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Mead Lovers Digest #0894
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #894, 31 December 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #894 31 December 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
hangovers ("Alan McKay")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001 (AmberIsis@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001 (AmberIsis@aol.com)
Bulk-aging sparkling beverages? ("Geoffrey T. Falk")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #892, 23 December 2001 (Christopher C Carpenter)
Re: Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers (Dan McFeeley)
Mead gathering update (Calvin Armerding)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001 (Joe Nelson)
Meading announcements (everyone please note) (Mead Lovers Digest)
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: hangovers
From: "Alan McKay" <amckay@ottawa.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 09:39:20 -0500 (EST)
In my reading on brewing beer I learned that hangovers are caused mainly
by two things :
(1) dehydration
(2) vitimin B complex depletion
Since brewing yeast is essentially a B-complex factory, I would always
drink the sediment at the bottom of my bottles of homebrew so as to help
ward off a hangover. And before going to bed down a couple of big glasses
of water. Or better yet, a big glass of V8 and one of water. Or if I'm
reallydrinking a lot I'll try to have a glass of V8 for every drink of alcohol I
havefor the last hour or two before turning in. This requires foresight but
eventuallybecomes a habit.
A good friend of mine who is not a brewer told me that he always learned
that the best way to avoid a hangover is to drink a big glass of water with
a Vitamin B pill. To this day he keeps a large bottle of B Vitimin pills
in hismedicine cabinet for when he's drinking heavily, and he swears it's been
years since he's had a hangover.
cheers,
- -Alan
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001
From: AmberIsis@aol.com
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 15:26:10 EST
In a message dated 12/27/2001 2:02:22 AM Mountain Standard Time,
mead-request@talisman.com writes:
<< If I can get down to
the Cane farm next month I will be giving it a try, likely one gal. of
raw Orange blossom or wildflower honey and one half gal. of cane syrup.
I'll report progress to the list.
Thanks for your input,
joe >>
Please do report on this. I have 2/3's gallon of ancient Homemade Florida
Cane Molasses which I have though about adding to a batch of mead. Will be
interested in how yours comes out.
Meadmistress/aka Sylvia Webb in New Mexico
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001
From: AmberIsis@aol.com
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 15:28:38 EST
In a message dated 12/27/2001 2:02:22 AM Mountain Standard Time,
mead-request@talisman.com writes:
<<
Subject: RE: IL meading / OH meading
From: "Brian Morgan" <brian-morgan@cinci.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 06:28:08 -0500
I'm a mead maker in Cincinnati - I favor non-traditional, dry, sparkling
meads.
Brian Morgan
>>
Brian, I to am favoring dry and sparkling meads. I have made a marvelous
sand cherry sparkling, Raspberry Sparkling and a Pele's Pale which is made
from Lahua Honey from Hawaii and is really fine. What have you been using?
------------------------------
Subject: Bulk-aging sparkling beverages?
From: "Geoffrey T. Falk" <gtf@cirp.org>
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 19:05:24 -0700 (MST)
My dry traditional mead, that I started in June, is done fermenting at
last. The SG has stayed at 0.994 for the past 5 weeks, and it tastes
very dry. Although there are still some bubbles, I am sure that is just
from the residual CO2 saturation.
This batch will be bottle-carbonated in champagne or beer bottles. But
it definitely needs to age for at least 1-2 years. My question is,
should I bottle it now, or bulk age? What results can I expect either
way?
If I bulk-age, is there any risk of losing viable yeast cells for
carbonation, if I leave it too long in the carboy? (The yeast is
starved, as there is no sugar for it to feed on.) And it would be nice
to keep the residual CO2, as it is nicely saturated now.
Thanks
Geoffrey
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #892, 23 December 2001
From: Christopher C Carpenter <chris.carpenter@ndsu.nodak.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 00:15:41 -0600
- --On Sunday, December 23, 2001 9:37 PM -0700 mead-request@talisman.com
wrote:
> I am giving thought to pitching a bit of
> this vitamin tonic into my mead as a built-in hangover preventative.
HA.... I like your thinking......;O), I believe the creator of Pepcid AC
should recieve a Nobel prize, if you take it the night before, no
headache...(although the porcelain god might still demand her tribute). Its
a peach.
Chris
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:53:04 -0500
On Wed, 26 Dec 2001, in MLD 893, <Ups474@aol.com> wrote:
>Re: Sacred herbal healing beers by Stephon Harrod Buhner- I saw the
>reference to it as a more modern mead-making book- it is (heather mead
>is worth trying), but there is one very serious problem with that book
> - on pg.391-392, the author describes "bracken fern ale" (pterdium
>aquilinum)- appearantly he doesn't realize that the braken fern is a
>really nasty carcinogenic plant. It also contains compounds that can
>cause blisters/ulcerations to form on the mouth. Yes, it is used in
>some Japanese cooking- hence the reason Japan has the highest rate of
>stomach cancer in the world. Before trying out anything in that book
>- do alot of background research into any of the plants your going to use.
That warning would apply to just about any book that recommends the use
of herbs, particularly old recipes with perhaps a very long oral tradition.
Regardless of how thorough the research is, you can never be entirely sure
that the recommended ingredients are safe. The best rule of thumb is, if
you can't buy it at the local grocery, ethnic, supermarket, or otherwise,
check it out very carefully.
Cindy Renfro has some good advice on this subject in _A Sip Through Time_
that is worth going over (p. 264). She says that it is best to consult an
up-to-date herbal guide such as Mrs. Grieve's _A Modern Herbal_ along with
the _AMA Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants_. She warns agains
older herbal books since improvements in testing methods have resulted
in many herbs formerly recognized as generally safe now being moved into
categories of toxic and poisonous plants. Old manuscript resources such
as medieval texts are highly questionable given the value of various
ancient sources attributed by the writers. Medicinal power was often
thought to derive from the shape of the plant, leaves, etc., and accounts
that were clearly folklore were accepted with little question. Also --
apparently many herbs can cause uterine contractions and may cause
miscarriages. For that reason (and this is written in emphatic
italicized font) "if you are pregnant, consult your doctor before taking
any herbal concoction."
To add to this, it's not wise to use herbal preparations if you are
prescribed medications of any kind. Even common herbs found in any
health food store may have adverse effects when combined with medications.
Check with your doctor but be aware that not all doctors are well versed
in herbology.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
------------------------------
Subject: Mead gathering update
From: Calvin Armerding <cutter64@cio.net>
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 09:28:07 -0800
I posted an informational on the rec.crafts.meadmaking newsgroup with some
of the ideas that we've discussed about setting up regional gatherings. I
was hoping for some feedback and didn't get one single response. Are any
of you guys on the newsgroup? I was really disappointed cause I was hoping
to generate some discussion and maybe get some good ideas going there.
"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers and
woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that
principle." --General William Curtis
John Calvin Armerding - cutter64@cio.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001
From: Joe Nelson <some1_ate_my_capn_crunch@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 21:06:55 -0800 (PST)
Dear Listers,
In response to a few of the things brought about by my
question of whether my brew was done. I can't really
take a hydrometer reading to tell if it's done because
I forgot to take one before I started brewing. I know
it was a big slip up but I was in a hurry. I have now
learned that hurrying is bad. Could I still take a
reading to tell if it's finished??? I don't know as
I'm still rather new to all this.
Also, I have other carboys, but unfortunately they are
not with me right now. I have enough carboys right
now that it wouldn't make sense to buy more at this
point just to transfer one batch.
I'm not trying to bottle right out of primary. This
was primaried for a while then it went into the jug
and that's where it's been for 4 months.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for their advice and thanks
to anyone else who gives me more (God knows I need
it),
Joe
------------------------------
Subject: Meading announcements (everyone please note)
From: mead@talisman.com (Mead Lovers Digest)
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 00:29:14 -0700 (MST)
OK, the response to my query about handling announcements for regional and
local mead gatherings is a consensus that people would like a single item
in each issue of the MLD to summarize all gatherings...so I'm going to
start that next year (i.e., the next issue of the MLD). We will call these
events "meadings", in the tradition of what some folks have been calling
them all along. (If someone has filed a post-facto trademark on the word
"meading", we shall have to slap them about with lawyers!:-)
Here's the basics: If you want to announce a gathering for mead-makers in
your area (or to announce some other event which includes an invitation to
mead-makers), send email to meading@talisman.com. Include the date, the
location, and contact information, at the minimum. A (brief!) description
of any details is OK too, but it MUST be brief. One 80-character line of
text would be a good measure. Contact information should be something like
an email address, a URL, a phone number, or a snail-mail address. Realize
that the MLD has WIDE distribution, so for example if you don't want people
calling you from five time-zones away, don't use your home phone as the
contact point. An email address is probably the best choice. Also realize
that if you post the information here, it's an open invitation. If you
don't want just anybody to show up, or if you need a head-count in advance,
you better say so!
Note that this means there's going to be more editing of articles sub-
mitted to the MLD: If I see an article which is an invitation for a meading
but it's submitted to the main digest address, I will try to turn it into
a meading submission, and if it lacks enough information you'll get a form
letter asking for more detail but your article will _not_ appear in the
main digest.
I'm considering the question of whether major mead competitions should be
exempt from this. I don't have a dog, so I won't be dogmatic.
Timing: I'm still trying to work out the aspect of when and how often to
publish an announcement. Obviously I won't send an announcement for an
event that has passed. But I don't want to run an announcement in every
MLD for six months for an event announced far in advance. I'll wing it for
now; if you have suggestions, tell me at mead-request@talisman.com. At the
least, an event should appear in every MLD in the month in which it will
happen.
Legality/legitimacy/yadda: I will include a header on the meading section
of the digest, disclaiming any responsibility for the nature of the events,
because there's no way I can police them all. You are responsible for
doing what you say you're going to do. At the same time, I will make a
sanity check on submissions to avoid anything that is patently illegal--
such as indications of underage drinking, distillation in the US, etc.
Just play nice, OK?
Summary: If you want to announce a local or regional gathering of mead
makers, send mail to meading@talisman.com. Include location, date,
contact information, and a brief description of the event.
_ _ _
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #894
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