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Mead Lovers Digest #0893
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #893, 27 December 2001
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #893 27 December 2001
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Is it done yet??? (Jay Swartzfeger)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #892, 23 December 2001 ("Joseph S. Gaglio")
RE: IL meading / OH meading ("Brian Morgan")
Re: IL meading / OH meading (Clogar)
Fellow mead maker from Venezuela (Hector Alejandro Landaeta Carrasco)
Warding off hangovers ("William A. Millett")
Mead Books (Dan McFeeley)
RE: Is it done yet??? ("Don Conley")
Re: B Vits ("Matt_Maples")
Corks n closures ("Steve Gaskin")
hangover cure ("Don Anderson")
Ohio & hangover stuff ("Da Jamster")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #892, 23 December 2001 (Ups474@aol.com)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Is it done yet???
From: Jay Swartzfeger <jay@insideps2games.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 00:30:27 -0700
On Sunday, December 23, 2001, at 09:37 PM, mead-
request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Is it done yet???
> From: Joe Nelson <some1_ate_my_capn_crunch@yahoo.com>
> Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 21:52:35 -0800 (PST)
>
> Real quick question that (I hope) has an easy answer:
>
> If my mead is no longer bubbling through the airlock
> is it ready to bottle???
Well, one can assume fermentation is over when the airlock stops
bubbling, but you never know for sure without a hydrometer reading.
Using an airlock to determine fermentation in beer is pretty safe
because most ales ferment 3-5 days. Meads on the other hand can
ferment for months. Using an airlock as your only means of
fermentation can end up creating bottle bombs.
Out of curiosity, is there any reason you want to bottle your mead
directly out of primary? I don't know your particular recipe, but
most meads benefit greatly from months of aging.
> It's a still strawberry melomel. Yes. this is my
> first real batch of still mead. There are still
> occassionally some small bubbles that form but nothing
> constant. I'm hoping to bottle this soon so that I
> can start another batch of something. Anyway, any
> help would be greatly appreciated.
My advice-- let your strawberry mel age as long as you can. Buy two
more carboys-- one for a new batch and one to rack your mel into
secondary.
This is easier said than done, of course. Carboys are expensive,
and I went months with limited space for my meads. Good luck!
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #892, 23 December 2001
From: "Joseph S. Gaglio" <jgaglio@tampabay.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 04:54:37 -0500
> > Has anyone ever used cane juice or cane syrup to brew mead? I think it
> > might be more nutrient rich than honey.
>
> Unless you mean "as a supplement", it would no longer be mead; it would be
> something related to schnapps. If you mean as a supplement... well, to be
> honest, I don't know. I wouldn't imagine it to be all that much better, but
> stranger things have happened.
>
You are correct of course. I did mean as a supplement, instead of Fermax
or the like. I am hoping that it will give the brew some of the sharp,
slightly astringent taste of the original Coca Cola (R) as contrasted
with the new Coke which is made with corn syrup. 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
- --
Yours in truth,
Joseph S. Gaglio MHS
http://The_Holeyman.tripod.com/many_incarnations.html
"They counted on being able to punish them into being better, on being
able to inspire them into being better, on being able to educate them
into being better. And after ten thousand years of trying to improve
people --
without a trace of success -- they wouldn't dream of turning their
attention elsewhere."
------------------------------
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
------------------------------
Subject: Re: IL meading / OH meading
From: Clogar <clogar@concentric.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 08:18:46 -0500
> You'd have to extend "Greater Chicago" quite a ways to reach Ohio, but
> I just might be interested... are there many Ohioans on the list?
There is at least one other Ohioan on this list, though I'm a bit
southwest of you (Cincinnati). With all of the beekeepers and honey
festivals around here, I'd be surprised if there weren't more mead-
makers.. I just haven't (ever) seen them.
For anyone in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area that is interested, here's
another little tidbit: Ohio Valley Vineyards (which, IIRC, is located
roughly between Cincinnati and Dayton) produces a fair mead along with
its other wines. Off the store's rack, it was pretty sweet - after a
year of aging, it seems even more so. It appears to be just a pure,
unspiced honey mead, but it is decent. It also works extremely well
when you need a little extra mead to "top off" a carboy. :)
- -= Ron in Cincinnati
------------------------------
Subject: Fellow mead maker from Venezuela
From: Hector Alejandro Landaeta Carrasco <coloniera@cantv.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 11:24:58 -0400
Hola a todos!
My name is Hector Landaeta and I'm fairly new in mead making although I have
been a professional micro-brewer for the last 4 years. I must confess I
have such a big interest and liking to mead that my bread-maker beer brewing
business is getting to be just routine. I'm planning on using some spare
fermenting space for a new mead venture a beer keeping friend of mine an I
are starting up right now. We both live in little town an hour drive away
from Caracas, our capital city, called Colonia Tovar. It's a big tourist
attraction because it was founded at mid 19th century by Bavarian immigrants
who, by a set of bizarre circumstances, grew estranged from the rest of the
country and lived in almost complete isolation (Robinson family like but at
a much larger scale) for 100 years. The architecture of the town is the
same of an old Bavarian town and for such a racial melting pot as Venezuela
is the native inhabitants of the Colonia Tovar are mostly Germanic looking
(big novelty for our "mestizo" majority). Agriculture is our big business
and we specialize on Mediterranean and European fruits and produce (also a
novelty in a land of mangoes, bananas, papayas, avocados, coconuts, etc).
The typical beer hive outputs in this parts is around 50 to 70 kilos per
hive and you could say that almost all of our honey is highly influenced by
only two (of the nearly thousands!) of flowers that blossoms at the later
part of the year: locally we call the small trees "Tara" and "Jarillo"
(have to consult on the botanical names, sorry), but I know for sure they
are fairly abundant in all of the equatorial belt countries in South America
above 800 meters. A friend told me that in some Central American parts
(namely Costa Rica) he has observed some very closely related trees.
I hope this forum brings some light on some dark mead specifics I haven't
been able to check in any reference books because, at least in Amazon.com by
this same date last year, they only carried 1 book (which I bought) on the
subject and the best part of it is at least a good historical reference to
mead.
Anyway, this is the question. I have about 100 liters of a mead batch that
I brewed some 4 moths ago by boiling a volume of water treated with citric
acid, sodium bisulphite and "yeast energizer". I let this liquor cool down
to 60=BA Centigrade (140=BA F) and then quickly mixed the "Tara" (lighter in
color to "Jarillo") honey and ran the resultiing 21=BA Plato most through my
counterflow chiller to 19=BA C. (66=BA F.) and the saturated it to <20 ppm O2
before pitching four 11 grs. (0.39 oz) sachets of Lager (beer) yeast.
Fermentation began at >2 hours and remained active (bubbling profusely
through a blow-off arrangement) for more than 10 days, always at said temp.
For the last 2 months it has ceased to bubble through the smaller airlock so
I gather fermentation is, for all practical purposes, complete. What it has
not achieved is any substantial clarification. It puzzles me because
diamonium phosphate (Yeast energizer) isn't a clouding agent, and so are all
of the other ingredients (to my knowledge). The flocculation properties of
the yeast I used are unsurpassed by none of the other beer yeasts available,
dry or liquid (I've tried them ALL. In beer, of course). So I'm getting to
think (in my impatience) that I'm going to have to use some chemical
clarifier or perhaps a deep filter (0.5 microns) on the mead in order to
bottle it clear. What have I overseen? Does the choice of yeast affect
clarification that much? I'm trying on my next mead batch with two Lanvin
wine strains (dry and sweet finish), but wold appreciate any input about
expected times of clarification or clarification methods/ingredients.
Thanks in advance and sorry for the length of the message (got carried away
and no time to crop it. Wife screaming for me to help her finish the
"Hallacas", kind of stuffed tamales that are our national main Xmas dish).
Salud amigos y Feliz Navidad!
- --
Hector Landaeta
Director / Head Brewer
Cerveceria La Coloniera, C.A.
Colonia Tovar - Venezuela.
------------------------------
Subject: Warding off hangovers
From: "William A. Millett" <wmillett@fractal.com.br>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 14:23:14 -0200
Subject: Warding off hangovers
From: Silent Running / Admin <moonlight@silent-running.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 19:01:23 -0800
See Posting 745 of 6/20/99, summarised below:
Some of the effects of hangovers are caused, in
part, by lack of sugar in the blood after intake of large quantities of
alcohol (ethyl), as sugar is used to metabolise the alcohol in the
bloodstream. Dehydration due to ingestion of alcohol also causes some of the
symptoms of hangovers.
The hangover *headache* is caused by the presence of fusel oil in the
beverage. Fusel oil is an important by product of
fermentation. It is not a single substance but a mixture of higher alcohols
(5 or more carbon atoms in the chain), mainly amyl alcohols. Most of the
fusel oil is formed by de-amination of amino-acids, during the nitrogenous
metabolism of the yeast. The addition of readily available sources of
nitrogen, eg, ammonium salts to the must prior to fermentation helps to
decrease the amount of fusel oil formed. The use of yeast nutrients
containing ammonium phosphate thus will automatically aid in keeping fusel
oil production at a low level.
So I would invest in yeast nutrients and not in Vitamin B in meads to
prevent hangovers. Mind that Vitamin B complex is used in Yeast energizers
as it is a micronutrient for yeast (meaning essential, but sufficient in
very small amounts)
William A. Millett
wmillett@fractal.com.br
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Books
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 12:59:49 -0500
On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, in MLD 891, David Craft wrote:
>I recently purchased Roger Morses book, 1980 ( I hope I have the name right,
>the book is at home and I am at work). I was a little dissappointed, not
>knowing that the book is 20 years olds. It lacks recipes to a large degree
>and much current information. I am sure it was the "bible" 20 years ago!
>
>Can anyone recommend a more current book, sources too.
In some ways, Roger Morse's book is a bit older than the 1980 publication
date since the bulk of his research into honey fermentation was carried
out between the early 1950's and mid 1960's. Acton & Duncan's _Making
Mead_ is also quite old, published about 1965 (the G.W. Kent edition is
a republication).
At this time, there isn't a really definitive work on mead to be found.
There are good points and bad points, and you have to know a fair amount
about meadmaking to begin with in order to pick them out. Some of them
have been reviewed on MLD in the past -- I think these were Pattie Vargus
and Richard Gulling's _Wild Wines & Meads_ and Pamela Spence's _Mad About
Mead!_.
I've listed some of the more well known books on mead below, along with
another section on mead articles. Susanne Price's article is good, and
the articles by Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm are well worth reading.
Brother Adam's booklet on mead is an oldie but a goodie. Grab it if
you can! I included Cindy Renfrow's _A Sip Through Time_ because it is
the most comprehensive gathering of historical recipes for mead, wines
and brews you can find. She includes all the mead recipes from Digby's
_Closet Opened_, published on or about 1660. Also check out Clayton
Cone's web article on mead.
I understand there are folk out there working on a new book on meadmaking
which I'm hoping will be a substantial improvement on what is currently
available. In the meantime, probably the most up to date info to be
found on mead is in the MLD archives!
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net
BOOKS
Bryan Acton & Peter Duncan. _Making Mead_ Ann Arbor, Michigan: G.W. Kent
Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9619072-8-2
Clara Furness. _Honey Wines and Beers_ Northern Bee Books
ISBN 0-907908-39-X May be available through Wicwas Press.
Robert Gayre/Charlie Papazian. _Brewing Mead: Wassail! In Mazers of Mead_
Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 1986. ISBN 0-937381-00-4
Roger A. Morse. _Making Mead_ Cheshire, Conn: Wicwas Press, 1980.
ISBN 1-878075-04-7
Cindy Renfrow. _A Sip Through Time: A Collection of Old Brewing Recipes_
1994. Published by the author, Sussex, New Jersey, 1994."
ISBN 0-9628598-3-4 (try www.thousandeggs.com for ordering info)
Pamela Spence. _Mad About Mead!_ St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications,
1997. ISBN 1-56718-683-1
ARTICLES
Brother Adam. _Mead_ International Bee Research Association, England.
(reprint of the article appearing in _Bee World_ 34(8): 149-156, 1953.
Available through Wicwas Press (Beekeeping Education Service, Wicwas
Press. P.O. Box 817E, Cheshire CT 06410-0817).
Brother Adam. "The Art of Making Mead." (a reprint of the _Bee World_
article) _Zymurgy_ vol. 10, no. 5, Winter 1987.
Pat Baker. Barkshack Gingermead in Wonderful world of worts. _Zymurgy_
January 4, 1979.
Robert Berthold jr. "Make Mead." _Gleanings in Bee Culture_ vol 119, no. 9,
Sept. 1991.
Robert Berthold jr. "A New Concept in Mead Making." _American Bee Journal_
vol. 132, no. 2, 1992.
Robert Berthold jr. "A New Concept in Mead Making." _American Bee Journal_
vol. 137, no. 10, 1997
Ralph Bucca. Stalking the wild meads. _Zymurgy_ Summer 1993.
Byron Burch. "Making Sense of Making Mead." _Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
George Clayton Cone. "The Basics Of Mead Fermentation."
http://www.lallemand.com/brew/inferment/InFerment/Archive.htm
Steve Dellasala. "How to Judge Meads." _Zymurgy_ vol. 23 no 2
March/April 2000.
James H. Dickson. "Bronze Age Mead." _Antiquity_, LII 1978.
F. Filippello, G. L. Marsh, W. V. Cruess. "Suggested Directions for
Making Honey Mead." _American Bee Journal_ vol 75, September 1935.
James W. Johnston, jr. and Chevy Chase. "The Mead Maker Uses Herbs."
_The Herbalist_ vol. 39, 1973.
R. W. Kime, M. R. Mclellan and C. Y. Lee. "Ultra-Filtration of Honey
for Mead Production." _American Bee Journal_ vol. 131, no. 8,
August 1991.
R. W. Kime, M. R. Mclellan and C. Y. Lee. "An Improved Method of Mead
Production." _American Bee Journal_ vol. 131, 1991.
Brad Kraus. "When Mazers and Mashers Meet: The Magic of Brewing with Honey."
_Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
Bill Litzinger. Mead Making: The most Ancient Art of Brewing. _Zymurgy_
Winter 1984, pages 24-25.
Jim Martella. "It's Been A Pleasure Meading You: An International
Meadery Tour." _Zymurgy_ vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1996.
Linda McCandless. "Food Scientists 'Sweeten ' Market for Mead." _American
Bee Journal_ vol. 135, no. 2, 1995.
Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm. "An Analysis of Mead, Mead Making and the
Role of its Primary Constituents."
http://www.eklektix.com/gfc/mead/danspaper.html.
Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm. "Mead Success: Ingredients, Processes
and Techniques." _Zymurgy_ vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1995.
Dan McConnell and Ken Schramm. "Mastering Mead Formulation: The Art and
Science of the Sacred Honey Brew." _Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
Alan Moen. "From Glorious Obscurity to Modern Production: The Buzz about
Mead. _Zymurgy_ May/June 2000.
Roger Morse. 1972 An Annotated Bibliography on Honey Wine (Mead).
Bibliography of the International Bee Research Associatoin No. 13:21
Roger Morse and Keith Steinkraus. "Wines from the Fermentation of Honey;"
Eva Crane, _Honey: A Comprehensive Survey_ New York: Oxford University
Press, 1980. ISBN 0-19-286010-0
Clifford T. Newman Jr. Mead making - honey 'champagne' or 'wine'. _Zymurgy_
Spring 1986.
Charlie Papazian. New Zealand Honey Mead. _Zymurgy_ Winter 1984.
Charlie Papazian. Prickly Pear Cactus Mead. _Zymurgy_ Summer 1987.
Susanne Price. "Stimulate Your Senses with Mead." _Zymurgy_ Fall 1992.
Russell Schehrer. In Mead We Trust. _Zymurgy_ Fall 1991.
Shadan. "The Making of Melomels and Flower Metheglins." _Tournaments
Illuminated_, Spring A.S. XXII no. 82.
Anne L. Simko. "Odin's Mead." _Gleanings in Bee Culture._ vol. 118, no. 8,
August 1990.
Pamela Spence. "Mead Making Perspective." _Gleanings in Bee Culture_
vol. 120, no. 8, August 1992.
K. H. Steinkraus, Roger Morse. "Factors Influencing the Fermentation of
Honey in Mead Production." _Journal of Apicultural Research_ vol. 5, 1966.
K. H. Steinkraus, Roger Morse. "Chemical Analysis of Honey Wine." _Journal of
Apicultural Research." vol. 12, 1973.
C. L. Stong. "The Amateur Scientist" _Scientific American_ vol. 227,
no. 3, September 1972. (This column features a lengthy reprint from
Roger Morse's 1966 article on mead)
Spencer Thomas. "The Magic of Mardi Gras Mead." _Zymurgy_ vol. 20, no. 1,
Spring 1997.
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Is it done yet???
From: "Don Conley" <dconley1@san.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 14:59:44 -0800
>Subject: Is it done yet???
>From: Joe Nelson <some1_ate_my_capn_crunch@yahoo.com>
>Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 21:52:35 -0800 (PST)
>Real quick question that (I hope) has an easy answer:
>If my mead is no longer bubbling through the airlock
>is it ready to bottle???
I've got a batch that I started in August, that about a month and a half
ago, appeared to have stopped all fermentation process. No activity in the
airlock and no visible bubbles rising up from the mead. This batch is a
straight sweet mead. I was tempted on asking the group about it, but I
remembered seeing many replies to such questions that mead does take some
time to ferment. Always the answers seemed to be something along the line
of, "If in doubt, wait it out." Or to just let it sit and see what time does
to it. Magically about 3 weeks ago, it started forming a layer of bubbles
on it as the fermentation seemed to have kicked back in. Its nothing wild
now, but its got about the same bubble action as a glass of 7up that has
been pored and let settle a few minutes.
Hope this helps some.
Don Conley
------------------------------
Subject: Re: B Vits
From: "Matt_Maples" <Matt_Maples@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 16:03:01 -0800
Yeast does metabolize B vitamines. You might be better off adding it
just before you bottle. Although I wouldn't really want to add any to my
mead.
There are things that I do to reduce mead hangovers. Now this is just me
it may not work for you but I will throw it out there
1) Sweet meads give me bad hangovers. I prefer the dry stuff anyway so
if I stick to drinking dry mead all night then I am usually fine.
2) Meads that are fermented slower seem to treat me better. Maybe with
the faster fermentations the formation of the higher alcohols has
something to do with it or maybe it is an ester compound. Either way the
ones that end up being fermented at 80+ degrees (no A/C at my house)
tend to be head blasters.
3) my after drinking regimen consists of this, 1 qt of water and a MEGA
Vitamin. If I had REALLY drank too much 30mg of sutifed (to keep the
sinuses from swelling and me snoring like a chainsaw) and 3mg of
meletonin to induce a deeper sleep (so I feel rested in the morning).
Hope this helps someone.
Matt Maples
Liquid Solutions
12162 SW Scholls Ferry Rd
Tigard, OR 97223
503-524-9722
www.liquidsolutions.ws (web site)
http://list.liquidsolutions.ws/scripts/lyris.pl (mailing list)
May mead regain its rightful place as the beverage of gods and kings.
------------------------------
Subject: Corks n closures
From: "Steve Gaskin" <stevegask@ihug.com.au>
Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 10:35:12 +1030
CJ asked
> For those of you that cork your bottles of mead.
Do you put the cork in wet or dry? I heard that
putting the cork in wet could introduce bacteria=20
more easily into your special brew. =20
Also, at the supply store I go to in burbank
California they carry five different grades of corks.=20
The most expensive is=20
a "packed cork" 100 for 20$. My question is will it
really matter the quality of cork? I have some mead
that I might have the patience to leave alone for a
couple of years but I'm trying to save some for 3+
years.<
Hi CJ,
I have used corks - originally because I thought it would be more classy
on the bottles! You know - snob value. To be honest I gave up on them!
There are the problems you mentioned with needing to moisten them to get
them seated right, and some small risk with that method causing
contamination. I read that you could buy some that have been pretreated
with silicone, to assist in insertion - but there is added cost with
those!
In my opinion, corks are an old fashioned system, that has reasonably
high failure rates, and some taint problems etc. Here in Australia,
several wineries are switching to synthetic corks, and some are using
other closure systems to overcome some of the problems. See the links
below for some closure testing results:
http://www.ewinexchange.com.au/portal/closures.html
http://www.wineanorak.com/closuretrial.htm
I must admit though, the majority still use cork - apparently there is a
big consumer bias toward traditional cork
Some of my corks (cheaper ones) nearly fell to bits on removal - so I
decided to do what I believe many other meadies do and use crown seals
on brewing store bought bottles. Real cheap, a far better sealing
system, will last for several years, hey presto - what more could a guy
ask for? :-)
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: hangover cure
From: "Don Anderson" <dca05@cvip.fresno.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 00:59:23 -0800
I know little about B complex vitamins but after years of alcohol
consumption I have learned to avoid a hang-over, drink equal amounts of
water with your alcohol (between drinks have a glass of water) you will
piss more but your head won't pound!
------------------------------
Subject: Ohio & hangover stuff
From: "Da Jamster" <dajamster@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 01:51:44 +0000
Hi! I'm in Lima, Ohio. 1 1/2 to 2 hrs drive.
***************
My best hangover recipie involves 1/3 grape juice, 2/3 water and a splash of
lemon juice.
I've been very lucky. I've never gotten hungover on home brew. Dehydrated,
yes, but never the stomach-wrenching, head-swimming nastiness produced by
commercial brews.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #892, 23 December 2001
From: Ups474@aol.com
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 16:27:28 EST
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.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #893
*******************************
