I decided to try a Raspbery Melomel, this time in my newly acquired 3 gal.
> carboy. My 3 gallon batch used 10# of Arizona desert light amber honey, 3#
> of frozen raspberries, the juice from 1 lemon and a packet of champagne
> yeast. Unlike the first time, I had a yeast starter going a few hours
> before I even started on the must ... Like an
> idiot, I forced all 3# of raspberries through the narrow neck of the
> carboy ... I let the must cool a bit and then poured it
> on top of the berries sitting on the bottom of the carboy. Pitched the
> yeast, aerated/shook like a madman and then attached the airlock. BTW, I
> left a few inches of headspace, because I had a sneaking suspicion that it
> would quickly fill (which it did, even more than I expected).
The yeast starter was a very good idea. You should always use a
starter. It assures you that your yeast is not dead and gets your
fermentation off to a healthier, more rapid start.
> The first surprise was that the berries were floating on the top... I don'
> t know why, but I had expected them to sit on the bottom.
>
> The second surprise was when I checked on my batch 3 hours later-- the
> headspace I left in the carboy were now GONE! The raspberries were now
> pushing dangerously close to the bottom of the stopper. I very carefully
> carried the jug and placed it in my bathtub (I figured an explosion would
> be much easier to clean up in my tub than in the laundry room). I left the
> room for a few minutes to consider my options, then came back in to
> discover that the water in my airlock was now a deep reddish/purple! Ok, I
> was freaking at this point. :) I quickly sanitized a fork, carefully
> removed the airlock and began to fish out chunks of raspberries. I
> basically used instinct, taking out what I thought was 'enough' to leave
> this monstrosity room to grow.
Melomels ferment more rapidly than traditional meads do. They also age
quicker, so they are ready to drink much sooner. Your instincts were
correct. Moving the carboy to the bathtub when you first saw that the
airspace was diminishing was a step that many new meadmakers don't think
of. You saved yourself quite a mess that way. As for fishing out the
raspberries, it was your only option at that time, otherwise you would
have had raspberry must overflowing into your bathtub. You done good.
Next time you will know to leave more airspace as the top when starting
a melomel. Make up just as much must, just keep about half a gallon out
so that you can add it latter, once the initial fermentation slows down.
> I've been keeping a close watch on it, and I'm happy to report that my
> batch is behaving quite nicely now. However, I can't believe how ACTIVE
> this thing is. It's like a living/breathing/undulating fermenting bubble
> monster! My first batch glubbed once every 6 seconds or so; this beast is
> glubbing once a second (or more) in the airlock.
This is all normal. DON'T PANIC!
> Ok, now my questions on the second batch:
>
> 1) Is it an issue that the raspberries are sitting on top of my whole
> batch? Will they eventually drop to the bottom?
Probably some of both.
> 2) Based on my ingredients (about 3.3# honey per gallon, juice of 1 lemon,
> pasteur's champagne yeast), will this turn out semi-dry?
Most likely. It could still turn out dry, however, champagne yeast has
a fairly high alcohol tolerance.
> 3) Will my finished product lack aroma because I used the fruit in the
> primary?
I always put my fruit in the primary.
> 4) Has anyone ever used fruit in both the primary and secondary?
>
> 5) I fear that once I rack into my secondary, the absence of all that
> fruit will leave a LOT of extra space in my carboy. Do I fill that extra
> space with spring water (which could dilute it)? Do I throw in some extra
> honey? Am I worrying too damn much? :)
You could use water with a little honey. If you can find raspberry
juice you could mix some of that with the water. You could also use
apple juice, or white grape juice to top it up. Don't worry too much,
though. So far your instincts have been good.
The one thing which COULD pose a problem: How thoroughly did you crush
the raspberries? Are you likely to have crushed the seeds? Most
berries with external seeds can impart a bitterness if the seeds are
crushed and left to remain in the fermenting must. Crushing lightly, so
as to avoid crushing the seeds is the way to do it. If you can then
press out the juice and leave the pulp behind, even better, but this
requires more fruit to start with and should not really be necessary as
long as care is taken to avoid crushing the seeds.
HTH
Wassail!
- --
Marc Shapiro "If you drink melomel every day,
m_shapiro@bigfoot.com you will live to be 150 years old,
Please visit "The Meadery" at: unless your wife shoots you."
http://www.bigfoot.com/~m_shapiro/ -- Dr. Ferenc Androczi, winemaker,
Little Hungary Farm Winery
------------------------------
Subject: Serendipity struck recently
From: NatanTgrei@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 03:45:48 EDT
Hi Guys and Girls,
Just recently I was starting a metheglin with a variety of honeys in it and
discovered something that made it the heating and skimming process MUCH
easier and less timeconsuming. Let me give a little background about it.
My brother sent me a bunch of honey for Christmas some was from the western
slopes of Colorado(where he lives) some was from Florida but was so
completely unprocessed it still had the honey comb in it. The Colorado honey
was in the stockpot and beating heating when I decided to throw some of the
raw honey into the batch and see what flavors it would lend to the mix. The
serendipity was the fact that the raw honey which I had just finished heating
and mostly skimmed off the wax from seemed to reduce the amount of time it
took to skim off the foam that normally riseswhen youre heating the honey
water mixture. This time it took only about an hour and half before the must
started going "chocolatey". Which is the point at which I turn off the heat
and start the process of letting it cool for pouring into the carboy the next
day. The previous batch I had done was a Blueberry melomel that took me over
4 hours to skim and get to the point of being chocolatey.
My questions then are:
1) Has anybody else ever noticed a reduced time to skim while using honey
with the honeycomb still in it?
2) Any ideas on why and how it worked?
3) Has anyone ever added beeswax or parrafin wax to their must as an aid to
skimming?
It seemed to me that the remaining wax in there grabbed the majority of the
remaining particulate matter and facilitated easy removal. A couple of my
brewing friends were terribly intrigued by how much time and effort it saved.
Any comments on this idea?
Thanks for your time
Nathan Corkill
(known in the SCA as Thorkell Robertsson)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #846, 22 April 2001
From: David Sherfey <sherf@warwick.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 06:00:11 -0400
Joyce writes;
>Well, after a long hiatus, I am finally ready to begin brewing again. I
>have been thinking of trying the Wyeast Sweet and Dry mead yeasts. Does
>anyone have any data on how much sugar these yeasts will chew up?
I asked Wyeast this question two years ago and this is what I was told;
3632, "Dry" will ferment to 13 - 15% alcohol at a temperature range of 55 -
78F. Per this spec., with adequate nutrients, a honey/water must of 1.095
to 1.110 Starting gravity can finish completely dry with this yeast.
3194, "Sweet" will ferment to around 10% alcohol at a temperature range of
65 - 78F. This yeast was described by them as "more like a beer
yeast." Per this spec., with adequate nutrients, a must of around 1.080 SG
can finish completely dry with this yeast.
Higher gravities than mentioned above will, of course, sweeten the finished
product.
I have never used these yeasts, but others have and some have posted here
about them. I have heard widely varying results with the "sweet" yeast,
and tend to believe them.
David Sherfey
Warwick, NY
------------------------------
Subject: more CO2 ruminations
From: "Alan Meeker" <ameeker@mail.jhmi.edu>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 09:31:50 -0400
Kevin asks about the "CO2-push" method for siphoning.
>Could you describe how you do this process? I would
>like to know for I worry about contamination in the
>siphon process, as well as looking for convient ways
>of CO2ing..
I brew using 3-6 gallon glass carboys. When I need to move liquid from the
carboy to another, or to a bottling bucket, I now use positive pressure from
a small CO2 tank to purge containers and to get siphons started. To start
siphons I use one of those inexpensive plastic orange carboy caps that are
sold in many homebrew stores/mail order houses. These fit snugly over the
mouth of the carboy and have two small holes on the top. You slide a racking
cane through one of the holes and I connect the other to my CO2 tank's
regulator via a short length of plastic tubing. When it is time to start the
siphon all you need do is pressurize the inlet of the cap with a small
amount of CO2 pressure and voila - the flow begins. I've found this to be a
very convenient and sanitary method for starting siphons. All the pieces are
plastic (cap, hoses, racking cane) and so I just keep them in a
chlorine-water bath till they are needed and give them a quick rinse with
hot tap water prior to use. Purging the receiving container prior to
siphoning lets me worry less about possible oxygen pick up during rackings.
One small word of caution for anyone using this method - it doesn't take
much pressure to get the siphon started so you don't need to crank up the
CO2 very much. You are setting up something close to a closed system and,
although I'd be willing to bet that the plastic cap or the hose connection
would give first, I suppose there is some /small/ risk of breaking the
carboy from pressure build-up. Just be careful and use common sense!
"Shaggyman" wrote in part...
>Shaggyman still contends that CO2 is an effective and cheap way to keep
>oxygen out. I have a degree in law enforcement, not physics, but my
chemist
>spouse and taster says it should be obvious that a liquid is not going to
>absorb a gas and LOWER the pressure in a closed vessel, thus sucking in
air.
>The gas will only go into solution in a significant amount under pressure
in
>excess of ambient.
Sorry Shag, but your spouse is wrong on this one. An unsaturated water-based
liquid will indeed absorb CO2 and, in a closed container this will result in
a partial vacuum. In fact, I just conducted a little experiment that anyone
with a CO2 tank can try for themselves and see this phenomenon in action: I
took a 2 liter glass bottle and put 1 L of water in it. Then I purged the
airspace with CO2 from a CO2 tank for about 20 seconds effectively
exchanging the air in airspace with CO2. Then I quickly sealed the bottle
with parafilm (a rubber glove, balloon, or even Saran Wrap should also
work). Then I gently swirled the water to increase the surface area
promoting the CO2 going into solution and the seal was rapidly sucked down
into the bottle, eventually popping! Pretty dramatic demonstration of the
formation of the vacuum.
/Unsaturated/ water will absorb something on the order of 1-2 volume
equivalents of CO2 when the CO2 is applied at 1 atmosphere (1 ATM) of
pressure. This means that if you have 1 liter of liquid and 2 liters of head
space filled with CO2 at ambient pressure and you seal it the liquid will
want to absorb much of this CO2. This is what Dave Burley was trying to warn
against - the fact that if you did this and your barrier is was a
water-filled airlock the partial vacuum created could cause a "suck-back" of
airlock water and air into the container. As I mentioned previously, the
reason this is /not/ typically a problem when using CO2 "blankets" to
exclude oxygen in brewing is that your fermented beer or mead is /already/
saturated with CO2 due to all the CO2 generated by the yeast during primary
fermentation, thus little if any of the CO2 blanket will get absorbed. I've
used this method many many times and never encountered a problem with it.
- -Alan Meeker
Baltimore, MD
------------------------------
Subject: RE: My 1st & 2nd batches: some questions
From: "Dilley, Steve" <Steve.Dilley@pegs.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 08:56:46 -0700
Jay - there are 2 home brewing clubs in Phoenix that have members brewing a
lot of mead:
http://www.brewarizona.org/
http://www.azbrewers.com/
I'll give a shot at answering some of your questions:
First batch questions
1) I haven't found it a problem to leave it in the primary for a LONG time.
I tend to bottle from primary because I'm lazy; I don't rack until I need
one of the bigger carboys. Anecdotal evidence - 2 friends split a 10 gallon
batch of a medium ginger mead. Friend A(Anita) forgot about it and left it
in primary for a year. Friend B definitely racked it to secondary within a
month and probably racked it again. We never had a side by side taste test
comparison but both were very good. Anita entered hers into a local contest
(Great AZ Beer Festival) where it won 2nd place in meads (should have won
1st place). My advise would be to listen to everything with a grain of salt
and then do what makes you feel best.
2) dry side
Second batch questions
1) I don't see how it could matter if the raspberries are floating on the
top or are down at the bottom. I haven't done a batch with raspberries yet
but my blueberry batch they stayed at the bottom most of the time. A pear
batch they definitely moved around (I think started on the top and moved to
the bottom).
2) 3.3# honey per gallon and champagne yeast would be leaving dry and
approaching medium.
3) (Will my finished product lack aroma because I used the fruit in the
primary?) You would probably have more aroma if you had added the fruit in
the secondary. I haven't put any in at the secondary yet but will next time
- - for a blueberry I used over 3# blueberry per gallon in primary and was
disappointed that the flavor and aroma didn't SHOUT blueberry - was a good
batch but I was thinking I would get more blueberry flavor/aroma than I got.
4) I haven't used fruit in both primary and secondary yet. Although last
night I racked a ginger mead (3# honey per gallon, 4 oz ginger, champagne
yeast, semi-dry, very drinkable at this point) from primary onto 3.5# honey
and 1.6 pounds ginger. I tasted a dry mead 3 weeks ago that was almost
undrinkable because of that ginger burn (he said that he had used pounds of
ginger) and was thinking that if it had been sweeter it would be quite good.
So I am giving that a try.
5) I don't worry about that extra space after racking.
I understand what you said about filling 1000 carboys if you had them - I
have 7 going now, plans for starting 3 more in the next week but only have 2
more carboys. Maybe my wife won't notice if more suddenly appear...
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #846, 22 April 2001
From: "Kemp, Alson" <alson@corp.cirrus.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 10:44:47 -0700
>Subject: YWyeast-3184 and low pH
>From: Mark Ottenberg <mark@riverrock.org>
>Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 22:08:32 -0600
>This time I used what was locally available, Wyeast 3184 -- Sweet Mead
>Yeast. Has anyone else had problems with this yeast?
I've had only bad luck with "mead" yeasts. I have not used the
Wyeast yeast, but I have tried White Labs mead yeasts before with super
stuck fermentations. Low, low pHs are generally the culprit. I have 3
1-gallon mead batches going right now and TRIED to use a WLP sweet mead
yeast. It didn't even start. I wound up using Lalvin K1V-1116 (after 2
months, flowery aromas are retained, this gallon is nearly drinkable!),
Lalvin ICQ D-47 (after 2 months, this gallon is alcoholic, not very flowery
and harsh) and RedStar Premier Cuvee (this gallon is alcoholic, not very
flower, harsh and smells very faintly of diapers). All 3 wine yeasts
fermented vigorously and to completion.
>I am about to try adding something to raise the pH, but don't remember what
>to use. Calcium Carbonate should work, but in my stupor from the current
(I'm about to launch into a discussion of pH when I know about 10%
of what I should)
The addition of CaCO3 will certainly knock some of the acid out of
solution, but it might not affect your pH too much. The total acid (TA) of
a solution is the total amount of acid in solution. The pH is that portion
of the TA that has dissociated into H+ and (other molecule). Adding CaCO3
will bind up some of the TA and cause it to precipitate. Then some TA will
dissociate and pH will drop again. Fermentation will stop, more CaCO3 is
added, fermentation stops, more CaCO3, etc. Eventually, TA is very low and,
of course, pH rises. At least this is what happened to me...
pH is a function of how much TA is in solution, the volatility of
the acids and what buffering compounds are in solution. Obviously, the more
HCl you add, the lower the pH drops. The same weight of citric acid added
to a solution will not cause the pH to drop as much as with HCl. Citric
acid does not dissociate very well, so even though you have a lot of acid in
solution, the pH might not be very low.
What we really need is a buffering compound which will stay in
solution and moderate pH fluctuations. Honey has very little buffering
ability. Roger Morse (buy Morse's mead book) recommends 5 grams of Cream of
Tartar per gallon of mead. I think that this is a salt and helps buffer the
solution.
Adding CaCO3 will remove TA (of course) and could lead to an insipid
mead with no sourness/bite.
Alson Kemp
alson@corp.cirrus.com
------------------------------
Subject: CO2 Blanket
From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer@engin.umich.edu>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 14:35:30 -0400
Well, Lane, your chemist spouse (and your intuition) is (mostly)
wrong.
Try this experiment:
Get a 2 liter bottle. Fill it 1/2 way with water. Purge the rest
with CO2. Cap the bottle. Shake, shake, shake. (Note: shaking is
not required, it just makes things happen more quickly.) Notice how
the bottle caves in, because the CO2 is absorbed into the water.
Now, if the water was already saturated with CO2, so it can't dissolve
any more, then, yes, it won't absorb any more.
The key here is that CO2 is highly soluble in water (and thus mead).
Its solubility increases sharply as the temperature drops, too. So
that a solution that is saturated at 70F will absorb a significant
quantity of CO2 if it is chilled to 50F.
A page at "The Brewery"
(http://brewery.org/brewery/library/CO2charts.html) has this formula:
P = -16.6999 - 0.0101059 T + 0.00116512 T^2 + 0.173354 T V
+ 4.24267 V - 0.0684226 V^2
P is pressure in PSIG (pressure above 1atm),
T is temperature in Fahrenheit
V is "volumes" of CO2 dissolved (1 "volume" is 2grams of CO2 per
liter)
Thus, at 70F and atmospheric pressure, water will dissolve 0.7 volumes
of CO2 (1.4 grams per liter). At 50F and atmospheric pressure, it
will hold 1.1 volumes of CO2, or 0.4 volumes more than at 70F. If the
volume of liquid was, say, 10 liters, then 8 additional grams of CO2
would (eventually) dissolve into it. This is approximately 4 liters
of CO2 gas at that temperature. This could be the entire headspace in
a mostly-full carboy.
=Spencer Thomas in Ann Arbor, MI (spencer@umich.edu)
------------------------------
Subject: Lots of different stuff
From: Vicky Rowe <rcci@mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 14:35:26 -0400
Sorry about the long post, I'm responding to a bunch of
posts......
>Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #845, 10 April 2001
>From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 08:28:12 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
> > Has anyone tried a make a fake-cask conditioned beer
> > or mead by
> > trying to replicate the cask flavor by adding...say,
> > bourbon or
> > sherry to the boil (evaporating the alcohol, but
> > leaving the
> > "cask-iness" of the liquor behind in the wort/must
>
>What I have done in the past is soak some wood chips
>in cheap scotch for a few days and then dried them out
>in a toaster oven prior to adding them to the batch.
>It seems to work nicely.
>
>Phil
Thats a great idea! I have 'oaked' a couple of meads
by just tossing in a handful of oak chips for a couple
weeks. Gave the mead a nice oaky flavor, and added
some interesting color too.
>------------------------------
>
>Subject: Pseudo-cask conditioning question
>From: Eileen.Tronolone@Sun.COM
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 16:39:10 -0400 (EDT)
>
>John Baxter Biggins <jbbiggin@med.cornell.edu> wrote:
>
> >Has anyone tried a make a fake-cask conditioned beer or mead by
> >trying to replicate the cask flavor by adding...say, bourbon or
> >sherry to the boil <snip>
>
>I did a rosemary mead this way. I chopped the rosemary finely and
>allowed it to sit in 1/2 a bottle of Sandeman's port until it had
>absorbed all the port. I got this idea from Cindy Renfrow's book,
>"A Sip Through Time". See www.poisonpenpress.com for the book.
>I used port because I was trying to recreate a "sack" cask flavor.
Hmm. I've a rosemary mead going, and need to backadd some
rosemary to it. Maybe I'll try this.......
>See www.liii.com/~redsonja/mead13.html for the recipe. People at
>the NYHBG meeting really liked this one a lot. I could taste the
>port a little, but that might've been because I knew it was there.
>
Eileen, you have the *best* ideas!
>------------------------------
>
>Subject: Re: Hochdorf Tomb
>From: NeophyteSG@aol.com
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 18:28:21 EDT
>
>
>As a historical brewing buff, do you have any referencee/quotable references?
Shawn, have you read Cindy Renfrow's 'A Sip Through Time'? Great book
and she has not only good recipes, but lots of info. She's got an article
on http://www.gotmead.com as well.
>And Myron Sothcott wrote:
>
> > I would cut the honey to 15 pounds
> > to start, check the specific gravity when fermentation slows,
> > and feed more honey to get a final gravity for the level of
> > sweetness desired. <snip>
> > Next, I would probably cut the total fruit back to about 10 pounds.
>
>Yes, there will be a lot of fluff at the bottom, but it will pay off in
>flavor. I have used 20 pounds of honey and 10 pounds of fruit for a 5 gallon
>batch. The result was on the sweet side (which I like) and intensely fruity.
>I don't recall what Mark Shapiro's "juice, sparge and squeeze method" was,
>but what I did was do the fermentation in two stages, the first being fruit
>only. After a couple of weeks of intense fermentation, I poured the whole
>slurry through a nylon mesh bag (squeezing as hard as I could). At that
>point (the second stage) the honey was added (like Myron suggests).
>
>cheers,
>
>Terry Estrin
::taking notes:: I've been experimenting with keeping the blackberry
flavor in my blackberry mels. They always seem to ferment out dry
and with no blackberry flavor (although they smell *wonderful*)
>------------------------------
>------------------------------
>
>Subject: (no subject)
>From: Thealderete@aol.com
>Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 07:57:05 EDT
>
>I just have one question. Is Mead (any kind) availible for purchase? I just
>visited the Mead Maker's page and became interested. Mead making is not a
>hobby of mine, hence, my ignorance. I would like a taste of history though!
> Thank you
Check out the meadery list on gotmead.com. We'll be adding to it tonight,
as Dan McFeely just sent over his list, and I'm sure he's got some we
haven't found yet. Depending on where you live, you can get mead shipped
to you. I recommend White Winter Winery at http://www.whitewinter.com
and you can order Heidrun Meadery through Wine.com at
http://www.wine.com/text_search_results.jsp?searchText=mead&x=17&y=4
I haven't had Heidrun's stuff, but I'm sure others here can comment on it!
Many of the other meaderies have websites as well, and if they don't we've
generally got phone numbers, email addresses or both.
>------------------------------
>
>Subject: My 1st & 2nd batches: some questions
>From: Jay Swartzfeger <jswartzfeger@home.com>
>Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 18:01:33 -0700
>
><snippety>
>I decided to try a Raspbery Melomel, this time in my newly acquired 3 gal.
> carboy. My 3 gallon batch used 10# of Arizona desert light amber honey, 3#
> of frozen raspberries, the juice from 1 lemon and a packet of champagne
>yeast. Unlike the first time, I had a yeast starter going a few hours
>before I even started on the must. Again, I didn't boil-- I heated the
>must just enough to make the honey easily dissolve while I stirred. I
>thawed the raspberries and crushed them while still in the bags. Like an
>idiot, I forced all 3# of raspberries through the narrow neck of the
>carboy (definitely plastic buckets next time for a melomel-- I'm terrified
>of having to rack this mess). I let the must cool a bit and then poured it
>on top of the berries sitting on the bottom of the carboy. Pitched the
>yeast, aerated/shook like a madman and then attached the airlock. BTW, I
>left a few inches of headspace, because I had a sneaking suspicion that it
>would quickly fill (which it did, even more than I expected).
LOL......well I remember my first raspberry mel! The same thing happened,
but we found out when we got home to a pool of red mess on the kitchen
floor.......
For that reason, I now ferment my fruit mels as 5 gallon batches in 6 or 7
gallon pails. And they *still* sometimes blow thru the airlock. I've found
that running a tube from the blowoff hole into a gallon jar 1/4 full of beer
bright lets the blowoff happen, and i just keep cleaning and refilling the
jar.......
>The first surprise was that the berries were floating on the top... I don'
>t know why, but I had expected them to sit on the bottom.
I've also started putting my berries in bags. It helps a bit, at least they
don't blow through the airlock piecemeal.
>Ok, now my questions on the second batch:
>
>1) Is it an issue that the raspberries are sitting on top of my whole
>batch? Will they eventually drop to the bottom?
Mine sit on the top until I rack (usually a month or less). This comes
in handy since I usually do my primary ferment in a pail equipped with a
spigot at the bottom........and I squeeze out the yummy stuff as it racks.
>2) Based on my ingredients (about 3.3# honey per gallon, juice of 1 lemon,
> pasteur's champagne yeast), will this turn out semi-dry?
Yeah, I would think so. Champagne yeast will eat a *lot* of sugar. My
first batch of mead used 4 lbs to the gallon, and the champagne yeast
ate it *all*.
>3) Will my finished product lack aroma because I used the fruit in the
>primary?
Mine never have. I always get the aroma, but with champagne yeast
I find that the fruit flavor mostly ferments out.
>4) Has anyone ever used fruit in both the primary and secondary?
I did that once. Now, about 50% of the time I put the fruit in the
primary, and 50% of the time in the secondary. All the meads have
turned out good, so far.
>5) I fear that once I rack into my secondary, the absence of all that
>fruit will leave a LOT of extra space in my carboy. Do I fill that extra
>space with spring water (which could dilute it)? Do I throw in some extra
>honey? Am I worrying too damn much? :)
<grin> I usually will boil some water, and dissolve honey into it once
I take the water off the boil. I find it not only keeps up the flavor, but
sometimes it even re-starts the ferment.......
(heard on rec.crafts.homebrewing and here) Relax, sit back and have
a homebrew!
>Thanks for dealing with this long post... I'm absolutely mad for mead
>right now. If I had 1000 carboys, I'd have 1000 batches bubbling away...
<g> Then you'd be a meadery! I know just what you mean, though....I
have about 60 gallons bubbling away in various stages right now, and
am setting up two more batches this week........
Vicky Rowe
Mad about Mead? Take a gander at http://www.gotmead.com .
------------------------------
Subject: Getting Started??
From: "Jesse Hoover" <jesse1973@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 16:41:28 -0500
My name is Jesse . I am wanting to get started in making mead.And in
particular a melomel with apricot and orange .And a Metheglin with
cloves cinnamon nutmeg and ginger ..My question is for a beginner do I
or should I worry about all this extra stuff like acid blends.And do I
put the fruit in before or after fermentation ??
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Jesse the newby
------------------------------
Subject: Raging raspberries
From: NLSteve@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 17:43:37 EDT
Jay S. says:
<< The second surprise was when I checked on my batch 3 hours later-- the
headspace I left in the carboy were now GONE! The raspberries were now
pushing dangerously close to the bottom of the stopper. I very carefully
carried the jug and placed it in my bathtub (I figured an explosion would
be much easier to clean up in my tub than in the laundry room). I left the
room for a few minutes to consider my options, then came back in to
discover that the water in my airlock was now a deep reddish/purple! Ok, I
was freaking at this point. :) I quickly sanitized a fork, carefully
removed the airlock and began to fish out chunks of raspberries. . . >>
Rarely is there a need to panic.
Fruit fermenations can be VERY vigorous. The best way to deal with them is
to use a "blowoff tube" instead of an airlock for the primary, allowing the
pulp & everything a way to escape. Run the sanitized plastic tube (or
similar, sized so its OD fits the interior of the carboy neck) into a dilute
sanitizing solution in a chopped off Clorox bottle or something.
Otherwise, you do risk an "explosion" if the pulp jams the airlock.
When you go to secondary, you are concerned about the excess headspace you
expect. If it will only be in this carboy for a few weeks or whatever, and
fermentation will still be proceeding slowly, don't worry -- the C02
generated will keep displacing any oxygen, and yeast will continue scavenging
O2. For extended aging, you can consider racking into smaller containers (3
gallon carboy or 1 gallon apple juice jars, for example, when making a larger
size batch) with airlocks & stoppers sized to fit. Or you can get some glass
marbles such as aquarium marbles, sanitize them, and add them to the big
carboy to reduce headspace.
If you start with a 6.5 gallon carboy, there will be more headspace for the
primary and a wider neck to help get crushed fruit in & out. Or, as you say,
you can start in a bucket.
Don't worry about the "floaters." Spent fruit can look pretty cruddy. Strain
them out when you rack.
Above all, don't worry!
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #846, 22 April 2001
From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley@compuserve.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 19:49:56 -0400
Sorry Lane O. Locke, but your taster/spouse is wrong. If the solubility of
CO2 at the temperature of the liquid is not exceeded, the CO2 will
dissolve in the liquid and the pressure will drop in a sealed vessel until
the pressure above the liquid is equal to the activity of the gas dissolved
in the liquid. That's equilibrium. If the vessel is not sealed it will
draw in air and consequently oxygen.The reason you most often observe that
CO2 comes out is because its solubility is exceeded at the temperature
which you opened the pressurized bottle. CO2 is not a good gas to use as
a blanket. If you add CO2 under positive pressure continuously
(the right way to blanket) it will dissolve to its maximum solubility at
the storage temperature. Use nitrogen to blanket, as it is virtually (but
not completely) insoluble. CO2 will not decompose into oxygen or do
anything like that at room temperatures. If you're matching degrees, mine
is a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry
Dave Burley
------------------------------
Subject: Raspberries
From: Gasco58@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 20:07:18 EDT
Hi from Australia!
All of the talk about Raspberries has triggered a desire to make a Raspberry
melomel! Can anyone suggest a good recipe, ie ratio of fruit to honey?
Some of the recipes I have seen on here seem to use huge amounts of fruits
per gallon and I wonder if they might just as well skip the honey?
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Pears and mead
From: Jane Beckman <jilara@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:49:04 -0700 (PDT)
I haven't posted here for close to two years, I've
realized! But pears are something I've used in my
best meads for 25 years. I haven't used juice, but I
have simmered whole pears in the honey must (along
with juice of an orange or lemon). Then I take out
the pears and consume them (yum!) before fermenting.
The general quality it lends to the mead has been
described as "flowery." I usually use 3 about pears
per gallon.
Jilara
------------------------------
Subject: Correction
From: Terry Estrin <testrin@sfu.ca>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 14:50:12 -0800
Hi all,
Just a brief correction to a comment I made in the last MLD. I suggested
that when making a melomel, one should begin with the fruit fermentation,
and then add the honey. I got it backwards: in order to minimize blow-off of
fruit aromatics during fermentation, I tend to do the honey-must ferment
first. Once that settles down, then I add the fruit and let it ferment (then
strain).
cheers,
Terry
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #847
*******************************
