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Mead Lovers Digest #1007
From: mead-request@talisman.com
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Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1007, 13 April 2003
Mead Lover's Digest #1007 13 April 2003
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Ling or Heather Honey ("Charles Gee")
mulberry or orange mead recipes? (Leo Vitt)
mulberries ("Micah Millspaw")
Barstop Corks & re-corking (MLD #1005) (jlparkinson)
Any examples of aging in plastic? (MLD#1000) (jlparkinson)
RE: (calculating alcahol content ) Mead Lover's Digest #1006, 8 April 2 ("...)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1006, 8 April 2003 (Rick Dingus)
The correct temperature for fermenting cysers (Matt Gerbrandt)
Vierka Mead Yeast - What The Trick? (Matt Gerbrandt)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Ling or Heather Honey
From: "Charles Gee" <cgee@mhtv.ca>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 10:35:30 -0800
Has anyone on the digest used Ling or Heather Honey to brew with? I have
just done 5 gallons of mead using white clover honey and lots of heather
flower tips. Tastes OK but I was hoping for more effect. So does anyone
use the real thing and do they know how I might get hold of 6 kilograms
or so
Charles Gee cgee@mhtv.ca
------------------------------
Subject: mulberry or orange mead recipes?
From: Leo Vitt <leo_vitt@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 12:37:05 -0700 (PDT)
Leo Demski asked about making mulberry or orange mead:
>Subject: mulberry or orange mead recipes?
>From: "Leo Demski" <leodemski@hotmail.com>
>Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 07:43:25 +0000
>Hi everybody! Thanks for all the great information that you've provided
>over the past several years. After never quite getting "a round tuit",
>I'm finally going to make a couple of batches of mead. Whoo-hoo!
>That's procrastination for you. Sometimes its slow going. :)
>Anyhow, in the spirit of cutting costs and using some great local South
>Florida fruit, I was thinking of making a mulberry mead and an orange mead.
>I have three gallons of great unfiltered orange blossom honey to work with,
>and a buddy has 3 mulberry trees and 12 orange trees.
>Does anyone have any recipes or suggestions for mulberry and/or orange mead?
> How much fruit should I use per gallon for optimal effect? Do I need to
>lower the acidity of the must if I use lots of fresh orange juice?
I realize this doesn't answer the question.
I have made a few great meads using orange blossom honey. Just the
honey. It taste and smells like oranges. My recipe - use about
3.5 lbs of orange blossom honey per ballon of must. Add Yeast
nutrient and energizer according to the package directions.
yeast - sweet mead yeast.
I think adding oranges could enhance it. Adding juice would
increase the acid in the mead. I think you should avoid adding
acid blend. Orange zest might also make a good enhancement.
Remember, these are things I have not tried.
- - Leo
=====
Leo Vitt
Sidney, NE
------------------------------
Subject: mulberries
From: "Micah Millspaw" <MMillspaw@silganmfg.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 15:30:55 -0500
>Subject: mulberry or orange mead recipes?
>From: "Leo Demski" <leodemski@hotmail.com>
>Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 07:43:25 +0000
>Anyhow, in the spirit of cutting costs and using some great local South
>Florida fruit, I was thinking of making a mulberry mead and an orange mead.
>I have three gallons of great unfiltered orange blossom honey to work with,
>and a buddy has 3 mulberry trees and 12 orange trees.
>Does anyone have any recipes or suggestions for mulberry and/or orange mead?
> How much fruit should I use per gallon for optimal effect? Do I need to
>lower the acidity of the must if I use lots of fresh orange juice?
I once had a white mulberry tree. I used the fruit in a ratio
Of 3lbs fruit to 1 gallon of must. The mulberries did not seem
To be that assertive in the fermented mead at lower ratios.
Going higher depends on how much you like the taste of mulbeeries.
There is a red mulberry variety but I have not used it for mead.
Micah Millspaw - brewer at large
------------------------------
Subject: Barstop Corks & re-corking (MLD #1005)
From: jlparkinson <jlparkinson@telstra.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 09:08:50 +1000
>Subject: Barstop corks and cork leakage
>From: "Munro, Tina HI0" <tmunro@highways.gov.sk.ca>
>Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 10:42:34 -0600
> As someone who always enjoys a glass of yummy now and then, but
> doesn't want to sit down and drink an entire bottle by myself, the
> barstop corks seem like an ideal alternative to repeatedly fighting
> a cork in and out of a bottle neck. If I'm keeping a bottle in
> the fridge or cupboard that I'm getting into on a regular basis,
> then something that is easy to remove and replace sounds wonderful
> (and I'm wondering why I never thought of it before).
Just a thought (not attempted yet), if you made a batch of mead that
was to be a quoffing (sp?) mead for your "everyday use", how about
not bottling it, but putting it from carboy straight into one of
those wine cask bladders (we call them goons or goonies "down under").
The bladders are the best way I know of being able to regularly get
access to a glass of vino without exposing it to oxygen continuously,
thus avoiding the change in flavour with each passing glass.
Anyone tried this?
Just my $0.02
James
------------------------------
Subject: Any examples of aging in plastic? (MLD#1000)
From: jlparkinson <jlparkinson@telstra.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 09:47:52 +1000
Greetings to the mead fraternity,
I looked for examples of aging meads in plastic in MLD#1000.
Thanks to Micah Millspaw with
>Any way, the plastic carboy was used as a secondary and the mead
>sat in it for about 6 months. It was a strawberry melomel and was
>definitely oxidized. It wasn't undrinkable, it just wasn't a keeper.
>In fact it was consumed quite rapidly during the summer.
which prompted Scotty Morgan to question
> * How was the mead handled on transfer
> * Was oxygen introduced in racking off to the fermenter
> * How much head space was in the fermenter. Glass has a narrow neck
> and filled quite full I assume.
>
> There is more chance of oxidation from the headsapce than the
> permiability of the vessel. At 5 odd gallons theres at least 4-5
> inchese of headsapce. Think about it.
and thanks to Jay Ankeney with
> I always age my meads in a plastic carboy lined with an FDA-approved,
> food grade low density polyethylene bag. An 18" X 36", 2 mil bag
> fits inside a spring water bottle just fine. These bags are usually
> intended to store medical equipment and are available from most
> plastic manufacturers. Needless to say, these are not just garbage
> bags or dry cleaning holders. The bags I employ are specifically
> designed for use with food or medical utensils.
>
> The must ferments inside the bag for at least 6 months, sometimes
> a year, and I never rack into a secondary. The results have won
> many awards at homebrew/mead competitions and taste absolutely
> great.
This does not constitute a statistically significant sample :)
I have 5 gallons (19 litres) of wine with some plums added,
fermenting at the moment, with which I will do a bit of an experiment.
(Lalvin EC-1118 yeast, about 30 plums - not much but was added to
speed up the fermentation and give it some flavour. Oh, I did add
about 3/4 Kg of honey but it won't add much flavour)
I am trying to test
1) aging in plastic/glass
2) effect of tannin/no tannin
3) normal closet temperature/high temperature aging (we are heading
into the colder months now, but high temp will be the roof space,
which also has big temp fluctuations)
In other words, split the batch into a lot of little batches (8 or
16 batches) once primary fermentation has finalised, and then age and
do a taste test.
I am thinking of minimal headspace to reduce oxygen influence from
the headspace, with the batches aging in 750ml wine bottles and
1L PET screw-top soft-drink bottles.
Note: Yes it is wine not mead, because we're coming out of a drought
at the moment, so I am doing the cheap option, plus don't want to waste
honey on a 19L experimental batch. The little bit of honey I did add
probably won't show up in the flavour profile.
So the results will have to be extrapolated across the differences of
sugar to honey.
Any extra thoughts welcome.
James
------------------------------
Subject: RE: (calculating alcahol content ) Mead Lover's Digest #1006, 8 April 2
From: "Sergi Santacana" <ssantacana@cronda.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:11:32 +0200
There's yet another device to measure alcol content: a winometer ( I don't
know if this is it's name in english) anyway, i think it's a litlle
imprecise but may be useful if you haven't cheked inititial gravity.
See what it is at http://www.enosacchi.com/misura_es.html (see the
,Vinometro) please tell me it's ame in english
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1006, 8 April 2003
From: Rick Dingus <rick.dingus@TTU.EDU>
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 12:13:43 -0500
> Subject: Roger Morse @ Meadmaking
> From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
> Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 01:50:02 -0500
>...
> Roger Morse and Brother Adam represent, roughly speaking, two
> approaches to meadmaking. One is the use of technology to control
> the fermentation; the other the craftman's approach. Which is better?
> I'll leave that to the reader to decide.
>
> <><><><><><><><><><>
> <><><><><><><><>
> Dan McFeeley
Dan,
I'm unaware of the techniques Robert Morse devised for speeding up the
fermentation times of mead. What were they and how did they differ from the
additives we've grown accustomed to using since his time? Were his methods
simple enough for home meadmeakers to try and test for themselves, or were
they complicated enough so as only to be of use in commercial meaderies?
Thanks for bringing this up.
Rick
------------------------------
Subject: The correct temperature for fermenting cysers
From: Matt Gerbrandt <matthewgerbrandt@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 11:18:10 -0700 (PDT)
The other day I was reading "The Closet of the
Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt Opened". I'm
curious about a line on page 3 where he writes
"Ferment your cyser at 55-60 deg. F for best results."
Shouldn't the yeast strain dictate the fermentation
temperature? Meads yeasts are often warm-fermenters so
I'm a bit curious on this one.
I used champaign yeast in my cyser and fermented it at
the 65-70 degree range preferred by the yeast. I
haven't tried it yet but it smells great. Does anyone
have a favorite mead yeast that thrives in the 55-60
degree range? Many thanks in advance!
- -Matt
------------------------------
Subject: Vierka Mead Yeast - What The Trick?
From: Matt Gerbrandt <matthewgerbrandt@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 11:23:52 -0700 (PDT)
A few months ago, I attempted to use Vierka mead yeast
in one of my cysers. Vierka mead yeast is dry and is
(apparently) attached to dehydrated grape leaves. I
dumped the packet in a 750 mL starter
(preservative-free cider and honey) and let it sit for
3 days at about 65 degrees F. Absolutely nothing
happened, so I cracked open some chamaign yeast that I
keep around for emergencies. Has anyone else here ever
used Vierka yeast successfully? If so, what's the
trick? Thanks in advance.
- -Matt
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1007
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