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Mead Lovers Digest #1104
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1104, 4 June 2004
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1104 4 June 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: mead characteristics; going deeper (Michael Faul)
Re: mead identity and BUZZ Off results ("Christopher Clair")
spring honey ("Aaron Ardle")
Mead in BJCP competitions ("Vince Galet")
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
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Subject: Re: mead characteristics; going deeper
From: Michael Faul <mfaul@rabbitsfootmeadery.com>
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 21:08:26 -0700
> The equivalent of viticulture in winemaking is beekeeping in meadmaking.
> Just as winemaking made significant advances when it began to work
> more closely with the development of viticulture, the same thing will
> happen in commercial meadmaking if closer alliances can be drawn with
> beekeeping, and the production and marketing of varietal honeys.
>
> <><><><><><><><><><>
> <><><><><><><><>
> Dan McFeeley
Dan,
I agree somewhat with this but there are several other forces at work.
The price being the major one and the sourcing of the honey being the
other. It is difficult for mead makers to 'visit' an apiary and keep an
eye on the honey as winemakers do with vineyards.You can't simply say
'let the grapes ripen until they hit 35 brix and 3.5pH' with honey. What
you can do is look at the previous years honey, and try to get the hives
in the same places and with luck and a bit of prayer the floral source
will be similar. I am lucky to have the same patch of dirt for the
jasmine honey. The raspberry honey is just raspberry honey. The key
there is the actual chemical makeup of that honey. the right pH the
right solids and sugars and the right other stuff like potassium and ash
etc.
At last years INternation Mead Festival (Planet Buzz) I was fortunate to
win two medals in the 'varietal' catagory. A gold for my sweet mead and
bronze for my dry mead. I have always thought that the truest form of
mead is one where the honey is the single most important factor. I used
a very unique jasmine wildflower honey for the sweet mead and a
raspberry honey for the dry mead.
I don't know if we will ever get to the point of your analogy though as
most major meaderies are not bee kepers and vice versa.
Mike
Http://www.rabbitsfootmeadery.com
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Subject: Re: mead identity and BUZZ Off results
From: "Christopher Clair" <buzz@netreach.net>
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 17:48:55 -0400
I feel the need to respond to Dick's posting about the BUZZ Off since I was
the organizer and I learned some things, and hopefully everyone else will as
well.
Dick wrote:
"*one* category for mead *and* cider?!? Hey, why not lump them all in with
table 16 Lambic/Sour/Fruit)?"
For anyone who has not organized a competition, one of the greatest
challenges is to organize the judging tables. This depends largely on the
number of entries collected in each category, the number of judges, etc.
This year, we had 11 meads and only 3 ciders. Could we have moved ciders in
with table 16 Lambic/Sour/Fruit and let meads stand alone? I suppose we
could have, the numbers were about the same, however, you also need to
consider the number of judges and which categories that they cannot judges
because of what they entered. There are many factors that go into it and
they sometimes result in less than ideal tables (we also had Vienna lagers
in the same table as bocks for the same reasons). But remember, they are
not judged head to head but rather as an example of their style (best
traditional mead, best cyser, best porter, etc.). At least that is what a
good judge is *supposed* to do. In theory, you could collapse any styles
into any judging table.
Dick also wrote:
"One can worry (if one is a worrier, which I sometimes am) at "Cyser
(apple)"--why was the parenthetical addition needed? And why the redundant
"Fruit Melomel"? But those might be nothing more than editing trivia."
The Cyser comment was indeed editing trivia. Quite a redundant statement
but I was more focused on getting results out to everyone that final editing
(I didn't type the results up). As for "Other Fruit Melomel," that comes
right from the BJCP style guide (currently being revised) and I believe it
is meant to cover everything not apple and grape. We just took the BJCP
categories and listed them without looking up exactly what fruit was used in
the winners (I will do that on our website).
And he finished with:
"If mead and cider were collapsed into a single category, presumably it's
because there weren't enough entries to keep them separate. This *seems* at
odds with the argument that BJCP covers these categories because people want
to enter them."
Again, that is just how it worked out for us but we had as mentioned before
11 different meads and 4 ciders. If memory serves, we had a similar
breakdown last year but reverse (many ciders, few meads). We also only had
4 Scottish ales and 8 Brown ales so we created a "Dark Ale" table. It all
depends on what people have and want to enter.
I certainly think dialogs like this are constructive from an organizer's
point of view. I recently did my first cider (WAY too sweet) and mead
(still in secondary) so I admit I am still learning. The only suggestion
that I have for Dick is to copy the organizer or someone affiliated with the
competition in question. If we don't know what the concerns are, we can't
correct them next year.
Christopher Clair
buzz@netreach.net
http://hbd.org/buzz (still down but hopefully up soon!)
- -----Original Message-----
Sometimes you just have to cringe at the timing. From the end of the BUZZ
Off competition results in the last MLD:
> TABLE 19: MEADS AND CIDERS
>
> 1st Vince Galet Traditional Mead Collegeville, PA
> 2nd Al Hazan Cyser (Apple) Stroudsburg, PA
> 3rd Vince Galet Blueberry Fruit Melomel Collegeville, PA
For the folks arguing that mead doesn't belong in BJCP competitions, that
should provide some handy ammunition! Doesn't make me feel very good about
cider, either...*one* category for mead *and* cider?!? Hey, why not lump
them all in with table 16 (Lambic/Sour/Fruit)?
One can worry (if one is a worrier, which I sometimes am) at "Cyser
(apple)"--why was the parenthetical addition needed? And why the
redundant "Fruit Melomel"? But those might be nothing more than editing
trivia.
If mead and cider were collapsed into a single category, presumably it's
because there weren't enough entries to keep them separate. This *seems*
at odds with the argument that BJCP covers these categories because people
want to enter them.
- - --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: spring honey
From: "Aaron Ardle" <aardle@columbus.rr.com>
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 19:32:05 -0400
i'm trying to buy very fresh honey this year. this year the varieties
that i have found that are very fresh are cranberry, black locust, and
palmetto. i would like to hear opinions from anyone that has experience
with these varieties of honey.
thanks very much,
aaron
------------------------------
Subject: Mead in BJCP competitions
From: "Vince Galet" <vince@scubadiving.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 09:57:15 -0400 (EDT)
I would like to argue that mead does belong to BJCP competitions and I'd
like to make some important points.
1. Homebrewers happen to make mead too, that's why BJCP and related
competitions started to take mead into account. If competitions didn't
include mead, mead makers wouldn't have many places to enter their pride
and joy and have it objectively evaluated.
2. BJCP competitions brings mead awareness among homebrewers (who may
otherwise only make opr drink beer). Well tentatively: I organized of a
BJCP competition a few months ago. Mead being my beverage of choice, I
tried to develop this category by encouraging brewers to enter not only
beer but also meads (and ciders). I sent a letter to more than 30
meaderies and asked for a modest contribution (sponsorship) of ANY kind (a
bottle of mead , a T-shirt, a poster would have been great) to be given as
prizes and again give mead some momentum in this type of competition. I
didn't get anything. So much for the enthusiasm of the mead community.
3. Yes, the reason for mixing ciders, cysers, melomels, metheglyns and
traditionmal meads as 1 category is because organizers HAVE to. When you
have 10-15 entries from all categories combined, you don't have the
choice. If you have 2 ciders out of 300 entries, what do you do? Give them
1st and 2nd place of the cider category? In my case, since we had more
entries this year, we were able to separate ciders from meads. But it was
only based on the number of entries because it makes sense.
Now, consider that IF there were enough entries, organizers whould HAVE to
separate them all. A flight is typically around 12 entries. If you had in
the ballpark of 10 ciders, 10 melomels, 10 traditional meads, you couldn't
possibly keep them together and you would have to make it 3 categories.
The fact is that all the people who criticize BJCP competitions don't
enter their mead in the latter (otherwise it would show). Corollary: why
are they complaining about events they don't participate in? For the sake
of arguing?
Bottom line(s):
1. you should be happy that some people, whether they belong to "beer
world" or not, have interest in mead and support it through competitions,
official guidelines or anything else. Mead is not big enough to stand
alone without its big beer brother (or at least mead makers are not
motivated enough). Without the beer guys you'd be on your own, and mead
would be even more of a rare beast (and if you din't have the digest you
wouldn't even have a mead community - Thanks Dick).
2. Nothing's perfect but it's fixable: the same people acknowledge that
the guidelines need improvement and are willing to change them (and give
you an opportunity to provide input). Isn't that positive too?
3. If you consider that BJCP competitions don't have to contain the word
"beer" that offenses your mead identity, call them "homemade beverage
competitions". With continuous improvement, guidelines can be optimized
and judges become more polyvalent (and more knowledgeable with mead),
there is a big opportunity to join forces and to benefit from the BJCP
infrastructure.
4. I would argue that those who don't want to associate with beer because
it's too different from beer are snobs. Even though my favorite is mead, I
also make beer, wine and I'll try cider this year. I enjoy it all
thoroughly (Making and drinking) and the big common point is they are
homemade fermented beverages. One could imagine big fairs with all of them
included. Obviously, I would not judge a beer against mead or wine, but
that's what the categories are for.
5. Last but not least: talk is cheap, so do something! If you want mead(s)
or ciders take a larger place in competitions and be judged without
sub-optimal grouping, ENTER more. If you think the guidelines need change,
give your input. Now is the time. If you still think that mead should
remain separate from other stuff, at least organize mead competitions or
anything else to keep it alive.
And remember to have fun
Vince
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1104
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