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Mead Lovers Digest #1015
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 #1015, 20 May 2003
Mead Lover's Digest #1015 20 May 2003
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
CharlesSifers: Rack and rack and rack ("Kemp, Alson")
Re: Rose Mead (Vicky Rowe)
Re: rose meads (Eric Drake)
re Harvesting Roses (Zertwiz@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1014, 15 May 2003 (JayAnkeney@aol.com)
Subject: Calculating Alcohol Content ("Bill & Ramona Kuhn")
LindisFarne ("Oliver, Josh")
Pasteurization of honey (Matt Gerbrandt)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: CharlesSifers: Rack and rack and rack
From: "Kemp, Alson" <alson.kemp@cirrus.com>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 16:42:17 -0700
Charles writes:
I started a 5 gallon batch of wildflower mead on 4/2.
[snip] I racked it to the glass carboy on day 3 and
it was still going hard [snip] It began to slow on 4/23
so I [...] racked to a clean carboy and added more
honey water [snip] Now nothing, nada, zip. I racked
again yesterday [...] but 36 hours later still nada.
Each time you racked your mead during fermentation,
you removed untold billions of active yeast. Racking
does not activate fermentation. More than likely
racking will _stall_ fermentation (because it removes
active yeast). So your comments make perfects sense:
each time you racked, you left behind active yeast,
biomass and nutrients, so fermentation should be
expected to stall...
(Before anyone yells at me: yes, sometime racking
will speed up fermentation via oxygenation/agitation...)
-Alson
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Rose Mead
From: Vicky Rowe <rcci@mindspring.com>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 22:10:14 -0400
In answer to the questions about rose mead....
Harvesting: I usually pick the blossoms after they open, enjoy them
for a day or so, then pluck the petals and store them in a plastic bag
in the freezer. NOTE: If your roses have any pesticides at all, DO NOT
USE THEM. They will make you sick. Likewise, florist shop roses are
right out. (Just a note, others have asked)
Recipe:
1 gallon frozen rose petals
4 gallons water
1+ gallon honey
1 16 oz bottle rose water from a middle eastern grocery
1 16 oz bottle rose syrup for sweetening (if desired)
premier cuvee yeast or montrachet yeast
Boil 1-2 gallons water, take off the boil and add 1 gallon of honey.
Mix until dissolved. Pitch hot water into pail with remaining water
(I don't boil this). When cooled, add yeast, agitate mightily, cover,
airlock and wait until first ferment is completed.
Rack into second pail onto muslin bag of rose petals. cover,
airlock and wait 2-3 weeks. Remove roses, squeezing out juices.
the mead will taste a bit soapy at this point. don't despair, just
rack again and wait another month or so. When the soapy flavor
has disappeared, add the rose water and let sit another couple
weeks. Once you're the ferment is finished, sweeten to taste,
and bottle.
Hope this helps!
Wassail!
Vicky Rowe
Makin' mead? Drinkin' mead? Find articles, recipes, advice and hundreds of
links to anything you want to know about mead at http://www.gotmead.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: rose meads
From: Eric Drake <drake.49@osu.edu>
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 08:57:40 -0400
At 04:13 PM 5/15/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>Subject: rose meads
>From: Zertwiz@aol.com
>Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 03:18:27 EDT
>
>
>well it seems im not alone in wanting to make a rose mead iv ben colecting
>and frezing my rose blooms any one have a recipy for rose mead?
>
>chris anderson
I plan on making a rose mead this year, I just have to wait for my rose
bush to blossom. Although it might change before I get there, I plan on
following the following procedure:
Take as many rose blossoms as I can and make 4 gallons of rose water by
holding the petals (only) in the water at about 180-185 Degrees F for about
an hour. I figure that the water has a maximum capacity of essential oils
that it can extract so I expect (hope) I will have too many petals. I am
then going to remove the petals and drop 15 Lbs of orange blossom honey in
the water, wait 5 minutes; chill; and pitch.
None of this comes from experience, it is all theory for me as I have never
done this before. If this proves good, I will be doing experiments to
figure out the extraction rates of blossom to water. I will only have a
couple different varieties of roses to work with though; one moderately
fragrant, and one so fragrant that I can smell the bush from 30 yards away
;-D If I get that far, I will certainly report results here.
I found a couple recipes on the net doing google searches for "rhodomel"
and "rose mead".
Eric
------------------------------
Subject: re Harvesting Roses
From: Zertwiz@aol.com
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 10:36:03 EDT
well this is my frist time making rose wine but iv be growing roses for
a while now . first thing dont use them if youv ben spraying cemicles on them
dont want to poisen your self . as far as harvesting them i normaly let
them stay on the plant a few days ( they are so butiful ) but befor they
start to degrade (little browing around the edge) cut the blooms back as any
one would . that is to say you cut back to the first 5 lefe branch below the
flower to make it reblom . bring all the blooms in side and if you reacy over
the top of the petels twards the back and grasp the flower you can pull the
petels off bye rocking them away frome the hip . i then make sher there free
of insects or what ever and stuff them in zip lock bags and freez them if
you want to know about rgowing roses email me off list
chris anderson
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1014, 15 May 2003
From: JayAnkeney@aol.com
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 13:12:49 EDT
In a message dated 5/15/03 3:27:48 PM, mead-request@talisman.com writes:
<< iv ben colecting and frezing my rose blooms any one have a recipy for
rose mead? >>
Yes. First step is to open your Spell Checker. :)
Jay Ankeney
------------------------------
Subject: Subject: Calculating Alcohol Content
From: "Bill & Ramona Kuhn" <kuhn@lobo.net>
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:22:58 -0600
On Tue, 13 May 2003 11:02:44 EDT,
PHREDLESS@aol.com wrote
>you're working on would have a very strong ale alcohol or a weak wine. I
>think that you're windinig up with somewheres along the 6.5-7% range. This
I don't know, depends on the honey, but when I use 3#/gal, I get am I.G.
of about 1.112, which comes out to right around 15% P.A.
>My recipes always call for 4-5 pounds per gallong and then use
>champagne yeast. I get a wine level of alcohol then.
Depending on your final gravity, you are likely getting 18% or higher
alcohol content. Much higher than wine. Typically, I will get 12%
alcohol in a dry mead using 12# of honey in a 5 gallon batch (I.G.
1.092, F.G. .995).
>Your initial reading of 1.22 shows somewhere on the scale of 60+ ounces (my
>scale goes almost no higher) of sugar per gallon... I'm not quite sure how
>you got that with 3 pounds per gallon.
My guess is he meant 1.122, still pretty high for 3#/gal, but not
unheard of. That means that at his first racking (1.030), he had made
12% alcohol, and still had quite a lot of residual sugar. Probably would
still have been fairly tasty with a bit of acid blend to balance the
sweet. Cotes de Blanc will generally not attenuate beyond 14% alcohol,
unless there is a good bit of fruit so it is really happy. With a pure
honey mead, most yeast seems to want to poop out before it gets to its
rated attenuation. You are right, if you want a strong mead (above 15%
alcohol), use champagne yeast...
Bill
Merlin's Magickal Meadery
------------------------------
Subject: LindisFarne
From: "Oliver, Josh" <Josh.Oliver@sartomer.com>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 16:41:47 -0400
Has anyone ever tried LindisFarne Mead? It's from St. Aidan's Winery,
Holy Island LindisFarne, Northumberland, England.
I have a Scottish friend who picked a bottle up for me when he went home
this past week. Looking around the internet, it seems somewhat famous,
but there are limited reviews or tasting notes. I'm guessing it's
semi-sweet, but curious about any first hand experiences. In the MLD
archives, I see a few references, but no real classifications.
It says it's made with honey (obviously), "fermented grape juice" and
fortified with spirits. 14.5%abv. I just hope it's not as sweet and
cloying as Chauncer's, one of only two commercial meads I have tried.
------------------------------
Subject: Pasteurization of honey
From: Matt Gerbrandt <matthewgerbrandt@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 14:10:56 -0700 (PDT)
There seems to be a pretty wide range of
pasteurization techniques used for honey in mead
making. These techniques range anywhere from adding
the honey to water and heating to 160 F for 15 minutes
to the approach proposed by the National Honey Board
which calls on people to essentially bake the honey at
176 F for 2.5 hours
(http://www.nhb.org/download/factsht/home_brew.pdf).
What approach are most people here going with?
Thanks in advance!
- -Matt Gerbrandt
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1015
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