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Mead Lovers Digest #1076
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1076, 17 February 2004
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1076 17 February 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
next step? (Sue Bentley)
Re: Flavoring a chocolate mead (Steven Sanders)
chocolate mead (Sharon Labchuk)
Mazer Cup ("Bill Smith")
Chocolate and Raspberry flavoring in Mead. ("David Craft")
Yeast Info and the cellar ("rjmiller2")
digest question ("Jerry Lombardi")
Mead digest ("Jerry Lombardi")
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead. There is
a searchable MLD archive at hubris.engin.umich.edu/Beer/Threads/Mead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: next step?
From: Sue Bentley <sue_bentley@shaw.ca>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 08:30:34 -0800
I have a 5 gallon batch of Show Mead that I made last December 2nd. 2003. I
just took a SG reading and it says it is at 1.015. also it is quite cloudy,
but it is "working" / bubbling very hard....
last racking was Dec 21/03
is there anything I should be doing to this batch?
thanks in advance
Sue
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Subject: Re: Flavoring a chocolate mead
From: Steven Sanders <geigertube@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 09:17:51 -0800 (PST)
> From: "Craig Sturdivant" <csturdiv@hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:49:29 +0000
>
> I have 2 1/2 gallons of a sweet chocolate mead going
> through bulk carboy
> aging. Later in the spring I will be bottling it,
> and I have decided to
> flavor it with raspberry (probably the raspberry
> extract flavoring avaiable
> at brew shops).
Craig,
I would be very, very careful about using fruit
extracts. I added a blackberry extract to a chocolate
mead I made, and the resultant taste is horrid.
~horrid~. Worst mead I have ever made, bar none. I
suspect that the "extract" was an artificial flavoring
of some sort, because it has a distinct chemicial nose
to it, akin to blackberry bubble gum, only worse. I've
had no problem with chocolate extracts, but fruit
ones, at least this one..ugh.
If your fermentation is still going, Id just get some
raspberry juice, or blenderize some raspberries (1/4 -
1/2 gallon?) and strain them, and add the juice to
your fermenter.
steven
=====
Fancy Space Art: http://www.studiosputnik.com
------------------------------
Subject: chocolate mead
From: Sharon Labchuk <slabchuk@isn.net>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 14:57:20 -0400
Craig Sturdivant - can you share your recipe for chocolate mead?
Sharon
------------------------------
Subject: Mazer Cup
From: "Bill Smith" <billsmith11@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 23:59:21 +0000
Does anyone have any details on the Mazer Cup? Their website dosen't offer
much info, not even an email address. I've got a couple meads I'd like to
see how they would do. Are there any other mead competitions coming up? I
know I just missed the Meadllennium.
Bill Smith
------------------------------
Subject: Chocolate and Raspberry flavoring in Mead.
From: "David Craft" <chsyhkr@bellsouth.net>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 09:08:44 -0500
Have you thought about using liqueur instead like Frambroise for raspberry
and Crème de Cacao for chocolate. You add some sugar and alcohol too. It
has worked for me in the past. You need to add about a 1/2 cup of each and
then taste and adjust from there.........
David B. Craft
Battleground Brewers Guild
Crow Hill Brewery and Meadery
Greensboro, NC
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast Info and the cellar
From: "rjmiller2" <rjmiller2@prodigy.net>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 10:39:23 -0600
Greetings all
Thought I'd share a few web sites I had found a while back while researching
Homebrewing WWW.WINEMAKERMAG.COM in the left sidebar you will find their
Reference guide and a title, Yeast strains chart, this chart has info
on many strains of yeast we use including Temperature range and Alcohol
Tolerance. I know there have been a lot of questions on this. Check out
the other reference's also. For those of us that still brew beer check
out a similar selection on WWW.BYO.COM, Hop charts and grain and Adjuncts
along with an extensive yeast charts by type of beer.
Have not heard what's in the cellar lately. I've got 4 gal of
clover/Pomegranate, 3 gal of wildflower/Cranberry (this one is an experiment
half the honey used was dehydrated brewing honey), it's only 6 months
old at this point, but so far no difference. It's too young to tell if
there is any flavor loss from the dehydrated or not. 1 gal green chile,
1 gal pomegranate/chipotle, 2 gal Raspberry. Not much else, no cellar
just a closet and I have a tendency to consume almost as much as I brew.
I also have a tendency to experiment with each batch and break them down
into 1 or 2 gal batches. That's all from Fort Worth Texas.
May your cups never be empty
Bob M
------------------------------
Subject: digest question
From: "Jerry Lombardi" <jerry@lombardisfreshmarket.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 09:24:20 -0600
Hey all. I'm new to the digest as well as being new to brewing mead. I
have a couple batches under my belt as an assistant, and just made my first
2 batches yesterday and the day before. My first batch was a 5 gallon
batch, mostly traditional with 2 small additions:
12 Lb Clover honey (from local apiary)
4 gallon water for the boil
2 pkg red star champagne yeast (hydrated prior to pitching)
zest of 1 large navel orange
3/4 oz peeled and thinly sliced ginger
1 tsp Irish moss
1 tsp yeast nutrient
I don't boil the honey water, I take it to 180-184 and let keep it there for
20-25 minutes. I skim off all scum that comes to the top. Then I put the
ginger in and let it steep for 10 minutes, then added the zest, Irish moss
and yeast nutrient for another 10 minutes. I remove it from the heat and
let it cool. Take a gravity reading, then pitch the yeast.
My second batch was much more experimental. I saw a program on the
discovery channel about monkeys getting drunk from fermented coconut milk.
So it got me thinking....what if I made a Pina Colada mead????? So I set my
mind working and came up with a test recipe for a 1 gallon batch:
2 Lb Clover honey ( from local apiary)
1 gallon water
1 Lb Pineapple, peeled, cored, chunked, frozen
2 C. fresh coconut milk (from Thai Young coconuts)
1 pkg Red Star Champagne yeast (hydrated prior to pitching)
1/4 tsp Irish moss
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
Pretty much did same as above but added pineapple (instead of ginger) and
brought it back to temp then let it sit for 5 min, then added coconut milk,
moss, and nutrient.
I would like some critiques on my recipes and procedures if that's possible.
Especially if anyone has tried using pineapple or coconut milk. A comment
on the coconut milk. I did not use the stuff from the can, as it is
processed and "junk" is added to it as a preservative. There is a coconut
called a Thai young coconut, this is different from a regular coconut in
that it does not have the hard brown outer shell. It is a white fibrous
material that is soft and easy to cut off, once accomplished the very thing
shell was cracked and the milk harvested. There is about 1 1/2 C. milk in
these little suckers, and man o man is it fragrant. I am really interested
to know if anyone can offer recommendations on my first recipe. I am
curious to know if I used enough ginger and orange zest in the primary
fermentation, or if I should add more when I rack into secondary. I have a
few more recipes on the back burner until later this week, a red currant
melomel, a citrus explosion melomel (lemon, lime, and tangerine), and a step
and a half Methelgyn (fresh mint, dried chamomile flowers, lovage, basil,
ginger, ginseng), and a tamarind melomel.
Any and all comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jerry from Chicago
------------------------------
Subject: Mead digest
From: "Jerry Lombardi" <jerry@lombardisfreshmarket.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 09:55:38 -0600
I would also like to know if anyone has any info or a recipe on a banana
melomel. I have access to tons of bananas, and would like to know how much
to use, and if it would be better to add them in during primary or
secondary. I am also looking at using a different yeast in here, I wrote
down the name of a yeast used in the production of a Bavarian Weiss beer,
that had a strong banana undertone from the yeast strain.
Thanks again,
Jerry from Chicago
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1076
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