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Mead Lovers Digest #0866
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #866, 5 September 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #866 5 September 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001 ("Dany P. Ghozali")
My fifteen gallon batch (Phil)
("Alan McKay")
corny kegs again ("Alan McKay")
shipping mead ("Alan McKay")
Re: Metheglins and Campden tabs (NeophyteSG@aol.com)
Re: Metheglins and Campden tabs (Marc Shapiro)
Re: chipotle mead, comorative meads and stuff (Dan McFeeley)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001 (Christopher C Carpenter)
Price of local honey ("Jones, Steve (I/T)")
Shipping Containers (David Chubb)
sending mead..glass evil (Scott Morgan - Sun On-Line Telesales Representative)
Lost Honey Harvest ("Brangan")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001 (Gardengate32@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001 (Gardengate32@aol.com)
bubble trouble (gabs838@home.com)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001
From: "Dany P. Ghozali" <d.ghozali@geol.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 15:47:03 +1200
> Subject: Metheglins and Campden tabs
> From: "Gregg Stearns" <gregg@ispi.net>
> Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 16:35:47 -0500
>
> 1. I'm wondering what is the best way of getting a strong spiced flavor in
a
> metheglin?
> I've tried steeping the cinnamon sticks and cloves in the must during the
> skimming phase, but either I didn't have enuf spice, or it didn't go nearly
> long enuf.
Gregg, I also thought about this issue. I've made a batch a few years ago
and it turned out to be very weakly spiced. I started one a couple of months
ago and went the opposite way! The aroma is beautiful and it's cleared
incredibly well BUT!......there's always a but ...the increased amount of
spice has given it a slight bitter taste. I have no idea if it will change
with time.
> I wondered about: a) placing spices in with the honey for a few months,
> before making the must b) I read online about making a 'tea' with the
> spices and then adding that to the must (which sounds like a plan to me)
I have to admit in both times I used ground spices. That could be what
contributed to the bitter taste? I know spices gives flavours to cooking but
does it do the same thing to fermented stuff? or does it just give an aroma
but no taste - or even bitter taste in my case? just a thought.............
Perhaps you can try adding the spices as a "sweetener" type thing at the end
of fermentation?
> 2. I've never messed with campden tabs and never had a mead 'go sour' on me.
> I sterilize like a mad-man, but I wondered if there's any good reason I
> should be using the tabs?
I have been told that honey has a natural preservative in it. I have not
used any in my metheglins but I recently started brewing melomels and
decided to use sulphites everytime I rack. I can't really tell you
why.......just something I thought I ought to do.......
Cheers,
D.
- --
Dany P. Ghozali
Dept. of Geological Sciences
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8020
New Zealand
Tel: +64 3 364 2987 ext. 7301
Fax: +64 3 364 2769
Email: d.ghozali@nospam.geol.canterbury.ac.nz
------------------------------
Subject: My fifteen gallon batch
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 06:06:34 -0700 (PDT)
I recently posted about my fifteen gallon batch of
maple mead, fermenting merrily away in a demijohn. To
make, I had to put the demijohn on top of six foot
tall heavy-duty shelving. Given the height of the
shelving and the height of the demijohn itself, I had
about six or eight inches of headroom with the
ceiling. I put two gallons of cold water in the dj
before putting it on the shelf itself and proceeding
to fill the carboy up via a one pint measuring cup and
small funnel. It took about forty minutes to top the
dj up to 13.5 gallons.
After a couple of weeks in primary (three or four,
maybe), it was time to rack. I balanced my second
demijohn on top of a makeshift table, composed of
sanki kegs and a large board. On top of the board, I
made a smaller table using two old fermenting buckets
covered with upside down milk crates. While this all
may seem wobbly, I made sure it was stable.
I put the secondary demijohn in its place. It's top
was about a foot lower than the bottom of the primary
demijohn. Sounds good so far, right?
I prepared my demijohn racking cane (longer than
regular racking canes) and went to put it in the
primary. Lo and behold to my surprise, I couldn't get
it in the primary. The lack of headroom wouldn't let
me get it at a high enough angle.
After several minutes of some choice words to everyone
and everything around me, I came up with an idea. I
broke the racking cane in half and connected the
pieces with a piece of tubing. I was able to get my
bendi-cane into the carboy and proceeded to rack. It
took about twenty minutes to finish the job.
I then added 1 gallon of pure maple syrup to the
batch. My original plan was to add 1.5 gallons, but
it looked like it would be too close for comfort.
After a week or so, I do see 'spiderwebs' in the top
of the carboy where the secondary fermentation kicked
up some foam. It didn't go through the airlock,
fortunately.
I haven't checked the pH yet of the batch (I'm sure
some citric acid is in order about now), but I still
see a lot of fine bubbling going on in the batch.
When I rack to teriary, I'll probably add the last
half gallon of syrup.
Phil
=====
visit the New York City Homebrewers Guild website:
http://www.pipeline.com/~dogglebe/nychg.html
------------------------------
Subject:
From: "Alan McKay" <amckay@ottawa.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 09:31:36 -0400 (EDT)
> one thing to look out for though is chlorine, something that
> stainless steel doesn't like. it actuall causes corrosion,
> tho a metallurgical engineer is sure to provide a more
> accurate description.
The original poster was concerned about using kegs for mead, comparing
it to the use of aluminum cans for beer. Well, there is a huge difference
between alu and SS, which kegs are made of. I keg all my meads and
have never had off flavours associated with it.
As for the use of chlorine, yes it is corrosive but is still fine to
use provided you stick with minimum contact times of 15 to 20 minutes.
Most folks do not realise that iodophor is also corrosive to SS, though
much less so than chlorine. I have as my source a German brewmaster, who
told me this is why iodophor is not used over there.
In any case, I regularly use both to clean my kegs with no problems
at all. Stick with minimal contact times and rinse well, and all is fine.
cheers,
- -Alan
- --
"Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer."
- Dave Miller
http://www.bodensatz.com/
What's a Bodensatz? http://www.bodensatz.com/bodensatz.html
------------------------------
Subject: corny kegs again
From: "Alan McKay" <amckay@ottawa.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 09:33:59 -0400 (EDT)
There are some good online brewing stores which carry decent priced
kegs. If you do not get any responses I'll dig them up for you, but
I'm sure you will hear something.
As for what to do once you get them, check out my web page at :
http://www.bodensatz.com/homebrew/kegging/corny.html
cheers,
- -Alan
- --
"Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer."
- Dave Miller
http://www.bodensatz.com/
What's a Bodensatz? http://www.bodensatz.com/bodensatz.html
------------------------------
Subject: shipping mead
From: "Alan McKay" <amckay@ottawa.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 09:40:10 -0400 (EDT)
I have shipped lots of beer back from Germany by taking each bottle
and wrapping it well in bubble wrap, then stuffing them all into
a box.
A friend of mine uses a PVC tube to ship in which has the added
benefit of being water tight should the bottle burst. I do not
have all the details on "das toob" as he calls it, as I have not
yet seen it with my own eyes.
cheers,
- -Alan
- --
"Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer."
- Dave Miller
http://www.bodensatz.com/
What's a Bodensatz? http://www.bodensatz.com/bodensatz.html
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Metheglins and Campden tabs
From: NeophyteSG@aol.com
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 10:32:27 EDT
> 1. I'm wondering what is the best way of getting a strong spiced flavor in a
> metheglin?
> I've tried steeping the cinnamon sticks and cloves in the must during the
> skimming phase, but either I didn't have enuf spice, or it didn't go nearly
> long enuf.
Put your spices and flavoring agents in after fermentation is finished. Many
of the spices and herbs commonly used as mead gruits, including cinnamon and
cloves, derive most if not all of their aromatic and taste characteristics
from volatile oils. If you put them in during the primary you tend to lose a
fair amount of them as vapor in the carbon dioxide coming out your airlock.
You know that wonderful smell of spice that emanated from your carboy? Yup,
that would be them and unfortunately they would have been better used to
flavor the mead. When you put them in after fermentation is complete there's
nothing to remove those precious vapors. The alcohol present also greatly
improves the extraction of flavor from most spices. The same holds true if
you wanted to accentuate the fruit flavor in a melomel.
Warm Regards,
Shawn
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Metheglins and Campden tabs
From: Marc Shapiro <m_shapiro@bigfoot.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 11:51:24 -0400
"Gregg Stearns" <gregg@ispi.net> wrote:
> 1. I'm wondering what is the best way of getting a strong spiced flavor in a
> metheglin?
> I've tried steeping the cinnamon sticks and cloves in the must during the
> skimming phase, but either I didn't have enuf spice, or it didn't go nearly
> long enuf.
I don't boil my honey, but we'll try to avoid that debate this time
around. What I do is boil just the water that is going into the
metheglin. Then, I add the spices in a cheesecloth, or muslin bag,
cover the pot and allow the whole thing to steep overnight. By the next
morning my kitchen smells wonderful and I know I have a good thing
going. I then reheat to just under a boil and remove the pot from the
heat. Then I remove the spice bag and add my honey, stirring constantly
until the honey is completely disolved.
BTW I usually use one or two sticks of cinnamon and five to seven
cloves per gallon of metheglin. I also use one or two thin ( 2 - 3 mm )
slices of fresh ginger root per gallon.
> 2. I've never messed with campden tabs and never had a mead 'go sour' on me.
> I sterilize like a mad-man, but I wondered if there's any good reason I
> should be using the tabs?
I try to avoid using sulfites whenever possible. When I do feel the
need, I use the minimum amount that I think I can get away with. If you
are not having problems then I would say that what you are doing is
probably the right thing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
One exception would be if you plan to add potassium sorbate so that you
can resweeten your metheglin. When using sorbate, sulfites should be
used to prevent malo-lactic fermentation since the combination of
malo-lactic and sorbate creates a 'geranium' smell and should probably
be avaoided.
- --
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: Re: chipotle mead, comorative meads and stuff
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 10:19:31 -0500
Thanks for the kudos Chuck! I've had another bottle, a 750 ml this
time, boxed and ready to go but E.R. census picked up again and I've
been too tired to do much of anything lately (for those eavesdropping,
I do emergency room psychiatric intake at one of our local hospitals).
I'll get it sent off to you tomorrow if I can, if I don't get called
in to work again.
[shifts back to public mode] To those of you working on chocolate meads,
beware! The chocolate mead recipes I've seen here and there on the 'net
up until recently haven't been impressive, IMHO, but if these recent MLD
efforts turn out well, that would be assuming mead deityhood in the eyes
of the fairer gender. I've just racked one of my own and my wife is
already salivating over it. If it works out, she wants me to try a
chocolate raspberry mead next.
I'm keeping it under wraps for now, but if I should so much as breathe
the words "chocolate," "honey," "wine" around our overstressed emergency
room nurses whom I work with, that would be the end for me. :-)
I'm thinking of adding a little vanilla to peak the chocolate flavor.
Maybe I should call it "Dovebar Mead." :-)
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
"You learn something old every day." Mr. McFeeley, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001
From: Christopher C Carpenter <Chris_Carpenter@ndsu.nodak.edu>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 13:51:12 -0500
Greetings unto the meadhall, and thank you all for your responses to force
carbonating my mead, I fully intend to do so in the future, and you have
given me confidence. I have a response to the following also.
- --On Sunday, August 26, 2001 8:13 PM -0600 mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> 1. I'm wondering what is the best way of getting a strong spiced flavor
> in a metheglin?
I make 5 gal. batches, that I reduce down to one gallon batches that I
adjust to taste as I rack em; "Spice Essences" (you can find them in your
local organic food store) are worth their worth in gold. Just add a drop
when you feel the batch needs a little added flavor, or coverup, and adjust
over a period of time. Its foolproof, and will always get just the right
flavour.
Thank you all for your help
Chris Carpenter
------------------------------
Subject: Price of local honey
From: "Jones, Steve (I/T)" <stjones@eastman.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 15:39:09 -0400
Greetings, all.
I'm a longtime brewer who is about to get into mead. I've found a local
source for honey, and what I'd like to know is what variety's are good for
mead. Those available are clover, wildflower, and sourwood. Also, is $75 for
a 5 gallon bucket a good price?
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Shipping Containers
From: David Chubb <dchubb@virpack.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 16:59:23 -0400
>Subject: containers for shipping wine bottles
>From: "Steve Meng" <smeng@kih.net>
>Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 07:20:28 -0400
>I am bottling my mead in wine bottles. I would like to send some =
>individual bottles to friends via UPS.
>Does anyone know of any special shipping container for this purpose?
>What other method do you use for packaging for shipment?=20
I have shipped batches of my meade to family members & friends via UPS. I
used some boxes we recived Hard Drives in that had a large amount of form
fitting foam and I used a lot of bubble wrap & DuckTape :). Ship it ground
unless you want them poping corks in mid-flight. (Or use Champagne bottles &
Cages)
Some wine stores will also have gift mailing boxes as well sometimes...ask
your local wine store.
Also check your local regulations on shipping alcohol across state borders.
Most places it's illegal.
--David Chubb
Support Technician
======================
Virpack Inc.
1715 Pratt Drive Suite 3600
Blacksburg, VA 24060
Phone: 540-961-9160
Cell: 540-449-3308
E-mail: dchubb@virpack.com
======================
------------------------------
Subject: sending mead..glass evil
From: Scott Morgan - Sun On-Line Telesales Representative <Scott.Morgan@Sun.COM>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 07:54:00 +1000 (EST)
Morning All,
Steve wrote;
I am bottling my mead in wine bottles. I would like to send some =
individual bottles to friends via UPS.
Does anyone know of any special shipping container for this purpose?
What other method do you use for packaging for shipment?
Well if the mead is not going to be stored for excessive time I would not use
glass at all. PET bottles work well and hold pressure if carbonated (use it for
beer all the time)
Oz post also sells foam wine packaging for individual sending. Or, you can get
packaging by the case. Whereby, Cardboard seperators keep the bottles seperate
in the box. Interstate wine shipping, particuarly direct from Vineyards is quite
popular.
Scotty
------------------------------
Subject: Lost Honey Harvest
From: "Brangan" <brangan@msn.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 19:00:03 -0400
I saw this article in the New York Times last week, and thought it might be
of interest:
"CUBA: U.S. Blamed for Bee Deaths
The Communist Party's weekly newspaper, Granma, accused the United States of
waging a "biological war against Cuba" that was probably to blame for a
disease that has destroyed 16,000 beehives and caused $2 million in lost
honey output since 1996. The disease has dashed plans to produce 8,500 tons
of honey this year; much of Cuba's honey is exported for needed foreign
currency. The United States has ridiculed such claimes. (Reuters)"
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001
From: Gardengate32@aol.com
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 22:01:24 EDT
In a message dated 8/26/2001 10:03:10 PM EST, mead-request@talisman.com
writes:
<< (gregg@ispi.net)
>>hey, i have done some metheglin and they have not turned out, while
frequently sampling, with enough spice flavor. i started making a tea to add
to the must, which worked, but adding a big fat tea ball full of spices in
the latter part of the fermentation really put the flavor in. i had a bunch
of fresh rosemary, and the tea method wasn't doing it for me, after a couple
of batches, well the tea ball in the already alcoholic must really kicked it
off. of course, the tea ball won't fit in a glass carboy, and when using one
of those, i've just funneled the raw spices right into the mix. they can
either be settled out or strained out, but i really am not big on having
absolutely clear mead with no sediment or the occasional floater. our
ancestors just tossed whatever in whenever.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #865, 26 August 2001
From: Gardengate32@aol.com
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 22:14:20 EDT
i just had a really odd fermentation i started the other day. usually the
kreusen crowns up real nice and foamy on top. this was a mead with honey and
maple syrup, and some raisens for tannin and lemon juice for acid. the yeast
is premier curvee. the next day i noticed there was no foam, so i assumed
there was stuck fermentation. i opened the carboy and is was hissing wildly,
as if very highly carbonated. i tossed in some yeast energizer and it foamed
up quickly and then went down. a few days later i pitched some more yeast,
with no effect. it is still hissing wildly, and when tasted, is definately
producing alcohol. it is very cloudy, almost white. i have never had a
fermentation like this, though i have done maple meads and maple barley wines
in the past. it appears somewhat "evil", haha. it's not going to kill me is
it? i think it is definately going to get some serious aging. i'm calling
it "evil maple mead".
------------------------------
Subject: bubble trouble
From: gabs838@home.com
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 11:39:36 -0400
I am determined to carbonate my melomels naturally. I know it's
possible, but I have had little or no luck, so far. How long does it
take anyway? Am I too impatient? I know my homemade gingerales
(non-alcoholic) take about 2 weeks to fully carbonate.
Myvery first, a muscadine melomel, carbonated within 3 months, but not
enough. All subsequent brews never did. I added sugar and nutrient at
bottling, even added yeast in one batch.
Alcohol content ranges from 10 to 12 percent, which should be low enough
to continue fermentation. I'm using mostly Pasteur Champagne yeast.
Any Ideas what might be the problem?
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #866
*******************************
