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Mead Lovers Digest #0852
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #852, 5 June 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #852 5 June 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #851, 1 June 2001 (David Chubb)
Re: Sweetening dry mead (BillPierce@aol.com)
Re: Mead-O-Sweet (Phil)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #851, 1 June 2001 (Christopher C Carpenter)
High OG musts vs. feeding & date mead question (Anthony.Karian@sce.com)
RE: sugar feeding (Brian Lundeen)
Herbs (Douglas Gibbs)
Biz op? :-) (Dick Dunn)
JASMINE-GREEN TEA MEAD ()
Rose Petal Mead ("redrocklover")
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #851, 1 June 2001
From: David Chubb <csu.vetmed@vt.edu>
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 10:42:45 -0400
>Subject: sweetening dry mead
>From: "Jason Foster" <jasonf1@telusplanet.net>
>Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 09:11:42 -0600
>
>I am a regular beer brewer who makes a batch of mead once a year for a
>change of pace. I prefer a sweeter mead, and until this year had no
>difficulty with that. This year however, my fermentation with my 3
>gallons of melomel (I added apple juice) went WAY TOO FAR. The specific
>gravity is .994, and the taste is way too dry for me. What is the best
>way to resweeten it?
>
>My theory is I need to kill the yeast off and then add an appropriate
>amount of honey to sweeten the flavour. Will this work? Should I add the
>honey, let if ferment a little, then kill the yeast? Any suggestions
>would be helpful.
>
I have heard of people using a preservative (which in my Flu fogged brain I
can't seem to remember) to stop the fermentation and then added either some
sugar or fructose or similar to boost the sweetness. I think that adding
more honey would make it a bit too "thick".
>------------------------------
>
>Subject: Dates?
>From: Angela Byrnes <byrnesa@leland.stanford.edu>
>Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 09:00:51 -0700
>
>Has anyone tried making a mead with dates, fresh or dried? I have been
>reading a fictional book set in Old Testament times where there is mention
>of honeyed dates as a delicacy and my mind wandered into a possible mead
>recipe.
I tried this a few years back. I lived overseas in Spain for several
years. Unless you can find a producer that will sell you FRESH dates do NOT
use dried dates. Most producers use a Sulfur based smoking technique to
"preserve" the dates (similar process to preserving figs). This coupled
with fermentation tastes nasty (not to mention some of the by products of
sulfur fermentation might be harmful) if you can get it to ferment at all.
If you can find a producer of FRESH unprocessed dates I think they might
work. I have had a fig meade that my brother made (using figs from my
fathers orchard, dried on screens in the backyard) that was absolutely
wonderful.
Along the same lines.....fresh mulberries added into a must make a
wonderful meade.
--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: Re: Sweetening dry mead
From: BillPierce@aol.com
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 11:30:48 EDT
In MLD #851 Jason Foster asks about how to sweeten a mead in which the
fermentation "went way too far." This is a common situation. Newer
meadmakers frequently are unaware of just how fermentable honey is. The
normal situation is for mead to finish dry (F.G. below 1.000) even when using
a less attenuative yeast strain.
In another message in the same digest, MLD "janitor" Dick Dunn questions Ken
Schramm about this, but the conventional procedure (and long tradition) for
making mead sweeter is to gradually "feed" honey to the dry mead until the
yeast "tire" of fermentation or the alcohol tolerance is exceeded. My method
for 5 gallon batches is to add a pound of honey at 7-10 day intervals until
there is no noticeable activity and no change in the specific gravity over a
2-3 week period.
When the sweeter mead is ready to bottle, add about 1/2 tsp. per gallon of
potassium sorbate (also known as wine stabilizer). This acts as a
preservative and greatly reduces the chances that fermentation will
spontaneously restart with possibly disastrous consequences (exploding
bottles). It should be noted that potassium sorbate does not kill the yeast
but greatly inhibits it. It is not reliable unless all fermentation has
completely ceased.
Another note for novices is that it is impossible to predictably make bottled
sparkling sweet mead (apart from kegging, force carbonating and
counterpressure filling). The resulting sweet mead is still (uncarbonated).
Wassail!
- -- Bill Pierce
Cellar Door Homebrewery
(soon to relocate to Highwood, Illinois)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead-O-Sweet
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 08:33:37 -0700 (PDT)
> 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)?
If you're not familiar with this herb/spice, you'd be
best off making a tea out of it and blending it when
the mead clears. This way, you can taste it as you go
and stop when you've added enough.
Phil
========
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:
http://www.pipeline.com/~dogglebe/nychg.html
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #851, 1 June 2001
From: Christopher C Carpenter <Chris_Carpenter@ndsu.nodak.edu>
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 13:51:36 -0500
Greetings to all in the Mead Hall..;O)
I just joined this list, and I can already tell I am going to enjoy it very
much. I have 2 inquiries, one about mead, and one a little more personal,
just for my curiosity.
1. I see very little information on Flower Blossom Meads, Which I have been
doing lately, my latest being Lilac. Does anybody have any suggestions, or
advice on this subject??.
2. I wonder how many people on this list belong to Society for Creative
Anachronisms, (I do, this is my main motivation for brewing meads over more
contemporary brews).
Thanks for your time, and I can tell I will learn much from the well
informed patronage of this list..;O)
------------------------------
Subject: High OG musts vs. feeding & date mead question
From: Anthony.Karian@sce.com
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 11:56:17 -0700
Regarding Dick Dunn's question about the viability of higher original
gravity musts, I have to say that my experience has been completely
contrary to the established wisdom. I have consistently made meads with
OGs in the 1.140 to 1.149 range without ever having a slow or stuck
fermentation. (Ok, the Vierka yeast are slow starters, but they are
special cases.) To further challenge established ideas, I have never
heated my musts, much less boiled or skimmed them (though I do warm the
honey to help it dissolve). However I do a couple things to ensure solid
fermentations.
First, of course, is sterilization. More significant to the topic is I
always add nutrients, I always use a large and healthy starter at these
higher OGs, and I always oxygenate the must well. In the absence of an
oxygen tank I've put the water or juice to be added into a blender and
added the warmed honey to get it into suspension, then run the blender at
full speed untill I have a large quantity of foam. This gets lots of
oxygen where it needs to be for the yeast to get a quick and healthy start.
Transfer the blended honey/water to the primary with the rest of the must,
add the starter and away she goes. I should note that I have been using
relatively processed honey rather than the farm-fresh type, so if you use
raw honey it's possible you may get different results if there's
contamination, though I have to say I have really come to believe in
oxygenation, energizing and large starters.
I am also a fan of adding calcium carbonate as needed to keep the pH closer
to 4. I have repeatedly seen fermentation that were slowing down suddenly
explode back to life by raising the pH back to where the yeasties are more
happy. Again, why wait forever if you can get fermentation done in a
month? The encouragement of rapid and complete fermentation may also help
avoid sticking. And I tend to be impatient.
This approach has consistently resulted in pretty thorough fermentations,
meaning moderately alchohol tolerant yeast end up in the 14-15% range while
the extremely tolerant ones like Champagne and Flor Sherry get 16-17%.
Obviously Sweet Mead yeasts won't end up with that much alcohol and if you
use a high OG starter it will be pretty sweet, but I've still had complete
fermentations to their tolerance. If others are getting higher alcohol
results from these by feeding I'd like to know that, it may encourage me to
try it. By the way, experience has taught me to avoid Champagne in favor
of Sherry for high alcohol tolerant yeasts. The Champagne yeast has off
tastes that take time to mellow out, while the Sherry is potentially
drinkable after fermentation. Not that you'd want to of course. :)
I also don't worry about racking quickly to get the must off the yeast. If
off-flavours are coming from sitting on the lees neither I nor my blind
taste testers have detected them.
In regard to Angela Byrnes question about using dates in meads, what a
great idea! Or at least it sounds like one to me, but then I'm a date fan.
Has anyone tried this? If you do Angela please let me know how it turns
out!
Tony Karian
------------------------------
Subject: RE: sugar feeding
From: Brian Lundeen <blundeen@rrc.mb.ca>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 15:37:54 -0500
Dick Dunn wrote:
> Ken - Could you elaborate on this? Let me explain: I think anyone who's
> ever done the "feeding" process would be _quite_ happy not to do it...but
> we believe or seem to have convinced ourselves that it's necessary for high
> gravity/high-alcohol meads. Feeding is messy; there's the worry of oxida-
> tion from a partly-empty fermenter (or the fuss of how to keep it topped
> up); calculating the effective gravity and apparent alcohol is error-prone,
> etc., etc.
Just to add to Dick's thoughts, it may be a PITA and involve more
calculations than I want to indulge in for the sake of my hobby (hey, that
would be a great feature to add to ProMash, even if it has little connection
with brewing), but it's actually the quickest and safest route to high
alcohol levels.
As Dick has pointed out, starting at too high a level will actually slow
down the process and will likely lead to the yeast dying out too soon. High
alcohol and high sugar are both lethal to yeast activity. If you have both
together, you doom the yeast to failure. With sugar feeding, the yeast only
have to deal with high alcohol, as the unfermented sugar levels are kept to
a minimum.
I do not feel there is much risk of oxidation, assuming you are fermenting
in a carboy. The initial fermentation will blow out the headspace oxygen and
little will find its way back in as long as the fermentation is continuing
to maintain a positive pressure and CO2 blanket. Your biggest risk of
oxidation actually comes from dissolved oxygen in the water in which the
sugar is mixed. However, this is easily prevented by boiling the sugar-water
mixture before adding (cooled, of course). Sanitizes, deoxygenates,
definitely worth doing. Now obviously you have to leave enough headspace to
accomodate the additions to come.
Now, if by high alcohol you mean 13-14%, I would agree syrup feeding is
probably not worth the effort. A good yeast like EC-1118 should hit that
from the get-go. But for anything much above that, there really is no other
reliable way to do it. I would avoid things like "turbo yeasts" as they were
developed for distilling and I don't think they offer the best in terms of
final organoleptic qualities. So it's a little more work. Hey, if they came
out with the Mr Mead Automatic Mead Maker, would you buy one anyway?
Cheers,
Brian
------------------------------
Subject: Herbs
From: Douglas Gibbs <dfgibbs@harborside.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 13:08:38 -0700
Meadowsweet (Filipendula Ulmaria) is listed in my herb book as used
primarily for a dye plant, the different parts used to make different
colors. The generic name here is "Queen of the Meadow". What part of the
plant is used in flavoring a metheglyn and does it also alter the color?
Also what parts of Agrimony or Jasmine are used (flowers, roots,
leaves)?
Doug Gibbs, Bandon Oregon
------------------------------
Subject: Biz op? :-)
From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 21:37:08 -0600 (MDT)
A friend of mine recently acquired a large (>10K sq ft) ag/industrial
building in Mead, Colorado, and he's looking to rent space in it. (Yes,
there really is such a town as Mead. 105 00 W, 40 14 N, for the skeptics.)
Seems like a great opportunity: imagine "The Mead Meadery"! Imagine being
in a town that's named after what your business does.
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
...Simpler is better.
------------------------------
Subject: JASMINE-GREEN TEA MEAD
From: <CELTMAN@prodigy.net>
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 23:07:39 -0400
Hi Folks - I bought some Jasmine flavored green tea from an asian food
store and would like to try making a mead with it.
Wow - what a great aroma!
I looked through the archives, but the jasmine recipes did not say
whether they were pure Jasmine or not. My question is: Has anyone made a
"green tea" mead, and will there be any problems (acidity/alkalinity)
that would interfere with fermentation? If so, what would you recommend
to fix the problem? I am thinking of making a straight mead and then
adding the tea at a 2nd or 3rd racking. Would this be a better plan than
just adding it in the primary?
I am pretty new at this (1 batch bubbling right now) and would
appreciate any pearls of wisdom you could offer.
thanks
Kevin ( CELTMAN@PRODIGY.NET )
------------------------------
Subject: Rose Petal Mead
From: "redrocklover" <spiritflight@kachina.net>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 13:41:11 -0700
I just made a Red Rose Petal Mead and I have some questions:
3 quarts red rose petals
3 1/2 lbs desert wildflower honey
2 tsp acid blend
Lalvin Ki-V1116 yeast, double pitched
water to one gallon
Original gravity: 1.100
Ending gravity: 1.002
Raised gravity to 1.012
acid: approx. 4.0 tartaric
I did a standard pulp fermentation with campden, strained and racked,
added sparkeloid, and later racked again. All is well, but it tastes
more like rose petal tea than mead. It's extremely mild - too mild in my
book. What would you all suggest to make it better now and in the
future?
Thanks!
Matthew Ransom
spiritflight@kachina.net
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #852
*******************************
