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Mead Lovers Digest #1048
From: mead-request@talisman.com
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To: mead-list@talisman.com
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1048, 6 October 2003
Mead Lover's Digest #1048 6 October 2003
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Stalled Mead? ("Jen Breese")
RE: Digest 1047 (Robert Sandefer)
Re: Mead in Wales and England. (Dick Dunn)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003 (Adam McPadden)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003 (Evening Star)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003 (Rick Dingus)
Re: Yeast experiences (Eric)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003 ("Lane Gray, Czar Castic")
Re: Two quick questions (Travis Dahl KE4VYZ)
Fruit press advice needed (Joyce Hersh)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003 ("P. D. Waltman")
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Stalled Mead?
From: "Jen Breese" <jbreese@collabrys.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 09:05:57 -0700
Hi
I have a 5 gal of mead that has been going for about 4 months. It has been
really bubbling well until I racked it this past weekend. There are very few
bubbles and I can see the cap in the vapor lock being pushed up. I was
wondering if I should be concerned and what I can do it get it going again.
Also, I live on the beach and the weather has gotten very cold since the
racking. I was wondering if that had something to do with it.
Thanks
Jen
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Digest 1047
From: Robert Sandefer <melamor@vzavenue.net>
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 14:33:05 -0400
Roberta asks about cyser tips:
Personally, I would crush the apples by blender or by apple crusher
(preferred), press out the juice with a wine/cider press, add 1.5-2 lbs
honey per gallon of juice, adjust pH to 3.8 (with tartaric acid or acid
blend), add 1 tsp yeast nutrient per gallon and 1 Campden tablet per gallon
of must, and 24 hrs later pitch a mead yeast. Ferment and bottle as any
mead.
Greg asks about pumpkin spices:
Spices of choice would be ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice
in decreasing order of importance.
I have made a ginger metheglin with .5 oz fresh ginger per gallon, so I'd
recommend starting there. An inch of fresh cinnamon stick and maybe a
little (like a 1/4 tsp or less) of nutmeg would get you in the
neighborhood.
Brian asks about two of his batches:
A sulfurous taste in mead could come from the yeast (H2S I believe).
Strains differ in their production of hydrogen sulfide. What strain are you
using?
As to the speed of fermentation, I am never surpised with the slowness of
mead fermentation. You may have a stuck ferment, or it could just be slow.
Others may chime in but I don't see any harm in letting it try to finish
before you attempt to enliven the fermentation.
Dick comments on my earlier comments about apple wine, pectin haze, and
(anti-)pectic enzyme:
Anything is possible. The haze could have been caused by something besides
pectin.
However, what sources say ethanol inhibits pectic enzyme? Is the
inhibition complete or does it simply slow the enzyme? What's the mechanism
of inhibition? How would pectic enzyme act as a fining agent other than by
breaking down pectin?
Robert Sandefer
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead in Wales and England.
From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 15:34:15 -0600 (MDT)
Itamar Brill <ibrill@netvision.net.il> wrote:
> I'm going to be in Wales and England for a couple of weeks (as of next
> Wednesday) and was wondering if any of you know any meaderies there?
> To be more specific, i will be in northern Wales around Snowdonia and
> possibly Anglesey, and in Oxford. Quite obviously i'll also spend little
> time in London.
> If not meaderies, do you reckon a lot of liquor stores sell mead around
> there?
I hunted around quite a bit for mead in England and Wales the first time we
were there, but to my surprise it was to no avail. (Thereby hangs a tale...
I went looking for mead but found cider instead and was completely won over
by it...realized that mead is good but cider is better. Came back to the
US, found the Cider Digest wanting a new home and picked it up. A year
later, started looking to get out of the city, found some land, started
planting cider apples. But I digress...) Now, most of where I looked
around was the "West Country" (i.e., southwest) of England, and southern
Wales. The only thing I found was some concoction obviously made up for
tourists, a syrupy combination of a bad grape wine with plenty of honey
to cover up the faults, found in Cornwall as I recall (might have been
Devon). I really found no indication that there was commercial mead to be
had in England, then or on trips since, to the areas above plus the west
Midlands and Kent.
Note that it might be there! I just couldn't find it, and I sure was
looking.
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003
From: Adam McPadden <meadmaker@together.net>
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 22:17:15 -0400
Subject: Two quick questions
> From: "Brian McGovney" <brian_mcgovney@yahoo.com>
> Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 22:35:37 -0700
>
> Hi there,
>
> Two quick questions:
>
> 1) I made a 15 lb. honey/5 gallon mead with 5 campden tabs added 1 day
> before yeast pitching. Fermentation went to completion, but when I bottled
> eight months later the mead smelled and tasted powerfully of sulfur. Am I
> supposed to remove mead from sulfited lees as quickly as possible? What else
> might have gone wrong?
>
> 2) Another 15/5 mix has been fermenting for 2 months with sweet mead yeast.
> This time I'm using Ken Schramm's "no heat" method. I just racked to a
> secondary, and I took the gravity. The 1.130 must is now 1.070. Do I have a
> stuck fermentation, or can it really be this slow? I did add nutrients at
> the outset.
>
> Hope to see you all in Boulder!
>
> Cheers,
> Brian McGovney
Brian,
I've done a few 15/5 batches lately, and have yet to run into Sulfur
smell/taste, or stuck fermentation. The only time I used Campden
tablets in these batches, was soon before bottling, never before
primary fermentation. Lately I haven't used them at all.
Regarding the stuck ferment at 1.070, if it were my batch, I'd try
to aerate it, if that didn't work in a few days, pitch some additional
yeast and nutrient. Brute force approach. My 15lb/5gal batches have
routinely finished off at or very close to 1.000, though usually
with Champagne yeast since my wife and I prefer the more alcoholic
meads.
Good Luck,
Adam
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003
From: Evening Star <eveningstartwo@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 21:56:52 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: Re: bland mead and cyser question
> From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
> Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 22:40:22 -0600 (MDT)
>
> In MLD 1046, Robert Sandefer <melamor@vzavenue.net> wrote:
> [re using pectinase or not for a cyser]
> > In my very first apple wine, I used sulfite instead of heat. It stayed
> > cloudy/hazy for well over a year. I was convinced that since I didn't heat
> > the juice the pectin should not be causing the haze. One night I got tired
> > of waiting and added a teaspoon of pectic enzyme. A day later it was
> > perfectly clear.
>
> In spite of how it appears, I'd claim that it wasn't a pectin problem.
> Reason: pectinase works poorly, if at all, after fermentation. Ethanol
> inhibits it. (This is from standard information but confirmed by my own
> experience, btw.) More likely, you had a problem that would have been
> fixed by fining, and the pectinase acted as a fining agent rather than by
> breaking down pectin.
Interesting. Works like a charm on my meads after fermentation--and I
can live with it working for the wrong reasons as long as it works!!
Maureen
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003
From: Rick Dingus <rick.dingus@ttu.edu>
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 15:05:45 -0500
> Subject: Mead in Wales and England.
> From: Itamar Brill <ibrill@netvision.net.il>
> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 00:31:40 +0200
>
> Hi folks.
> I'm going to be in Wales and England for a couple of weeks (as of next
> Wednesday) and was wondering if any of you know any meaderies there?
> To be more specific, i will be in northern Wales around Snowdonia and
> possibly Anglesey, and in Oxford. Quite obviously i'll also spend little
> time in London.
> If not meaderies, do you reckon a lot of liquor stores sell mead around
> there?
> Thanks for any help, in advance.
> Itamar.
In 1998 I visited a meadery/country winery in West Sussex, SW of London (?),
called Lurgashall Winery. A historic building renovated with an artisan
touch, a variety of dry to sweet meads and country wines. The location
required a nice ramble through English countryside. See their website for
directions, etc:
http://www.lurgashall.co.uk/
Unfortunately, most of the other meads I encountered in England (mostly for
sale in liquor stores) were poor quality honey sweetened wines.
Rick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Yeast experiences
From: Eric <edahlber@rochester.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2003 21:49:16 -0400
Brian McGovney asks about his Sweet Mead Yeast
> 2) Another 15/5 mix has been fermenting for 2 months with sweet mead
> yeast.
> This time I'm using Ken Schramm's "no heat" method. I just racked to a
> secondary, and I took the gravity. The 1.130 must is now 1.070.
It has been my experience that Wyeast's Sweet Mead seems to finish up
quickly when in fact it hasn't come anywhere close to completion.
Several of my meads have been made with it and after several months of
sitting without a bubble in the airlock I would go to bottle only to
find that the gravity was still quite high. Some were racked to another
carboy and they took off just like new. A few were bottled regardless
and they took off in the bottle - several of my meads were HIGHLY
carbonated. In fact I figured my hydrometer was off on one batch and
bottled only to have about 10 bottles explode later.
For those of you who like Lambic beers and mead - Last year I had asked
if anyone had tried any Lambic/pLambic meads and got no replies. So I
gave it a shot, actually several. The straight mead with lambic yeast
perked up recently with the warm weather. The pyment lambic seems to
have finished, and the "Frambic" (Raspberry and lambic yeast mead) has
been bottled. The Frambic had hints of the complex tastes a good
Framboise will have, but seemed quite thin to me. The gravity was very
low as well which may have something to do with my perceptions. In
general I prefer sweet to very sweet meads, so they tend to be a little
thick. All in all I don't care for this experiments result, but since I
have a case of them, I'll sample every few months before I dump any out.
I'll try the pyment this Thanksgiving since that will be a year since it
was started.
Cheers,
Eric D.
Rochester, NY
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003
From: "Lane Gray, Czar Castic" <CGray2@kc.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 21:54:10 -0700
>
> Folks,
> Please bear with me as I'm very new to mead making. I make wines and
> have only made 1 melomel. I know there are some meads that use spices as
> their flavoring. I'm hoping you good folks can help me with some ingredient
> amounts. What I'd like to do is make a 1 gallon batch of pumpkin wine.
> When this wine is complete, I would like it to remind you of pumpkin pie. I
> know it will never taste like pumpkin pie, I'm just looking for the taste of
> the spices used to make pumpkin pie. I've never used spices in my wines, so
> I'm hoping the mead makers will be able to help. Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks
I'd probably check out your spice aisle at the grocery, and I think you'll
find that they sell a blend called "pumkin pie spice."
If you don't wanna use that, then the main spice (according to my wife,
who makes a killer one) is cinnamon, followed by nutmeg, then ginger, then
a trace of clove. The ginger is optional, and go easy with the clove.
Although there's a strong flavour of clove in the average pumpking pie,
it's a pretty pervasive spice.
Lane
- --
Lane Gray
Yes, I'm a minion of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Two quick questions
From: Travis Dahl KE4VYZ <dahlt@umich.edu>
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 08:44:38 -0400
>2) Another 15/5 mix has been fermenting for 2 months with sweet mead yeast.
>This time I'm using Ken Schramm's "no heat" method. I just racked to a
>secondary, and I took the gravity. The 1.130 must is now 1.070. Do I have a
>stuck fermentation, or can it really be this slow? I did add nutrients at
>the outset.
Well, I've only made one batch of mead so far and it's been a pretty
similar experience. I used 12-15lbs. of honey for 5 gal and the sweet mead
yeast. It stuck at 1.060 or maybe a little lower. After a year (and a
racking) I racked it, added some yeast energizer and it started up
again. That was a few months ago and I haven't checked what the s.g. is
now. From what I've picked up here on the mead lover's digest, though, the
White Labs Sweet Mead yeast is notorious for this. (Probably in the
category of "I wish I'd known that _before_ I did it")
Anyway, my advice is to throw in some yeast energizer and if that still
doesn't get you where you want to be through in a different yeast. Good luck!
- -Travis
A2, MI
------------------------------
Subject: Fruit press advice needed
From: Joyce Hersh <msmead@doctorbeer.com>
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 16:55:04 -0400
Jay & I bought a fruit press last year, and it works great for grapes and
other fruit that is left largely whole. For things like apples and pears,
however, which are pulped before pressing, we have been draping cloth mesh
around the inside of the press, which work with only limited success. The
problem is that the mesh inevitably breaks, sending out a high-pressure
stream of fruit pulp at a surprising velocity and distance, frequently
hitting me, Jay, our friends, the side of the garage, etc.
What do other people use to line their fruit presses? Is there anything
more durable that I won't have to keep replacing constantly?
- -- Joyce
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1047, 3 October 2003
From: "P. D. Waltman" <pdwaltman@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 17:07:15 -0700 (PDT)
Regarding slow fermenting mead, if you have the
capability, check the pH of the must. With a high
starting gravity must you may have dropped too low for
the yeast to work effectively. Calcium Carbonate
might work now to help speed things up; usually I add
it early in the process to try and push the must pH
yeast efficiency, though I have added it late a few
times in the past.
Regarding apples for a cyser, I have a powered juicer
that I've been thinking I might try. It makes a very
fine dry pulp and juice. If I use a little citrus
juice to keep the pulp from browning (see Calcium
Carbonate additions above), is there a reason why this
process would not work?
Dennis Waltman
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1048
*******************************
