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Mead Lovers Digest #0879
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #879, 5 November 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #879 5 November 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Acid blend ("Geoffrey T. Falk")
My first Mead: strawberry melomel ("Don Conley")
sweet mead (LJ Vitt)
RE: My first Mead: strawberry melomel ("Don Conley")
Mead Inquiry ("Brad Squier")
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Acid blend
From: "Geoffrey T. Falk" <gtf@cirp.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 15:07:22 -0700 (MST)
I keep seeing recipes that call for "acid blend," particularly for sweet
meads. Could someone please tell me the exact proportions of citric,
malic and tartaric acid in this acid blend that you are all using?
Thanks
Geoffrey
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Subject: My first Mead: strawberry melomel
From: "Don Conley" <dconley1@san.rr.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 21:49:30 -0800
Back in March, I was out looking for a good dinner wine and I came across a
bottle of Chaucer's Mead. I've heard of Mead before, but never had it. My
curiosity perked so I bought it. From then on, I've been hooked on the
flavor. After that bottle was gone, I went back to the store I purchased it
from to find out that I had actually bought the last bottle. They wouldn't
be getting it in any time soon, as they said it was a seasonal drink. Check
back in winter. I then proceeded to check out all of the other wine
retailers in the San Diego area, no joy there. It seems that Mead, thought
most have heard of it, isn't sold much here. I had only one option left.
Make it.
I sit here with a glass of my first batch. It is now 6 days short of being
6 months old. Though it tastes as though it could age a little longer, it
does have a little bit of a bitter taste, but it has a very delightful
strawberry after flavor! It's clarity rivals that of any commercial white
wine I've had. It has just the slightest pink hue to it as well.
I started out with no knowledge in brewing at all... I hit the Internet in
search of answers and came across the MLD =) Great references here, and
along with some advice from the clerk at the local Home brew I set to work
on my first batch.
Since I wasn't sure if it was going to work or not (I'm a skeptic at heart)
I started with a 5 pound bottle of clover honey from Costco and some White
Labs Sweet Mead/ale yeast from the home brew store. I pasteurized the must
(came to about 3 gallons) and dumped it in a bucket. (Everything was
sanitized with bleach and well rinsed out.) Wanting to make sure that the
lid of the bucket was airtight, I sealed it using many layers of black
electricians tape. I set it out on the porch and I watched with
anticipation for the first bubbles in the air lock. The Primary
fermentation was quite slow, from what I had read... I was reading stories
of how air locks blew off of carboys and sticky overflows caused messes in
peoples kitchens. I was worried that perhaps I had done something wrong.
I figured I would let fate work for me. I left it be and basically forgot
about it for 3 months. I went down to the home brew shop and purchased me a
5 gallon carboy to rack the mead to. The store clerk was a little concerned
because it had been fermenting in a plastic bucket for so long. He said the
over time, wines and meads can oxidize in such containers. I went home and
racked it to the carboy. It had the most God awful yeast smell, and tasted
of bread. I called up the home brew store clerk for advice and he told me
to just rack it a couple times over the next month. It was just all the
dead yeast hulls causing the smell and flavor. The alcohol was so strong in
it that it burned my mouth when I started the siphon...
At the time of my first racking, I was uncertain if the Mead would be too
dry, as I only had 5 pounds of honey for the mix, so I added a 12oz can of
Welch's strawberry juice concentrate after I was done racking it to the
carboy. This gave everything a nice dark red hue. I let it sit again for
another month. During the time of the second racking, I decided to try to
start a new batch, a full 5 gallon batch. I wanted a sweet mead, so... I
made up a new must consisting of aprox. 20 pounds of Orange blossom honey
and pasteurized it with 1.5 gallons of water, added some Irish moss to for
clarity and a yeast energizer. I took about 2 cups of this must when it was
cool and added it to the first batch of mead, as I was still worried that it
would be too dry.
Almost an hour after racking and adding the new must to the mead, it took
off with a new fermentation. It was bubbling like crazy! It formed a very
thick layer of yeast on the top (I was assured that it was normal for the
yeast I was using) and I let it sit. Once that second fermentation was
over, I racked it again and let it sit. It is now in its present state,
crystal clear, a good sweetness and a nice strawberry after flavor, and just
a little bit bitter, but I'm hoping that will age away.
My second batch which consisted of the 20 pounds of Orange Blossom honey,
White Labs Sweet Mead/Ale yeast, Irish moss, Yeast nutrient and Yeast
activator is now going on 3 months old. It tastes very sweet, and has a
very thick body. It has a very nice Golden color and great clarity. Though
I'm sure this one will not be done till closer to 9 months or a year even.
I'm still uncertain on what's its final destiny will be. I don't know if
I'll split it down to make a split batch, and if so, what I'll do with the
split batch then.
Don Conley
------------------------------
Subject: sweet mead
From: LJ Vitt <lvitt4@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 08:03:30 -0800 (PST)
Jack asked about making sweet mead....
>Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #877, 27 October 2001
>From: Ups474@aol.com
>Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 05:14:36 EDT
>Has anyone out there tried the "sack mead" recipe from Charlie Papazian's
>book "Brewing mead" (it uses 15lbs of honey, 4tsp acid blend, 6tsp of yeast
>nutrient for a 5 gallon batch). I'm new to mead making and would like my
>next batch to be on the sweet side- so far I've only made champagne-dry meads
>that are wonderfull carbonated, but disgusting as a still wine. If anyone
>has tried it, please tell me how it came out. Thanks in advance
>- -Jack
I agree that champaign yeast makes poor still meads.
I suggest you increase the honey to about 18 lbs and change yeast
to a wine yeast for still wines. The yeast I suggest - Lalvin 1122,
Red star coate de blanc or Wyeast liquid sweet mead yeast.
These yeast have lower alcohol tolerances, and won't ferment sugar
after a specific alcohol level is reached. I think these are
tolerant to somewhere between 12 and 14%.
The same idea can be applied to beer yeast, but lower alcohol
tolerances.
- - Leo Vitt
Rochester, MN
------------------------------
Subject: RE: My first Mead: strawberry melomel
From: "Don Conley" <dconley1@san.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 20:26:17 -0800
Correction on the yeast I used in my mead. It was White Labs WLP720 Sweet
Mead/Wine yeast. Not Sweet Mead/Ale yeast. Sorry for the incorrect
information.
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Inquiry
From: "Brad Squier" <bradsquier@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2001 22:35:40 -0500
Hello there and how goes it?,
I have a question in regards to the possibility of purchasing or
making a fairly simple version of non-alcholic mead. I am a college
student and in my English Literature class we have been discussing
the Old English work Beowulf. In this tale, the common meeting place
is a mead hall named Heorot. I have been assigned the task to
present this work in an interesting way, and in addition to a video I
made I was hoping I could present the class with a beverage tasting
similar to mead, only non-alchoholic, for I can't bring alchohol into
the classroom:) I don't think I really have the time
or supplies to start on a new batch, so unfortunately I just might
have to concoct a little makeshift blend with juice and honey,
although it is far from the original. I am writing to ask if you have any
suggestions at all in making this possible! Thanks so much for your help!
Much Obliged-Brad Squier
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #879
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