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Mead Lovers Digest #0928
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Errors-To: mead-errors@talisman.com
Reply-To: mead@talisman.com
To: mead-list@talisman.com
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #928, 10 May 2002
Mead Lover's Digest #928 10 May 2002
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Mead fining ("Bruce Brode")
rainwater? (Cam Lay)
RE: addin raisins (Kristinn Eysteinsson)
Re: King Midas; mead, beer & wine mixed. (Adam Funk)
Raisins ("Steve Gaskin")
Re: Stuck airlock (nutwood@intas.net.au)
More info. on pectinase and methanol production ("Bruce Brode")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #927, 6 May 2002 (Christopher C Carpenter)
Re: Polish mead ("Matt_lists")
POSTINGS: accuracy, editing, ownership (READ THIS!) (Mead Lovers Digest)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #927, 6 May 2002 (Russ Riley)
Did they do that or not........... (Christopher C Carpenter)
Results on mesquite mead (Melinda Merkel Iyer)
Re: adding rasins ("Ken Taborek")
recipe request ("mmeleen")
dandelion mead clarity ("mmeleen")
a few questions for discussion ("mmeleen")
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
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Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead. There is
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Mead fining
From: "Bruce Brode" <BruceB@cpandb.com>
Date: Mon, 06 May 2002 14:30:24 -0700
In response to this post:
<<Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #926, 3 May 2002
From: Arcturus <arcturus@accesscomm.ca>
Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 15:39:48 -0600
I want to thank Dick Dunn for his advice on Cysers. I have a question about
this method that Bruce Brode wrote about in Issue #924. Here is the quote:
>Subject: Pectin, acid, etc.
>From: "Bruce Brode" <BruceB@cpandb.com>
>Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 11:15:34 -0700
>
>Pectinaze, or pectic enzyme, is best used before fermentation. The danger
>with using it during or after fermentation is the potential for creating
>methanol, something you definitely do not want. In terms of clearing haze
>from mead, I have had success using a double fining method: Bentonite
>followed immediately by Sparkolloid. Follow the package directions but be
>conservative on the Bentonite as one can strip some flavor out by using
>too much. The Bentonite certainly works for attracting albumins and the
>Sparkolloid helps that complex to settle out.
My question is, how immediately is "immediately"? One right after the
other in the same evening? Or "immediately" from the point of view of the
mead - so like a week or two? I'm not being facetious here, I get the
feeling you mean within a day or two, but I just want to be clear. (Actually,
I want my mead to be clear). I'm going to try this with my infamous Cyser
that is giving me trouble and see if it helps.>>
Bruce Brode replies: The Bentonite needs to be hydrated and blended to
get its particles adequately suspended in the water medium--I use a
hand-held blender for this, and warm water helps. Let the Bentonite steep
in the warm water for awhile before blending it in. By contrast, the
Sparkolloid requires boiling in water for about 20 minutes in order to
dissolve adequately and should be added to the wine to be fined while
still warm. Stir the blenderized Bentonite/water mixture into the mead
and put the Sparkolloid/water mix in right after it, no need to wait even
a day or two. The Bentonite does the main job of attracting protein haze
particles such as albumins, and the Sparkolloid helps the Bentonite
complex settle out. At times I have watched this happen within a matter
of minutes after adding the two fining materials, other times it takes a
few days but generally it is done within a week.
Bruce Brode
bruceb@cpandb.com
------------------------------
Subject: rainwater?
From: Cam Lay <clay@CLEMSON.EDU>
Date: Mon, 06 May 2002 17:48:53 -0400
Charles wants to use rainwater to make mead.
>Firstly, rainwater is not necessarily pure water. It can contain a lot of
>undesirable elements, especially if you live in an area with a large
> >industrial presence.
Not just industrial areas - some rain in agricultural areas of the midwest
contain atrazine (herbicide) at levels near the health advisory
level. These are transient events, of course. Also - many roofing
materials contain zinc to prevent mold and mildew. (Nothing compared to
the billion pounds of chelated zinc we put down the drain while washing our
dandruff-free hair, mind you. Or the amount of 17-methyl diethyl
stilbesterol that 50% of the population in most industrialized countries
pees out into the environment. But, I digress.)
I think I'll stick with tap water. But then again, with all the
fermentation products floating around in there, it may not matter.
You pays your money, and you takes your chances.
Regards,
C
Good heavens no, these are not Clemson University's opinions.
------------------------------
Subject: RE: addin raisins
From: Kristinn Eysteinsson <kiddiey@ismennt.is>
Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 23:27:06 +0000
> Hi
>
> Just started a batch of cyser. 50% apple juice, 50% honey must
> resulting in a SG of 1.080. Added yeast nutrition and Lalvin D-47 yeast.
> I plan to add more honey when fermentation has started. I want it to
> result in a semi-sweet cyser.
(snip)
> Hrafnkell Eiriksson
I see there's another Icelander on the list. Do you live in the Reykjavik
area? More importantly, do you know of some place where it wouldn't bankrupt
me to buy enough honey to make 25 litres of mead?
> I've also been wondering if I should add rasins to the must but have
> no experience with that. Any hints or pointers? What effect does it have
> on the taste?
> If I do it, should I take some precautions to prevent that the rasins
> infect the must? Heat the in a microwave?
I've never added raisins to mead but I have added them to wine to add body.
Anything you add will change the taste. Whether that's good or bad depends on
what you like. I've never had a problem with infection. When I make fruit
wine I pour boiling water over the fruit (including raisins) and that
probably sanitizes them enough.
- ------------------------------
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any
good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
-- Howard Aiken
------------------------------
Subject: Re: King Midas; mead, beer & wine mixed.
From: Adam Funk <adam.funk@blueyonder.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 08:45:08 +0100
> Subject: Re: King Midas; mead, beer & wine mixed.
> From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
> Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 14:03:40 -0500
>
> On Wed, May 2002, in MLD 926, Adam Funk wrote:
> >I found a link to this article in Explorator, an archaeology-related
> >e-newsletter.
>
> [....]
>
> I tried clicking on the link but couldn't get to the site. If anyone
> else had problems, there's more info on the University of Penn
> site. Try this link:
>
> http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Midas/acknowledgments.html
Sorry about that -- I think the problem is that the URL is too long to fit
on one line, so only the first line is "clickable" in the e-mail client. It
should work if you open a browser window, clear the address field, copy and
paste the bits of the URL into the address field, and then press return.
- -- Adam
------------------------------
Subject: Raisins
From: "Steve Gaskin" <stevegask@ihug.com.au>
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 17:52:41 +0930
>I've also been wondering if I should add rasins to the must but have
>no experience with that. Any hints or pointers? What effect does it have
>on the taste?
>If I do it, should I take some precautions to prevent that the rasins
>infect the must? Heat the in a microwave?
>Hrafnkell Eiriksson
Hello Hrafnkell,
The addition of raisins is quite common in fruit wines, when the fruits
are lacking in tannin. Grapes have a good amount of tannin naturally
present, so none needs to be added. I do not fully understand the
function of tannin, but believe that it adds to astringency and "body"
in flavour and also helps wines to age? I cannot see why meads could not
benefit from those characteristics?
I have used raisins myself previously in a banana wine and now in a
blackberry wine, at the suggestion of the recipe author. The banana wine
was full flavoured and rich, the blackberry still needs time before I
will be able to judge it.
Give it a shot!
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Stuck airlock
From: nutwood@intas.net.au
Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 19:04:22 +1000
> In an overzealous moment of trying to get a good airlock last fall, I pushed
> the stopper down too far into the neck of the carboy. According to my brew
> guy, he got a batch of carboys that had a neck "slightly" too large, and it
> appears I bought one of them.
Nothing like a practical problem to promote discussion. here's my
two cents worth!
Please don't try using a expanding bolt to remove it as suggested
by someone. A moments thought will tell you that it will crack the
carboy.
As Jeremiah suggested, a short piece of rod with a sturdy string
or fishing trace tied to the centre, inserted through the hole then
allowed to swing out to form a tee on the end of the string will solve
this problem.
I loved the idea of using a towel to remove a stopper that's gone
right through. Excellent. It's almost worth pushing a stopper
through just to give it a go!
Steve
------------------------------
Subject: More info. on pectinase and methanol production
From: "Bruce Brode" <BruceB@cpandb.com>
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 11:59:41 -0700
>From a home winemaker friend of mine who is better at researching these
things than I am:
Ough: Winemaking Basics, pg. 80 referring to the use of pectic enzymes
reads "The composition of the juice is not significantly changed by the
enzymes except for the pectins and methanol." and a table on pg. 82 shows
the methanol content rising around 10%, more at lower temps.
Amerine & Joslyn: Table Wines, pg. 282 a small tree-diagram shows
pectin
hydrolyze into methanol & pectinic acids then pectinic acid hydrolyzes
into
methanol and pectic acid.
pg. 283 has a table showing about a 10% rise in methanol in grape musts
becoming wines (to about 90 mg / liter).
pg. 304 notes "There is also some hydrolysis of pectins with the liberation
of methanol and increase in free amino acids." under a subheading of
"Noncrushing" of grapes.
pg. 433 under the subheading "Methanol" reads in part "This is substantiate
d by the fact that the methanol content is higher (1) when pectolytic
enzymes are added to the must..."
Peynaud: Knowing & Making Wine, pg. 48 says : "pectins are concatenations
of galacturonic acid partially esterfied by methyl alcohol...Pectins are
hydrolized during fermentation freeing methanol and pectic acid...
So, as Andrew Lea pointed out, add the pectic enzyme early before ethanol
is produced, since this inhibits its action. Any methanol produced may
volatilize off as well.
Bruce Brode
bruceb@cpandb.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #927, 6 May 2002
From: Christopher C Carpenter <chris.carpenter@ndsu.nodak.edu>
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 14:56:56 -0500
Greetings unto the meadhall
I have been brewing with flower petals for a while now, and
am reveling on my latest Lavender mead.
You need to have very aromatic roses, Heirloom roses are
recommended, and hybridized roses tend to have the smell
bred out of them. Put them in your primary when you start
to brew. Do NOT boil them and add them after the must has
cooled. It would work very well to put them in the
secondary if you want to deal with the added mess of
filtering out your end product. Another way, if you have
more cash than resources, is to use Rose Water, Middle
Eastern imported if you can. It is already extracted, and
is made of the right kind of roses.
I wish you success, and am waiting for my first true batch
of Rose mead, but have to have my own home where I can grow
Heirloom roses.
Chris Carpenter
- --On Monday, May 06, 2002 3:07 PM -0600
mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Well, my latest obsession is to make a rhodomel. As
> such, all of the rose bushes around my house have been
> stripped of their petals and the petals have been frozen.
> Now the question is: how do y'all recommend that I treat
> the rose petals?
> 1) pasteurize honey with petals. Remove petals.
> Ferment.
> 2) pasteurize honey with petals. Don't remove petals.
> Ferment. Remove petals after a day or so.
> 3) Boil rose petals in water. Remove rose petals. Use
> water to make mead.
> 4) Put petals in water. Put honey in water. Put yeast
> in water. Stand back.
> 4a) Remove petals after a day of fermentation.
> 4b) Leave petals in until the end of fermentation.
>
> Simple, eh?
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Polish mead
From: "Matt_lists" <Matt_lists@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 17:33:35 -0700
Once again I turn to fellow MLDer's for some good mead info. I just got
three more Polish meads here at the shop and I know next to nothing about
them. My distributor knows I'm a mead freak and just can't say no when he
brings this stuff in. If anyone has any info or even tasting notes on these
I would greatly appreciate you sharing.
* Slowianski
* Lednicki
* Kasztelanski
Thanks for the help. You can email me a matt_maples@liquidsolutions.ws .
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)
------------------------------
Subject: POSTINGS: accuracy, editing, ownership (READ THIS!)
From: mead@talisman.com (Mead Lovers Digest)
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 23:15:55 -0600 (MDT)
Because of some recent off-line discussion, I would like to remind everyone
of the following facts about the Mead-Lover's Digest:
* The MLD is *not* edited. I am the "janitor": I clean out the incoming
mail that doesn't belong in the digest (spam, mailer errors, spam, mis-
directed admin requests, spam, spam, spam). I do not edit for content
nor for accuracy, and I use only as much of a simple mechanical check
for relevance as is required to keep out the garbage.
* Articles which appear here are the responsibility of the individual
writers. If they say something wrong, it's their error.
* Articles which appear here are the property of the individual authors.
That is, they own the copyrights. If you want to reproduce an article
which appeared here, you must contact the author directly.
And, to forestall the obvious questions and concerns: No, there isn't a
problem with the MLD. Some discussion suggested that I should re-state the
basic rules.
- ---
Mead-Lover's Digest mead-request@talisman.com
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #927, 6 May 2002
From: Russ Riley <russriley61999@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 07:03:49 -0700 (PDT)
I'm not really talking about the 'proper' 8 glasses of
water per day, I'm talking about ANY water. If a
person drinks beer, wine or mead to quench his thirst
instead of water, because his water supply is
contaminated, he's not getting any water at all! All
he's getting is a drink with enough alcohol (at least
by today's standards) to dehydrate him further. Which
is at the heart of what I was asking: Did alcoholic
drinks in antiquity have less alcohol, so they did not
dehydrate the body as much? I realize they might have
only partially substituted their water intake with
beer/mead/wine, but that doesn't really get them
around the water being contaminated. And drinking from
safe wells or cisterns doesn't really make a
difference either; I'm talking about people with
contaminated water an no alternative water supply,
hence their drinking alcohol!
Russ
- --- mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
Subject: Hydration issue, Sodium
From: "Ken Schramm" <SchramK@resa.net>
Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 15:50:08 -0400
The question of how earlier civilizations made it through life without
eight glasses of water a day is one that must be considered in light of
whether ot not there were commercial interests out there getting rich by
making sure you drank eight glasses of their bottled water a day.
Just as they folks who produce and sell foodstuffs are saying that you
need to consume all manner of bread products, dairy foods and meat (and,
for that matter, fruits and vegetables) every day. If you tried to eat as
many servings as they recommend in the "food pyramid," you'd be blimp in
a month.
Humans around the world have lived on far less of what our FDA says, and
diets and liquid intakes far different than what is prescribed by
commercial interests.
>From a historical perspective, rural populations also relied to some
extent on safer water from wells and rainwater cisterns. Those were not
options readily or predictably available during military campaigns,
though.
------------------------------
Subject: Did they do that or not...........
From: Christopher C Carpenter <chris.carpenter@ndsu.nodak.edu>
Date: Wed, 08 May 2002 15:11:03 -0500
I guess the point I was making was rather lost in the
translation. The Medieval world was a very different place
than it is now. This is one of the largest foibles I find
in the SCA. They look at documentaion like its a science,
and omit the fact that it was written by very biased often
superstitious people who veiwed the world as a cosmic chain
reaction. It is interesting that understanding the Chain of
Being is almost necessary to understanding Shakespeare, but
to interpret documentation on their day to day lives, we
revert to the idea they were exactly like us, and saw the
world in exactly the same way. They were not, and so to
recreate what they did accurately, we need to view it
through their eyes. I do NOT see this as anti- progressive
as I was accused of, just willing to have failures to
discover life through their eyes.
It is interesting to see the main arguement against what I
said, and I might point out I started it by stating it was
my OPINION, was the process of discovery. The "Scientific
Method" did not yet exist, although I admit that in the
normal process, people did find superior methods by
elimination. When something went wrong back then, more
often than not, it was blamed on unassociated things.
Superstition was often much stronger than common sense, and
if someone died of botulism or whatever, they didn't say
the mead was bad..... it was a curse from a scary
neighbor.... or the stars were misaligned (yes, the stars
were FAR more influential than the scientific method).
Ergotism for example led to MANY people being burned at the
stake for witchcraft. Contamination was simply NOT part of
their lexicon.
What WAS part of their lexicon was oral tradition. Perhaps
floating eggs WAS something everybody did for hundreds and
hundreds of years before they could write. Perhaps all
Vikings sat around for the entirety of their lives in a
drunken stupor and never drank anything else and only lived
their lives in a hangover. Perhaps people who had troubles
surviving harsh winters did anything they could to preserve
the resources they had in an ENJOYABLE form. I just think
that a social perspective is useful if you truly want to
understand what their lifestyles were like. To wave
something that is NOT what they actually did around as
authentic because it was written in a book not available to
the illiterate populace is simply misrepresentation, even
if the book IS period.
I find it interesting that people who want to recreate do
so with a scientific approach, instead of a
socio-anthropological one, which is truly what cultural
exploration is about.
Now I will go in my corner and await the bloodthirsty
attack....;O)
Chris Carpenter
- --On Saturday, April 27, 2002 11:44 AM -0600
mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> In MLD 923, Christopher C Carpenter
> <chris.carpenter@ndsu.nodak.edu> wrote:
>> ...As I try to re-create true medieval mead, I do
>> not believe that they used a scientific approach on the
>> by and large...
>
> I'd expect that they _did_, but it may be a matter of
> what you term "science". If you make mead and I make
> mead, and yours turns out better than mine...or if one
> batch turns out better than another...we start looking
> for reasons for the differences. We guess at what might
> have done it; we try different ideas; we see if we can
> keep doing it. And there you have hypothesis,
> experimentation, corroboration.
>
>> ...They made Mead as a way to preserve leftover autumn
>> harvest,...
>
> (Sounds like what the guys would tell the women-folk!
> "No, honest dear, we're not making booze. We're just
> preserving the harvest". :-)
>
> If you combine honey and whatever leftover harvest you've
> got into what is effectively a melomel, OK, you do
> preserve it in a sense, but now it's an alcoholic drink
> and you use it in a completely different way from a pre-
> served food. It's not like you're preserving something
> with food value so that you can eat it later.
>
>> ...They didn't (mind, this is MY theory)float
>> eggs (a stale egg will float in water), they added a
>> specific tub o honey into a certain tub,...
>
> But as Chris pointed out later in the note, there's a lot
> of oral tradi- tion involved. So how would you know
> whether they did use an "egg- hydrometer"? Or, put
> differently, when did the idea of using an egg to judge
> the strength (that is, the SG) of the must come along?
> I'm looking to Digby, which is well past medieval
> time--mid-17th century--but there, many if not most of
> the recipes for mead use some variant of floating an egg
> to judge the strength. It's presented as if it were a
> commonplace method...so how far back does it go? (And
> how would you find out? URK!)
>
>> PS. just for the naysayers, please answer this simple
>> question, why would people who knew nothing of bacteria
>> use sterilization techniques??
>
> There's always the point that if you happen to try
> something and it works, you can keep doing it even if you
> don't know why it works.
>
> If you mean boiling a must, the reason that people would
> have started seems most likely that it's a way to get all
> the crud separated from the honey and water. Remember,
> honey was found in hollow logs, or maybe there were straw
> skeps by then but I doubt it...anyway, the honey came out
> in a pretty crude state. Soaking the combs in water and
> heating would allow separating the wax, settling out some
> of the crud, and lifting off more of it. Or, as it was
> said a couple centuries later, but still long ago, "skim
> it very well as soon as any scum riseth; which you are to
> continue till there rise no scum more." (Digby)
>
> Dick
>
------------------------------
Subject: Results on mesquite mead
From: Melinda Merkel Iyer <myn@iyerfamily.net>
Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 19:04:54 -0700
I racked my mesquite mead into secondary last week. Here are the
recipe and stats:
Starting ingredients:
15 lbs mesquite honey
Enough RO water to make 5 gallons
35 ml White Labs Champagne Wine pitchable yeast
2 tsp yeast nutrient
Added at secondary:
4 tsp acid blend
SG: 1.117
FG: 1.011
Alcohol: 14.0%
Taste:
Semi-dry, strong alcohol smell and butterscotch flavor with slight
tannic finish from acid. Drinkable now but would benefit from further
aging.
Notes:
(a) Slow ferment at 2 months. Consider doubling yeast nutrient.
(b) Yeast strain tops out at 14% alcohol. Consider reducing honey by 1-2 lbs.
Even with the wrinkles, this recipe is definitely a keeper... though
I might not be the most impartial judge.
A side note: I hate siphoning!! I found it annoying and difficult,
and would be overjoyed if I never had to suffer through that step
again. Unfortunately bottling is coming up. Ah, the things we go
through for our mead :-)
Next batch: orange blossom! I might add a handful of cardamom seeds,
just for mystery.
Melinda
- --
Melinda Merkel Iyer
http://www.iyerfamily.net/
------------------------------
Subject: Re: adding rasins
From: "Ken Taborek" <Ken.Taborek@Verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 14:15:56 -0400
> Subject: adding rasins
> From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Hrafnkell_Eir=EDksson?= <he@klaki.net>
> Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 21:12:11 +0000
>
> Hi
>
> Just started a batch of cyser. 50% apple juice, 50% honey must
> resulting in a SG of 1.080. Added yeast nutrition and Lalvin D-47 yeast.
> I plan to add more honey when fermentation has started. I want it to
> result in a semi-sweet cyser.
>
> I've also been wondering if I should add rasins to the must but have
> no experience with that. Any hints or pointers? What effect does it have
> on the taste?
> If I do it, should I take some precautions to prevent that the rasins
> infect the must? Heat the in a microwave?
>
> Hrafnkell Eiriksson
Hrafnkell,
I add raisins to every batch of mead I make, in various quantities.
I use them to add some solids to the must to hopefully assist the yeast in
remaining in suspension, and to provide some nutrients for the yeast (I also
use a commercial yeast nitrient). I typically will soak 1/3 to 1 cup of
raisins in water overnight, mash them with tyhe flat of a spoon in the
morning, and add the raisins and water to the must during heat pasturization
at ~160f. At this level I do not feel that the raisins contribute
significantly to the flavor of the mead.
I've also made two batches of raisin mead, one dark and one golden. I'll
give a caviat about the golden raisins...
Even if they don't say so on the packaging, they most likely have been
sulphited to prevent browning. It took me three days to get the
fermentation going on my golden mead, by opening the fermenter twice per day
and aerating it with a sanitized wisk for ~5 minutes each time. Once
started though, the fermentation took off like a champ.
Good luck to you!
Cheers,
Ken
------------------------------
Subject: recipe request
From: "mmeleen" <mmeleen@tiac.net>
Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 00:14:57 -0400
Hi again meaders,
Does anyone have a recipe to share for a full-bodied dry mead that
would be ready to drink, and tasty, in less than six months? I know
thats asking a lot of a mead, but any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mel
------------------------------
Subject: dandelion mead clarity
From: "mmeleen" <mmeleen@tiac.net>
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 22:06:17 -0400
Hello again,
Has anyone here who has made dandelion mead noticed that it is
extremely slow to clear? The batch I made one year ago is still not as
crystal clear as most of my other batches, some much younger. It is
however very slowly improving.
I think maybe it is because I used ALOT of dandelions. (26 cups of
petals only
for 5 gal, yes it took me about six hours to process them myself) So
maybe the high pollen content has something to do with it?
Also I used an apitherapy honey that was labeled as containing
"extra pollen and wax"...hmmm pollen overkill??
Has anyone elses dandelion cleared slowly? Think it will ever achive
clarity, or should I just bottle it? I do not want to use fining agents.
I just made another batch, this one with less dandelion and with my
own bees wildflower honey. So I guess by next year I may know more.
Thanks for any input,
Mel
------------------------------
Subject: a few questions for discussion
From: "mmeleen" <mmeleen@tiac.net>
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 20:42:13 -0400
Greetings everyone,
I was reading some old posts to the archive and came up with a few
questions if anyone would like to offer their humble opinions I would be
much obliged.
1) I read somewhere that methanol is formed by the fermentation of wood
by wild yeast. Would this form from throwing oak chips into the primary
in an unsterilized batch? Purely experimentally, of course.
2) So many here say adding acid at the beginning of fermentation will
crash it. Yet many books I have read say that medicinal flavors are
formed during fermentation in a mead low in acid. I should also mention
that I usually add it at the beginning and have always had vigorous
ferments. Luck or because I do use nutrient? And any truth to the
medicinal flavor thing for those of you that don't add it at the
beginning? Also isn't the acid needed for its preservative qualities?
3) If adding acid afterward, is it purely by taste or is there a certain
usual amount per gallon to add to a straight mead? Do you just rack onto
it or stir it in? Any chance of contamination from the acid itself? (I
think that is unlikely, but just wondering)
4) Regarding amounts of acid for straight mead, I have seen posts that
claim 4 teaspoons per 5 gallons is too much and yet many recipes I've
seen call for 2 or even 3 teaspoons per gallon. Why oh why is there so
much discrepancy? Is it simply a matter of flavor preference? I realize
that sweet requires more than dry.
5) Likewise regarding nutrient and tannin, there is alot of variation of
opinion. What amounts do you all use? The standard in books seems to be
1/4 tsp tannin per gallon and 1 tsp nutrient per gallon (for straight
mead, not melomel). I have had good results like that, but some people
say "whoa, way too much"
I guess there are many paths to success, as everyone seems to enjoy
their mead tremendously. As I have heard it said, "theres no bad wine,
somes better n others"
Any responses respected any appreciated,
Mel
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #928
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