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Mead Lovers Digest #1074
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1074, 7 February 2004
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1074 7 February 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Philistines and Oak Casks ("John P. Looney")
Re: MLD#1073, 1/2/04 City water, Importing Honey, heads ("Arthur Torrey (n...)
RE:Bottled or tap? ("King, Derek")
Mead vinegar (Chuck)
re: Bottled or tap? ("")
Pyments ("Craig Sturdivant")
Re: Treasures in the Lees (Galenflys@aol.com)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Philistines and Oak Casks
From: "John P. Looney" <valen@tuatha.org>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 08:43:11 +0000
I know many reenactors, and they love anything historical. However, they
have drunk many of the commercial meads (which I've have recently found
that at least one "Irish Mead" is actually apple wine that has honey added
just before bottling). The one and only commerical mead I've found that
tastes like mead is the "Isle of Bute" meads from Scotland, and they are
very hard to come by.
Has anyone written a treatise or something this, so I could convince
people that my meads *really are mead* ? People say "but that tastes just
like wine" or "there is no honey off that" etc.
My responses like "wine doesn't taste like grapes" and "cider doesn't
taste of apples" don't seem to work.
Secondly, I've some oak casks on order. Can anyone think of a reason why
aging mead in them wouldn't work ?
John
------------------------------
Subject: Re: MLD#1073, 1/2/04 City water, Importing Honey, heads
From: "Arthur Torrey (no spam please!)" <atorrey@cybercom.net>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 17:20:02 -0500
> Subject: Bottled or tap?
> From: "Aaron Culbertson" <culbertson19@hotmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:02:10 -0500
>
> I'm new to mead making and am always looking for ways to save money. I was
> wondering if there is a difference in quality of mead that was made using
> bottled water and water straight from the tap. I have city water, so I'm
> sure it's loaded with chlorine. Thanks for any advice you guys can give.
I use our town's municipal tap water, and don't get any complaints, though I
don't enter competitions (yet) I suspect that your results may vary with the
exact municipal water you use. If it's good enough that you can't easily tell
the difference between bottled and tap (I can't), it probably doesn't make
much difference. If OTOH, your water comes from someplace like the New
Orleans municipal system, which gives water that ought to have an octane
rating (since it has that wonderful gasoline after taste...) or your town uses
enough chlorine that you don't need to add more when putting it in a swimming
pool, you might want to consider bottled. Of course you might also remember
that many well known commercial brews claim the water is part of their fame
(Guinness for instance)
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: bringing in honey from the UK
> From: "Chuck Mongiovi" <mongiovi@rcn.com>
> Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 12:47:20 -0500
>
> Hi everyone,
> I'm going to the UK in about 6 weeks, and I was hoping to pick up some local
> honeys .. Does anyone out there know anything about whether there are
> restrictions on bringing in honey from overseas?
> - -Chuck
I don't know what the rules are at present (they often change, and may
depend on the country you are coming from) but I know that my Bee Supply
store's owner collects local honeys from all over the place when she travels
(and her customers tend to bring her gifts as well) so it may be possible. I
would advise checking with US Customs in advance so as to get the official
word.
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: racking questions...
> From: Sue Bentley <sue_bentley@shaw.ca>
> Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 11:41:31 -0800
>
> hello everyone...
>
> I have just racked 2 batches of mead, and they have quite a bit of air space
> in the carboys. What do I do now?
You have several options...
1. Don't worry about it overmuch... Despite the claims of the purists, I'm
not convinced that the amount of air in a carboy is enough to do much real
harm.
2. Rack to a smaller carboy
3. Add more must or finished mead from a different batch to fill the space
(adding water late in the process is probably not the best thing to do from a
flavor standpoint, watered mead TASTES watered...)
4. Use some sort of inert filler material to take up the space - for instance
marbles. (note that it takes a LOT of marbles to make much difference...)
ART
------------------------------
Subject: RE:Bottled or tap?
From: "King, Derek" <DKING@tsionline.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 21:49:07 -0500
Hey Aaron,
Bottled is the best by far, at least down here in Florida.... I've used both
and bottled usually works out for the best. If you've got no choice in the
matter, then boil, boil, and boil your tap water some more before you use
it. That way the chlorine and other chemicals they use to treat the water
with will boil off. (boil the tap water at least ten minutes before you add
anything to it)
Bottled water may cost a bit more than using the tap, but there's usually a
big difference in the end product.
I've found that if you can taste it in the water then you'll be able to
taste it in the mead.
Derek King
------------------------------
Subject: Mead vinegar
From: Chuck <wintermead@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 05:12:48 -0800 (PST)
I just bottled my first batch of mead vinegar.
A fellow beekeeper gave me a pail of honey since he
knows that I'll make some mead with it and give him
some back.
Well his honey was very light in color and fermented
out sweeter than I like, about 1.025.
I had been reading about making vinegar, and since I
had about 9 gallons of this stuff, I thought I'd give
it a go.
I took three gallons of the mead, added one quart of
Bragg's All-Natural Cider Vinegar "With The Mother",
plus one twelve ounce bottle of my Herb Garden
Metheglyn and then let it sit for about 4-5 months.
Last sunday I clipped a bunch of rosemary shoots from
the plants I brought indoors for the winter. Then I
rounded up every 250 to 350ml bottle that I had,
stuffed rosemary shoots into them and ladeled in the
vinegar. Some I corked, some I crown capped. A HUGE
mother remained in the ceramic crock that I was using.
The vinegar looks and tastes FABULOUS! Pale golden
yellow, it is crystal clear, slightly sweet, with
herbal notes provided by the metheglyn. It kind of
reminds me of a rich, herbal, rice wine vinegar.
Yummy.
Well Don, there goes another 3 gallons of that mead I
was going to make for you. Only this time I'm using
oak, along with the herb garden metheglyn...
Cheers,
Chuck Wettergreen
Beekeeper
Meadmaker
Geneva, IL
------------------------------
Subject: re: Bottled or tap?
From: "" <hnybeez@udata.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 20:11:13 -0500
>I'm new to mead making and am always looking for ways to save money=2E I was
>wondering if there is a difference in quality of mead that was made using
>bottled water and water straight from the tap=2E I have city water, so I'm
>sure it's loaded with chlorine=2E Thanks for any advice you guys can give=2E=
I have never bought bottled water for my meads=2E I don't use my well water
either because it tastes bad (lots of sulfur & iron), instead I drive 3
miles to town and get city water=2E Yes it has chlorine in it but it is good
water and heating it too boiling removes the chlorine, this has worked well
for me for the last 4 years=2E If your tap water tastes good use it=2E
Doug
Making mead in N=2EW=2E Ohio
------------------------------
Subject: Pyments
From: "Craig Sturdivant" <csturdiv@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 19:10:54 +0000
A couple of nights ago I just bottled my latest pyment, and last pyment made
with grape juice (my next ones will be with wine kits). This one turned out
kind of sweet, which I was not expecting. It still tastes good, but I was
hoping for it to be a bit drier. Are pyments usually sweet or are they more
to the dry side. I know it is a matter of what kind of yeast is used, but
for the average how are pyments usually? My first pyment, using white grape
juice and champagne yeast, turned out dry and it really resembles a dry
white wine. My last pyment, using Welch's Concord 100% Juice and red star
red wine yeast, turned out sweet, kind of reminding me of the sangria that I
drank a couple of weekends ago. One last question, when I switch to the
kits, how much honey would I use for a 5 gallon batch? I believe that my
local supplier sells the Vitners Reserve kits.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Treasures in the Lees
From: Galenflys@aol.com
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 16:55:25 EST
Greetings, Mazers; I made an interesting find the other day. I was poking
around in the cellar and found a jug in which I'd left the lees from a nice
batch of Concord Pyment. The top 2/3rds of the jug had cleared nicely (I use
Bentonite as a fining agent, and it keeps on working) so I racked it again and
was surprised to find a lot of tannin astringentcy to it. So I washed the
sludge from the jug and found my answer - a couple of tablespoons of grape
seeds, buried in the silt. I'm saving the "tanny" pyment for blending or
for demo purposes. If I'd kept the original batch of pyment sur lees a
little longer I'm sure that the overall tannin balance would have been
pretty nice.
Galen Davis, Southwick, Mass.
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1074
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