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Mead Lovers Digest #0877
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #877, 27 October 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #877 27 October 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re:Brewing Sweet Mead (JazzboBob@aol.com)
persimmon mead (Mimi Haag)
Subject: RE: a few mead questions (Adam Funk)
NZ Mead ("Kemp, Alson")
Re: Glucose Oxidase ("elfboy0")
Re: Chocolate mint (Spencer W Thomas)
NOTE to digest archivists (Mead Lovers Digest)
Mead-making Workshop (Bob Sheck)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead. There is
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re:Brewing Sweet Mead
From: JazzboBob@aol.com
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 01:21:33 EDT
JLong@vertisinc.com asked how to brew a sweet mead
From: JazzboBob@aol.com
Subject: Making Sweet Mead
I'd calculate my recipe to start with a high enough gravity to leave a
residual sweetness of fermented honey by selecting an appropriate yeast
strain.
For example:
If you start with an OG of 1.090 and pitch Champagne Yeast the results most
likely will be a bone dry, austere, and completely fermented mead that ends
at 1.000 since Champagne Yeast is very alcohol tolerant and ferments to 14 to
16%
On the other hand, you could pitch an ale yeast that has less alcohol
tolerance such as a British Strain. This will stop fermenting earlier in the
game and end anywhere between 1.010 to 1.025 leaving a residual sweetness and
mouthfeel.
This is all relative as you go up the scale in honey and starting gravities.
Also keep in mind that with more alcohol fermented and in the mead, the
residual sweetness balance changes due to the thinning effects and taste of
the alcohol.
Bob Grossman
------------------------------
Subject: persimmon mead
From: Mimi Haag <mimihaag@swbell.net>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 09:22:26 -0700
I just picked a bunch of persimmons, which are headed for the freezer until
I can get a good fermentation started. Does anyone have experience with
persimmons? Old MLD's contain a few references to persimmons, mostly saying
to be sure they're ripe and to watch out for floating pulp. How serious is
the alum issue? I was careful to pick the soft ones, but am sure some
haven't quite reached their peak. Watching my nephew take his first bite of
a not-quite-ripe persimmon was humorous, but I don't want to repeat the
experience with three gallons of mead.
Steve Haag
------------------------------
Subject: Subject: RE: a few mead questions
From: Adam Funk <adam@ducksburg.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 18:47:59 +0100
> Subject: RE: a few mead questions
> From: "Matt_lists" <Matt_lists@hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:56:42 -0700
>
> 1 bakers yeast:
>
I can't really understand why anyone would want to use this nowadays,
although it's better than nothing (e.g. during Prohibition and if you live
somewhere like that now). Yeasts that are especially suitable for beer and
wine are widely available and relatively inexpensive, and some "mead yeast"
is available. I would expect baking yeast to produce some funny (at least
bread-y) smells and probably not to ferment very efficiently, since it's
been selected to produce high CO2 rather than alcohol and esters.
- -- Adam
------------------------------
Subject: NZ Mead
From: "Kemp, Alson" <alson@corp.cirrus.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 11:07:22 -0700
Dany,
>Since you used NZ manuka honey,
>dare I hope you live in NZ?
You may certainly dare to hope. Unfortunately, I just
popped over from the US for 10 days. ;) Lovely place, though.
Spellunking in the Waitomo Caves was great fun.
I carried 2.25kg of Tawari and 2kg of Manuka in carry on
baggage. Let's talk about dedication to the meadmaking cause.
Let's talk about mead-love. Let's talk about my right arm being
1" longer than my left.
My manuka mead is nearly finished fermenting. I
fermented in a carboy in 15 gallons of water on my back porch.
Figured that this might hold the temperature constant and low.
At present, the smell is very minty and it has a minty
aftertaste, too. Of course, it is still fermenting, so it's too
early to really taste how it'll be.
-Alson
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Glucose Oxidase
From: "elfboy0" <elfboy0@netzero.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 22:15:35 -0700
> Subject: glucose oxidase
> From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
> OK, so my question becomes this: What happens to the glucose oxidase after
> the honey is concentrated, and on along the sequence until we're working
> with the honey? Is it inconsequential? Is it de-activated or otherwise
> broken down by the concentration of sugars or heat or time or whatever
> else? If it's still there, what would keep it from becoming active again
> when we dilute the honey to make our must?
Enzymes are proteins. Proteins become denatured by several methods,
including heat. Assuming the stuff is in the honey when we make our must,
and not already denatured, if you heat your must, that will definitely
denature it. I don't know the exact temperature. Given that humans tend to
die as their temperature gets above 105(F), because of this same denaturing
process, I would assume the temperature needed to denature glucose oxidase
wouldn't be much higher. (Again, it may not even be an issue - I know
biochemistry, not honeychemistry. :)
- - Joshua
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Chocolate mint
From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer@engin.umich.edu>
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:15:51 -0400
>>>>> "Roboschwar" == Roboschwar <Roboschwar@aol.com> writes:
Roboschwar> A friend just gave me a bunch of something
Roboschwar> she calls cholate mint. Its a peppermint like herb
Roboschwar> with a definite chocolate taste. I never knew it
Roboschwar> existed.
Wow!
One of the best meads I've tasted (experience colored no doubt by
memory) was a "chocolate mint" mead that was entered in an early
"Mazer Cup" mead competition (my first ever as a judge). It was
chocolate mint flavored, and listed as an ingredient "chocolate mint."
I always thought it must have been some sort of flavoring extract, but
maybe not!
I'm pretty sure this mead won its category and it MAY have taken best
of show. No, I don't have the recipe. I'm not sure we ever had the
full recipe. But it was good. So give it a try.
=Spencer Thomas in Ann Arbor, MI (spencer@umich.edu)
------------------------------
Subject: NOTE to digest archivists
From: mead@talisman.com (Mead Lovers Digest)
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 19:26:19 -0600 (MDT)
If you are keeping an on-line archive of the digest, would you PLEASE have
the good grace and common sense to clean up the headers before you archive
a new digest that you've received in mail?!? And if you're planning to
start an archive, please plan to do such a cleanup.
Realize that there are web-crawlers harvesting EVERY address they can find
ANYwhere on the WWWeb and putting those addresses on spam lists.
I spend quite enough time shoveling spam out of the digest-submission and
digest-admin mailboxes. That can't be helped; it's the major chore in
running the digest. But now I'm getting spam in the error-return mailbox,
and I'm almost positive it's because one or more careless archivists have
left the Errors-To: header intact in their archives where the harvesters
could find it. Spammers are trashing the 'Net; please don't help them.
thanks,
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Mead-making Workshop
From: Bob Sheck <bsheck@skantech.net>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 09:15:42 -0400
The Flying Barrel is located in Frederick, MD. Anyone within range
is welcome to attend this event, but you need to let Bob Frank know
for a head count for refreshments. -
Bob Sheck
- -----+
FWD: Calling all mead makers.....
We are going to get together again.....
NOVEMBER 6, 2001 7:00 pm
Mark will talk about mead.....bring:
lawn chair......bottle of mead.....glass (we'll have plastic cups)
......$5.00 -chef Buck will make us a little snack (remember his little
snack the last time)
we'll tap the mead that was made in March, the last time we got
together.....
please let us know if you plan to attend......Buck needs a count!!!!!!!
email to: MFrank2923@aol.com
+also....we'll have a wine gathering November 13.....with Dwight
Hill......
Dwight will demonstrate how to make sparkling wines......let us know about
this one too.
time for a glass of wine.....
Bob
http://flyingbarrel.com
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #877
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