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Mead Lovers Digest #1034
From: mead-request@talisman.com
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Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1034, 12 August 2003
Mead Lover's Digest #1034 12 August 2003
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Sugar does not cause cidery flavors ("Dan SCHULTZ")
Re: MLD#1033, 7/8/03 - Other bee species products... ("Arthur Torrey (no s...)
Pyments & Juice Concentrates ("Craig Sturdivant")
Yeast starters for mead ("MICHAEL HOBART")
RE: honey of a different wing? ("Thad Starr")
Maple Syrup ("Olluyn Jo")
International Mead Fest ("Ray Daniels")
Alcohol burn balance act ("Williams, Matthew S")
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Sugar does not cause cidery flavors
From: "Dan SCHULTZ" <s_danno@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 09:33:07 -0700
It has been a long time theory that sugar causes cidery flavors in beer.
If you looks at the roots of this rumor, it stems around the malt
extract beer kits. Stale malt extract is the likely source of the cidery
flavors not sugar.
Look at Belgian beers. Most contain some amount of sugar. Tripels
contain significant amounts of sugar yet Belgian beers are not known for
their cidery flavors. If you want to look into this more I urge you to
do a search on rec.crafts.brewing where Dan Listermann has brewed with
most extracts out there and done a lot of evaluations of various
homebrew recipes. His opinion is where I get my information and I've
heard enough of his experiments to trust the results.
Dan will point you to his megaswill beer where he uses upwards of 70%
sugar with some malt extract. He will attest that the beer, while not
tasting anything like the beer we all love, is far from cidery. That is
backed up by his customers (he owns a LHBS) and his fellow homebrew club
members.
So, don't look to sugar for cidery flavors. Look at stale malt extract.
- -Dan
------------------------------
Subject: Re: MLD#1033, 7/8/03 - Other bee species products...
From: "Arthur Torrey (no spam please!)" <atorrey@cybercom.net>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 14:02:18 -0400
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: honey of a different wing?
> From: Mark Ottenberg <mark@riverrock.org>
> Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2003 15:23:07 -0600
>
> Ok, it's time to ask ...
>
> A while back, one of my friends -- upon their awakening to Mead and my
> explanation of what I made it from -- asked me what other bees make. That
> is, if honey bees make honey, what do bumble bees, for example, make? And
> what would a mead made with it taste like?
>
> I assume other bees make some sort of concoction similar to honey but
> unpalatable to humans. Does anyone know?
>
> Peace,
> -- Mark
>
Sorry to dissapoint you and your friends Mark, but you only have one choice,
albeit a wide one. Most communal insects (bumblebees, ants, etc.) do produce
some form of stored food equivalent to honey, but only the honeybee produces
it in large enough quantities to be able to harvest it. The other insects
basically only make enough to fulfill their immediate needs.
ART
------------------------------
Subject: Pyments & Juice Concentrates
From: "Craig Sturdivant" <csturdiv@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 15:20:23 -0500
I am planning a pyment that is to be made from Welch's 100% pure juice
concentrates. How many of these 11.5oz cans should I use per gallon of
must?
Thanks,
Craig
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast starters for mead
From: "MICHAEL HOBART" <M-HOBART@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 22:18:41 -0700
I've made only one batch of mead which is about 6 months old now. I used
White Labs WLP720 Sweet Mead Yeast making a starter using 1/2 cup honey
boiled with 2 cups water. The starter never really took off but I went
ahead and pitched it anyway.
It took 2-3 days before I could notice any activity in the primary
fermenter. I have tried samples of the finished product and it's very
good.
I talked with my supplier and have e-mailed White Labs and they both
recommended making a starter with DME. I'm not real comfortable adding
Malt to my mead, is there a better way to make a good starter?
Also I am interested in making a vanilla or cinnamon mead. I have read
that you should make a strong tea and add at bottling. How should I go
about this for a 5 gallon batch?
Thanks ahead of time for any help you can provide.
Mike
------------------------------
Subject: RE: honey of a different wing?
From: "Thad Starr" <Starr@epud.net>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 22:28:31 -0700
Ok, it's time to ask ...
A while back, one of my friends -- upon their awakening to Mead and my
explanation of what I made it from -- asked me what other bees make. That
is, if honey bees make honey, what do bumble bees, for example, make? And
what would a mead made with it taste like?
I assume other bees make some sort of concoction similar to honey but
unpalatable to humans. Does anyone know?
Peace,
-- Mark
Honey bees (Euopean) are the only bees that produce a surplus of honey. It
basically has to do with the coloney size. Euopean honey bee colonies
numbers range in size from 40,000 to 60,000 bees, bumble bee colonies are
15-100 (100 being a very big colony). Mason bees are solitary, they produce
enough honey and pollen for next years brood. Any other polinators are
solitary as well.
So, bottom line is that there isn't "other" honey to look for. You could
get into the debate weather Carniolen produce better than Italians, or any
other subspecie of the European, but they are all still Eurppean.
OK, so there is probably some honeybee other than the European (I saw
something on a National Geographic the other night in Africa) that produces
a surplus, but I think the question is, is it available to us?
Thad
------------------------------
Subject: Maple Syrup
From: "Olluyn Jo" <Jo.Olluyn@cronos.be>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:14:25 +0200
Hi all,
I've come across some recipes concerning maple syrup-based variants of
mead. Most of them require about 8 pounds of maple syrup per 5 gallons
of water.
Now, where I live, quality maple syrup is not cheap. Not cheap at all.
In fact, it goes at such staggering prices that it is often sold in
small bottles, the size of small coke bottle.
I guess good maple syrup would cost me about 20$ per liter. My buddy Ed
claims it should cost more than 4-5$, which makes me assume that either
maple syrup is a lot cheaper in the Americas or we use different
qualities (I reckon A-grade is way cheaper than C-grade or the
here-unobtainable dark D-grade).
Comments anyone? Should I settle for cheaper A grade or not compromise
on quality and go for C-grade? Wouold the volumes be the same? (I guess
A is less sweet than C).
Greetz
Jo
------------------------------
Subject: International Mead Fest
From: "Ray Daniels" <raydan@ameritech.net>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 08:39:23 -0500
Hello meadmakers,
This fall, the second annual International Mead Festival (previously
Planet Buzz) will be held in Boulder, Colo. October 24-25. As we did
last year, we are looking for both entries and judges---as well as mead
loving attendees!
All commercial producers are invited to enter and we have categories for
every type of mead. For more info on entering the competition, contact
Daniel Williams 303-881-6547 / <mailto:daniel@meadfest.com>
daniel@meadfest.com
On the judging front, the current list of confirmed judges includes Paul
Gatza (Director, Association of Brewers and American Homebrewers
Association), Dick Dunn (Janitor, Mead Lovers Digest), Ken Schramm
(Organizer, Mazer Cup and author of The Compleat Meadmaker), John
Carlson (Director, Colorado Brewers Guild and National BJCP Judge). If
you have experience judging meads and are interested in helping out with
the judging, give me a shout. We can't cover your travel, but we will
arrange to put you up for a couple of nights. With only about 50-60
products to judge, it will be light work followed by a fun time tasting
all of the commercial meads from across the US and many international
entries as well.
Even if you don't make mead, come on out to the festival to see what's
happening in this emerging sector of the US alcoholic beverage industry
and of course, to taste some fine beverages.
For more info about all of this, see <http://www.meadfest.com/>
www.meadfest.com.
Cheers,
Ray Daniels
Judge Director
Second International Mead Festival
Boulder, CO
October 24-25, 2003
------------------------------
Subject: Alcohol burn balance act
From: "Williams, Matthew S" <matswill@indiana.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 13:33:04 -0500
Longtime lurker, first time poster-
On February 10th I made a blueberry Melomel which consisted 12 lbs
Natural SueBee Premium Clover Honey, 4 lbs frozen blueberries,1 oz Saaz
hops, and White Labs Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast #WLP720 to make a 5 gallon
batch. Blueberries were added in the primary. After 2 weeks, racked
to secondary, racked again at 6 weeks where it remains (currently 6
months old). Yesterday I sampled it, not a bad table wine/mead, but no
hints of blueberries at all- and a striking alcohol burn upon
swallowing. Very little sweetness to it, though I would not consider it
dry. I thought for sure that using only 12# honey and the sweet mead
yeast would yield something a bit sweeter. So now I want to balance
the alcohol by making it a bit sweeter. My thoughts are to rack it onto
46 oz of blueberry puree. This will be the third racking, so the yeast
count should be low enough that there should be very little to no active
fermentation. Of course, I could be wrong. I would like to bottle in
the next month or so to bottle condition before Christmas. Since this
is my first mead, any advice is greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Matt
Bloomington, IN
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1034
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