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Mead Lovers Digest #0962
From: mead-request@talisman.com
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Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #962, 17 October 2002
Mead Lover's Digest #962 17 October 2002
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #961, 9 October 2002 ("Mary Johnson")
RE: Cyser Question ("Gregg Stearns")
looking for 5 gallon apple cyser recipe (Anemone1978Polyp@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #961, 9 October 2002 (Darinbruck@aol.com)
The cellaring of mead ("Christopher Hadden")
pH, TA and taste ("Kemp, Alson")
Cyser Help... ("ira Edwards")
Conditioning size/flavor? (Rick Dingus)
contaminated or salvageable? (Jeffrey C Child)
sweetening and carbonating mead - second go (Melinda Merkel Iyer)
Dry vs liquid yeast (Ben Snyder)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #961, 9 October 2002
From: "Mary Johnson" <mpmarus@hotpop.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 11:29:39 -0500
>Subject: Cyser Question
>From: Joe Nelson <some1_ate_my_capn_crunch@yahoo.com>
>Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 10:15:42 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Hello Listers,
>
>Quick Cyser question:
>
>Can I still use preserved Cider??? I kinda missed
>cider season around here but would still like to make
>a batch of cyser for my father as a Christmas present.
> Is there any way that I can use preserved cider in a
>cyser??? Maybe use a can of unpreserved apple juice
>concentrate??? He isn't a big alcohol drinker so I
>thought that the alcohol from the honey would be
>enough.
>
>Not really sure, just wondering if anyone had any
>thoughts on this one.
>
>Thanks,
>Joe Nelson
If there's a health food store in your area, look for organic apple juice.
No preservatives and, at least for me, made above average cyser.
Mary
www.mj-pg.com/mead.htm
"we must be the change we want to see in the world" Gandhi
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Cyser Question
From: "Gregg Stearns" <gregg@ispi.net>
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 14:35:24 -0500
> Subject: Cyser Question
> From: Joe Nelson <some1_ate_my_capn_crunch@yahoo.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 10:15:42 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Hello Listers,
>
> Quick Cyser question:
>
> Can I still use preserved Cider??? I kinda missed
> cider season around here but would still like to make
> a batch of cyser for my father as a Christmas present.
> Is there any way that I can use preserved cider in a
> cyser??? Maybe use a can of unpreserved apple juice
> concentrate??? He isn't a big alcohol drinker so I
> thought that the alcohol from the honey would be
> enough.
Joe,
I've had success using frozen apple juice concentrate with no sugar added.
The benefit is that most frozen concentrates have no preservatives, since
the cold IS the preserving measure.
Plus its cheap!
- --
Gregg Stearns
http://www.meadhq.com
(I'm always interested in recipes and contributions to MeadHQ.com)
------------------------------
Subject: looking for 5 gallon apple cyser recipe
From: Anemone1978Polyp@aol.com
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 17:30:12 EDT
hello
i am new to mead making and am looking for a good apple cyser recipe (one
that uses real apple cider, im lucky enough to live next to several
orchards). ive seen a few on the internet but nothing that really had a good
explanation of the procedures to make the recipe. so if any of you have a
recipe for a five gallon apple cyser i would greatly appreciate it. also
would the yeast needed for an apple cyser be a "dry" yeast or "sweet" yeast,
i ask this because my local brewshop carries wyyeast dry and sweet mead
yeasts or would you reccomend another kind of yeast. additioanlly if there is
a good recipe for a tradional mead 5 gallon id like to see that as well.
thanks
brian\connecticut
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #961, 9 October 2002
From: Darinbruck@aol.com
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 23:31:53 EDT
Anyone have any tips on how long to leave the fruit floating around in a
pineapple mel? The pineapple went in as a secoundary, and i used two, frozen
over nite, chopped and added along with a little more honey to a one gallon
batch. This is my first go with pineapple and unlike other fruit, this stuff
is kind of unsinkable. The other fruit i've used broke up and sank. This
stuff just keeps on floating! The air lock pops about every 10 min. and
there is about an inch of lees on the bottom. If i just leave it for a while
will it get more pineappley? or start to get off flavors?
------------------------------
Subject: The cellaring of mead
From: "Christopher Hadden" <chadden@contecrayon.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 08:40:17 -0500
I'd like to get the group's thoughts on the aging requirements of mead. We
all know the higher gravity meads take longer to mature but are there
differences in aging requirements between styles like traditional, melomel,
and braggot?
I would assume that melomel, being derived from fruit, would have a shorter
aging period. I'm not sure about this assumption however. Regarding braggot,
does it merely depend on gravity?
I'm working on a new and improved version of www.aboutmead.com . For the
visitors to my site who are new to mead and have some commercial meads
sitting in their cellar, what sort of general cellaring guidelines could be
provided? I'd like to be able to state something like "Traditional meads
should be aged X-X years. Melomels should be aged X-X years but generally no
longer than X years."
If you'd prefer, you can e-mail me at chadden@contecrayon.com.
Thanks,
Christopher Hadden
http://www.aboutmead.com/
------------------------------
Subject: pH, TA and taste
From: "Kemp, Alson" <alson.kemp@cirrus.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 10:11:21 -0700
All,
Re: taste and acidity: a rule of thumb on how acidic a
given solution will taste is:
AcidTasteIndex = TA (g/l) - pH
So as the pH goes down (more free acidity), the taste
gets MORE acidic. Similarly, as the TA goes up, the taste gets
more acidic.
-Alson
------------------------------
Subject: Cyser Help...
From: "ira Edwards" <ira_j_e@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 19:33:03 -0800
hello,
I have just mixed my first fresh Cyser, with pressed apples and honey. I
have made Cysers with store bought in the past but this is my first try at
the real thing. as per my ciders, I mixed in about 25% dolgo Crabapples to
ofset the sweetenss of the other apples I picked up here in Alaska. after I
mixed in the warmed honey water (1:1 honey water and sweet cider) I got a SG
of 1.095 (the apple juice was 1.070). immediately, a bunch of sludge formed
and sank to the bottom, where it has bben for several days.
the Cyser is fermenting away happily, but I am wondering about the sludge.
I assume that the apple tannins coagulated the honey protiens and sent them
to the bottom of the carboy, but it looks like I will lose over a gallon
(out of 6) at racking, as it does not ssem to be settling.
has anyone experienced this, and if so, was it a problem? i would hate to
lose over a gallon of what I worked to create...
thanks for the help,
- -Ira Edwards
------------------------------
Subject: Conditioning size/flavor?
From: Rick Dingus <rick.dingus@TTU.EDU>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 21:54:12 -0500
I've noticed that the size of the container for conditioning and bottling
seems to affect the taste of the final brew in beer making. Beer aged in
bulk or in a larger bottle seems to taste smoother and be better conditioned
(maybe because of less exposure to oxygen and/or the stabilizing effect of
bulk on temperature?). Has anyone noticed a similar effect with mead? I've
heard reference to "bottle shock" and the need to let it rest a month after
bottling, but I've not heard reference to the affect that volume can have on
developing flavors. Any comments appreciated.
Rick
------------------------------
Subject: contaminated or salvageable?
From: Jeffrey C Child <jeffandcici@juno.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 21:18:43 -0400
Dear All,
I know that table wines may not be quite on topic for this list, but I'd
appreciate any input. About a year ago, my 2 year old son pulled the
airlock out of a carboy I had a hibiscus blossom table wine in. I
slapped a piece of plastic wrap over the hole and rubber banded it in
place as a quick fix. I intended to immediately sanitize the airlock and
get it back in. As it happened, I did not. (Had something to do with a
move and a new job with a 2 year old and a 3 week old...) Anyway, now a
year has gone by with plastic wrap sealing the carboy, and I am wondering
if the wine is growing all kinds of pathogens, or if it can be saved. I
have had salmonella food poisoning (under cooked lasagna at a relative's
house), and I am very interested in never having food poisoning again.
What do you think? Do I need to pitch it, or can I fix it and bottle it?
And if so how?
Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Jeff Child
------------------------------
Subject: sweetening and carbonating mead - second go
From: Melinda Merkel Iyer <myn@iyerfamily.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 03:58:02 -0700
I never got any response to my inquiry about sweetening and
carbonating mead, so I'm asking again. I've got a spiced mead in
secondary that's too spiced and thought sweetening it would be a good
solution. Does anyone have any idea how to sweeten without using
Campden tablets so that I can still carbonate later on? Is my only
option to add more honey and pitch more yeast, and just hope the
yeast dies off at the right level?
Melinda
- --
Melinda Merkel Iyer
http://www.iyerfamily.net/
------------------------------
Subject: Dry vs liquid yeast
From: Ben Snyder <devlyn76@users.buoy.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 12:33:49 -0400
Hello all
I was wondering what the relative benefit is in using liquid yeast over
dry when making mead.
I know from my friend's experience in brewing ales, the dry yeast lends more
of an off-flavor than the liquid yeasts. Maybe this is not typical but it
seemed to be reproduceable regardless of which type of yeast was used.
But mead has the benefit of aging, so why would I go liquid?
Another aside - if anyone has ever made a pomegranate mead I'd like to
know how it turned out. And if you have a recipe...
Thanks,
- -ben
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #962
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